Voting Matters

Since late August the Navajo Times curated a small in-house project to invite voters to do a small video of why voting matters to them. The project, “Voting Matters,” an original plan was to find young Navajo voters under the age of 25 from different areas of the Navajo Nation and different subcultures.

These videos had a general guideline of first and last name, followed by clans, if any, where the participant is from, any title they hold or school currently attending, lastly a short statement answering the question, “Why does voting matter to you?” These videos were to be around a minute long. These videos are on Navajo Times’ Facebook, X, and Instagram platforms.

The main reason why the project was aimed at newer voters was to get where younger voters’ perspectives stand, on exercising their democracy. This project was not only to encourage other young voters to participate in this November’s election, but to showcase to all voters the different perspectives on the importance of voting. The Times only asked if participants could refrain from telling their political party or choices of candidate(s) on the ballot. This we asked to keep the focus on exercising democracy rather than supporting candidates.

Voting Matters ended with 14 videos. Many of the participants fit the original criteria of Navajo voters under 25. Some of the videos did come from different demographics of the initial plan. We (the Navajo Times) got a few videos of participants from Navajos off the reservation, different tribal members that were working in the Navajo Nation, Navajo Nation executives, people outside the 18 to 25 window, and local Navajo artists.

On Aug. 30 outside Daniel’s Steakhouse in Gallup we filmed our first Voting Matters video with Kayden Murphy, 22, of Gallup, mentioned in the video interview that he cares about what goes on in his community and what laws are being passed in his community. One of the areas of the laws being passed that are important to him is under the umbrella of increasing the pay of the people in education such as teachers. After the final take of the video, he mentioned that his grandmother is a teacher, and she would mention the low pay rate and problems many teachers face locally. That information his grandmother shared with him, he understood voting is a tool to help elect people and vote on legislation to aid people working in education. Murphy ended his video with, “You may think your vote doesn’t matter. It does matter. So, go vote,” to encourage others to vote.

The Times also reached out to the Navajo Nation Washington Office to hear from someone from their department to answer the same question of the matters of voting. Justin Ahasteen, the executive director of the NNWO and the youngest director to hold the title, provided a video submission.

“I understand from personal experience the difference it makes to have elected leaders in Congress who understand and care about Indian Country. We need leaders who are going to stand up for those who have been impacted and to protect our interests as Native people, to ensure we have access to drinking water, who are going to fight for compensation for victims of radiation exposure, and to help us find our missing Diné relatives. It doesn’t matter who you support or what party you align with. What matters is that you exercise your right to vote. Because when we participate in the political process it gives us an opportunity to be heard and hold our leaders accountable,” Ahasteen said. “Voting is the cornerstone of democracy, and it is a way for our voices to be amplified and for us to shape the future of our communities.”

During the Walk to the Polls event held in Ft. Defiance and Window Rock, I also interviewed Ian Teller. Teller is a 24-year-old from Tsaile, Arizona. He is an activist and the founder of When Natives Vote, an organization that encourages the Native American vote to participate during elections.

Teller described voting is the basic starting point for change in our communities. “I believe that by voting it’s sharing our voice, it’s sharing our perspective, it’s sharing our Indigenous values and by doing that (voting) we put people is office, in leadership who make decisions for our people and have our best interest in mind when they make those decisions,” Teller said in his video. He ended his statement with hoping people go out and vote. Teller has done a wide range of different events and projects on and off Diné Bikéyah to advocate community engagement to vote.

Summary of this project

This project was a first for the Navajo Times and a pilot project to engage more with the Navajo people we serve and a way to use our social media platforms more. With a global decline in the newspaper industry, we are implementing new practices to try to fight that uphill challenge and effectively keep people in the know of what is going on. My experience was great hearing from different people and unexpectedly giving people the chance to express their perspectives on our platform to share and watch. I wish we found someone opposed to voting to have heard a different perspective. I hope our efforts also encourage more voters to go out this election and include themselves and their perspectives. Also, I hope this brought community members a deeper reason on why voting matters to them.

From coast to coast, I’ve received applause for my efforts with the Voting Matters project. I feel we could have done things more efficiently and effectively, but now we have a footing to transition this style of project into new projects on different topics. For the past couple of months, the Times has tried to expand on more video content to projects like Voting Matters and videos to correlate with upcoming stories. This we are trying to optimize as we go to bring better engagement delivering news to the Navajo people.

Sophie Schwartz, 25; Leila Winbury, 23; Francine Bradley-Arthur; Ednei Yabeny, 23; Kolt Tom, 18; Talibah Begay; Ian Teller, 24; and Rodericka Hale-Toldeo, 18.

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