Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

National voter registration form offered in Native American languages for first time

Voter registration

The national voter registration form is now available in 20 non-English languages, including three Native American languages.

SDI Productions

Just days prior to Thanksgiving, the federal government announced that the national voter registration form will be offered in select Native American languages for the first time.

The Election Assistance Commission revealed Monday that the form will be translated into the Yup'ik, Navajo and Apache languages, bringing the total non-English offerings to 20 languages. The EAC said this expansion was done in celebration of Native American Heritage Month and as part of its efforts to improve voting accessibility.


"The Navajo Nation leads history again by allowing our sacred language to be translated to register more of our people to vote," said Seth Damon, leader of the Navajo Nation Council. "The Native American vote is powerful and our Sovereign Nations will continue to decide elections across the United States."

Native Americans were not granted full U.S. citizenship or the right to vote until the passage of the Snyder Act in 1924. And over the last century, Native American voters have faced significant barriers to the ballot box. During the 2020 election, mail voting access was of particular concern since many Native American voters live in areas without traditional mailing addresses or access to postal offices.

" Alaska Native people deserve equitable access to all parts of the electoral process, and translating important forms and content into our Indigenous languages is an important step in that direction," said Samantha Mack, language assistance compliance manager at the Alaska Division of Elections.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Eligible U.S. citizens can use the national voter registration form, but must follow state-specific instructions to register or update their voting information. Apart from English and the three Native American languages, the form is available in Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

All of the language offerings are written translations, except for Apache, which is the first ever audio translation of the form. Some Native American languages are primarily or solely spoken languages, making written translations essentially impossible.

"Election terminology can often be difficult to translate into other languages without the assistance of native speakers and translators," the EAC commissioners said in a joint statement. "With access to election materials translated by native speakers from within their own communities, Native American voters will have a better understanding of the election process and greater accessibility."

The Navajo Nation also hopes to have a Navajo audio translation that talks voters through the form, Damon said. The EAC said in its announcement that the agency plans to expand upon the audio translations it offers in the future, as well as explore other ways to improve voting access for Native Americans.

"Working with Indigenous speakers to translate the national mail voter registration form into Yup'ik, Apache and Navajo languages eliminates some obstacles that limit native voter participation in U.S. elections and lives up to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act," said Native American Rights Fund staff attorney Matthew Campbell, who leads the nonprofit legal organization's voting rights work. "Meaningful democracy reform requires this kind of inclusive participation and a commitment to support the rights of all eligible citizens to vote."

Read More

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland releases a new survey, fielded February 6-7, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,160 adults nationwide.

Pexels, Tima Miroshnichenko

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

An overwhelming majority of 89% of Americans say the U.S. should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid—the current amount the U.S. spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.

Fifty-eight percent oppose abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development and folding its functions into the State Department, including 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents. But 60% of Republicans favor the move.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Super Bowl of Unity

A crowd in a football stadium.

Getty Images, Adamkaz

A Super Bowl of Unity

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

Keep ReadingShow less
The Paradox for Independents

A handheld American Flag.

Canva Images

The Paradox for Independents

Political independents in the United States are not chiefly moderates. In The Independent Voter, Thomas Reilly, Jacqueline Salit, and Omar Ali make it clear that independents are basically anti-establishment. They have a "mindset" that aims to dismantle the duopoly in our national politics.

I have previously written about different ways that independents can obtain power in Washington. First, they can get elected or converted in Washington and advocate with their own independent voices. Second, they can seek a revolution in which they would be the most dominant voice in Washington. And third, a middle position, they can seek a critical mass in the Senate especially, namely five to six seats, which would give them leverage to help the majority party get to 60 votes on policy bills.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

A single pawn separated from a group of pawns.

Canva Images

The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

Excerpt from To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff

In my book To Stop a Tyrant, I identify five types of a political leader’s followers. Given the importance of access in politics, I range these from the more distant to the closest. In the middle are bureaucrats. No political leader can accomplish anything without a cadre of bureaucrats to implement their vision and policies. Custom, culture and law establish boundaries for a bureaucrat’s freedom of action. At times, these constraints must be balanced with moral considerations. The following excerpt discusses ways in which bureaucrats need to thread this needle.

Keep ReadingShow less