Letter: Judge Welte was right to side with ND tribes

Thank goodness U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte decided to fix North Dakota’s violation of the Voting Rights Act. The remedy will give voters from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Spirit Lake Nation a fairer opportunity to elect representatives of their choice to the North Dakota Legislative Assembly.

It’s been a long road to get here. During the 2021 North Dakota Legislature’s special session for redistricting, the two tribes came to the Legislature to recommend district boundaries for their area. The tribes had their proposal verified as meeting criteria of the Voting Rights Act, but it was rejected by the Legislature’s redistricting committee, who then approved a plan that very likely would violate the law.

During deliberations in 2021, legislators struggled over creating single member House districts as a way to bring those elected closer to local voters. Lawmakers found many reasons to say they were a bad idea. However, when the Legislature ended up approving subdistricts for Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain reservations, members of the majority party changed their minds and sued, claiming subdistricts gave Native Americans an unfair advantage. The court ruled the subdistricts were fine. South Dakota has had several reservation subdistricts for a couple decades.

While the Legislature’s district boundaries improved election fairness for Three Affiliated Tribes, the boundary changes made it harder for Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake voters. They took it to court and made a well-researched, strong case that the Legislature’s 2021 redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act by “unlawfully diluting the voting strength of Native American voters who live on and around” the two reservations. Welte agreed.

Since the court decision, North Dakota legislators, the secretary of state, and attorney general have struggled. Rather than dealing straight-on with the issue, current North Dakota leaders wanted to sidestep in an appeal using a legal technicality from a recent outlier decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I watched a lot of the legislative hearings and floor debates. Even those who spoke in favor of complying with the Voting Rights Act usually added “I don’t like it, but it’s the law…”

Current state leaders have 90% of the legislative seats and 100% of statewide elected offices, yet they fight so hard to not do the right thing. North Dakota’s current leaders are evidence that the Voting Rights Act – along with strong citizen efforts – is still very much needed to ensure that voting rights are adhered to.

Hopefully, it won’t be so difficult next time.

Don Morrison lives in Bismarck.