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Election Day will cap years of voter registration efforts in Utah’s Navajo Nation

Daylene Redhorse, right, assists a man as he registers to vote in Utah’s Navajo Nation. Her efforts have registered thousands of Indigenous people to vote since 2018.
Courtesy Stewardship Utah
Daylene Redhorse, right, assists a man as he registers to vote in Utah’s Navajo Nation. Her efforts have registered thousands of Indigenous people to vote since 2018.

It’s not easy to reach potential voters in remote areas of southeast Utah’s Navajo Nation.

Daylene Redhorse has crisscrossed the vast red rock canyons and mountains of San Juan County many times over the past few years doing just that.

First, as a field organizer with the advocacy group Stewardship Utah, she had to map out Navajo Nation residences from the Colorado state line to Lake Powell and visit them to see which were homes and which were abandoned. Then, for those who needed it, she helped residents get a physical address so they could register in the correct precinct.

After clearing those hurdles and making it into a potential voter’s living room, she faced a more philosophical challenge: convincing them that voting matters.

“A lot of them had that mentality like, “We don't matter. Nobody counts us,’” Redhorse said. “‘Why are we going to vote? The roads aren't being fixed. We're not getting anything done down here.’”

Many had never voted before and were reluctant to share the kind of personal information a registration form requires, she said. Sometimes, the most hesitant residents would give her one final, furry test to earn their trust.

“‘You want me to fill out a paper? You're gonna have to take some of these dogs. You're gonna have to take some of these cats,’” she recalled with a laugh. “And I didn't care. I'm like, ‘You know what? I want that voter’s registration. Give me a puppy.’”

She ended up taking in more than two dozen cats and dogs over the past few years, many of which have been adopted. But those efforts paid off.

In all, Redhorse said she registered 3,624 new voters in Utah’s Navajo Nation since 2018 — a huge increase for a rural county that had just 7,232 active voters as of the 2018 election.

Welcoming so many new voices to the local voting base could have a big impact on the Nov. 5 general election.

In Utah House District 69 — which covers southern Utah from Moab to Kanab to the Four Corners — incumbent Phil Lyman is not seeking reelection, instead focusing on his write-in campaign for governor. Two newcomers are running to replace him.

Blanding Mayor Logan Monson narrowly won the GOP nomination in the June primary and will face Democrat Davina Smith, who is a Navajo tribal member. It is Smith’s second time running for this seat. She lost to Lyman by 3,404 votes in 2022.

Signs for Utah House District 69 candidates Logan Monson and Davina Smith stand in downtown Kanab, Sept. 19, 2024. Adding thousands of new Navajo voters in southeast Utah could potentially impact local races like this one.
David Condos
/
KUER
Signs for Utah House District 69 candidates Logan Monson and Davina Smith stand in downtown Kanab, Sept. 19, 2024. Adding thousands of new Navajo voters in southeast Utah could potentially impact local races like this one.

New Navajo voters could impact county elections, too.

In 2018, two Indigenous candidates, Democrats Kenneth Maryboy and Willie Grayeyes, won seats on the county commission, creating the first majority-Navajo commission in San Juan history. Those candidates, however, lost their reelection bids to Republican challengers in 2022.

In neighboring Arizona, similar efforts to register Navajo voters could even influence the presidential race. Polls show the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to be in a virtual tie. Stewardship Utah has helped register 17,113 voters in the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation since 2018.

The effort is less about impacting the outcome of any particular race, Redhorse said, and more about changing mindsets among residents about how much their voices matter.

“I want my neighbors, my people, to be heard. I want them to play a role in the decisions that are being made in the county level, in the state level, even in the Navajo Nation level,” Redhorse said. “That is a big deal.”

Native Americans make up 46.5% of San Juan County’s population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Shelly Jackson, deputy director of elections at the Lt. Governor’s Office, said the state is always happy to see more Utahns take part in the voting process.

“It's so important for groups to be out helping citizens register to vote,” she said. “And I think the county office doesn't always get the credit they deserve … A lot of extra effort, a lot of extra expense goes into giving people access.”

For example, she said, San Juan County works with translators to provide Navajo language ballots. Polling sites in Utah’s Navajo Nation also allow early voting 28 days before the election — instead of 14 days like most of the state — to allow more opportunities for those who might live far away.

Voter turnout in San Juan County has also been relatively strong, state data shows 89.41% of registered voters cast a ballot in the 2020 election. That’s slightly higher than the numbers in some larger counties, such as Utah and Weber.

The number of registered voters in San Juan County also increased from 3,816 in 2008 to 7,782 in 2020, according to state data. The county’s voting precincts were redrawn in 2011 and 2021, so it’s difficult to track how the number of registered voters has changed in specific parts of the Navajo Nation.

Data from San Juan County provided by Stewardship Utah, however, suggests voter turnout has grown the fastest in precincts where Native voters are the majority. Turnout in predominantly non-Native precincts grew from 85.71% in 2016 to 91.32% in 2020. Turnout in predominantly Native precincts jumped from 70.33% to 87.62%.

While mail-in voting has reduced some of the geographic and logistical barriers Navajo Nation voters face, Jackson said challenges remain to make sure Native voices are heard in Utah’s political process.

One is getting a reliable internet connection at remote polling locations. It’s not used for the voting machines, Jackson said, but to communicate between other polling locations and the state voter registration database to check in voters. If the internet is spotty, that can delay the process.

Her office has also been working with county clerks to distribute money for additional drop boxes.

“The tribal land has been more problematic, just because that's another sovereign government that we have to work with to get those boxes and to get permission,” she said. “But I do think that that has increased the accessibility.”

The limited infrastructure, however, has restricted how quickly the state can do that.

It’s been particularly challenging to add outdoor dropboxes, Jackson said, because state law requires them to have 24-hour video surveillance, which needs the internet to stream and store footage. And it’s not easy to make indoor boxes available around the clock.

“The county would love to extend the hours of the current ballot boxes that they have,” she said. “[But] all of that requires staff and access to the buildings.”

Work also remains when it comes to answering new voter questions and making sure they feel prepared to cast their ballots. So, Daylene Redhorse is continuing to post voting reminders on social media and has partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union to set up a voter information booth at her organization’s office in Bluff.

Now after six years of work, she’s eager to see what story the voting numbers tell after Nov. 5 — and what new Navajo voters have to say about their experience.

“I want to see: How many people will come out? How many people will vote? That's what I'm excited about,” Redhorse said.

“I want my people, Diné, to be counted [and] to be involved.”

Disclosure: House District 69 candidate Davina Smith is a member of the KUER advisory board.

David Condos is KUER’s southern Utah reporter based in St. George.
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