Although California is home to the largest Native American population in the United States, voting has always been problematic. This year, the pandemic — and the state’s decision to mail ballots to every California voter — has created new issues for tribal lands, whose residents often lack traditional mailing addresses.
Outreach groups, which were focused initially on encouraging tribal members to fill out their Census forms, have deployed some of the same tactics to get out the vote. “Because of the pandemic and the changing Census deadline, we have had to run at full speed with both of those efforts,” said Chrissie Castro of the California Native Voting Project, a nonprofit group that seeks to build Native political power and participation. “The silver lining is that we’ve been forced to learn new strategies and approaches that we may not have otherwise utilized that have been extremely effective in reaching Native American community members.”
A few years ago, when the voting project began, it reached out to Native Americans mostly through in-person events. Now, however, it is using phone and text banking, holding virtual voter education events, and sending out digital voter guides.
Poor internet services remain a problem, however, so voter outreach groups have also relied on an older form of communication that is a mainstay in some tribal communities: local radio stations.
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