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Court ruling could be game changer for Dems in Nevada
Native Americans in Nevada will have greater voting access next month than ever before, boosting the chances that Democrats retain a key Senate seat and capture the state’s six electoral votes in the presidential election.
A federal court last week ruled in favor of tribes after they challenged the state of Nevada under the Voting Rights Act. Chairman Vinton Hawley of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and Chairman Bobby D. Sanchez of the Walker River Paiute Tribe spearheaded the legal challenge, claiming they did not have equal access to vote after requests for additional polling stations had been denied.
“We chose Nevada about a year ago,” said lobbyist Tom Rodgers, founder and president of Carlyle Consulting, who has worked on the case on a pro bono basis.
“We chose it because of the presidential race implications, control of the Senate implications,” he said, also noting that Nevada residents had some of the most intense fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.
He worked with the tribal leaders and three military veterans from their communities — Ralph Burns, Robert James and Johnny Williams Jr. — and OJ Semans and Bret Healy of a voting rights consultancy called Four Directions.
In general, Native Americans vote for the Democratic Party; turnout in Nevada is expected to be the deciding factor in multiple races up and down the ballot.
Read in full:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/300511-court-ruling-could-be-game-changer-for-dems-in-nevada