April 22 filing deadline nears for Navajo Nation candidates

WINDOW ROCK

Candidates seeking Navajo Nation office in the 2026 election have until 5 p.m. April 22 to submit their filing paperwork, with all agency filing offices closed on the final day and remaining submissions routed to the Department of Diné Education auditorium in Window Rock.

Tonia D. Burbank, the Fort Defiance Agency voter registration specialist, said the single-site closing is intended to give last-minute candidates one filing location after agency offices shut down for the deadline.

The Education Building site, inside the Department of Diné Education auditorium off Morgan Boulevard, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 22, Burbank said. The official candidate list is expected the next day, April 23.

Few filings in before deadline

Filings were still coming in throughout the five agencies in the days before the deadline, with submissions running below totals seen at the same stage in past election cycles, the specialists said.

Burbank said seven Council delegate candidates had picked up packets and filed through the Fort Defiance office. Two presidential candidates had also submitted paperwork, one from Western Agency and one from Fort Defiance Agency, with the Fort Defiance filing arriving the day before the interview.

Arlene Coan, the Eastern Agency voter registration specialist, said only one candidate had completed a filing through the Crownpoint office, though at least five prospective candidates had picked up packets and had not yet returned them. No presidential candidate had filed through Eastern Agency as of last week, she said.

Burbank said incumbent Council delegates were among those who filed through the Fort Defiance office. She said the full verified list of candidates will not be public until the administration releases it April 23.

Filing fees are $1,500 for the presidential race, $500 for Council delegate and $200 for the remaining offices on the ballot, Burbank said.

Beyond the presidency and 24 Council delegate seats, two commissioner seats are open at Naschitti Chapter, and one seat is on the line at Kayenta Township, she said.

Who can qualify for the ballot

The Navajo Election Administration’s candidate qualification sheets, one for president and vice president and another for Council delegate, were revised March 23. The sheets tie most of the pre-filing checklist to Title 11 of the Navajo Nation Election Code and lay out separate requirements for each race.

A presidential candidate must be at least 30 years old at the time of the general election. A delegate candidate must be at least 25. Both offices require enrollment in the Navajo Nation on the Bureau of Indian Affairs agency census roll and active voter registration. Delegate candidates must also be registered within the chapter or precinct they seek to represent.

Candidates cannot have been convicted of a felony within the past five years. They also cannot have been convicted during that period of any misdemeanor “involving crimes of deceit, untruthfulness and dishonesty,” including extortion, embezzlement, bribery, perjury, forgery, fraud, misrepresentation, theft, conversion or misuse of Navajo Nation funds, crimes involving the welfare of children, aggravated assault and aggravated battery, according to the qualification sheets.

Candidates found in violation of the Navajo Nation Ethics in Government Law or the Election Code by a trial court or the Ethics and Rules Committee are also barred. So is anyone who has failed to comply with sanctions imposed by any Navajo Nation administrative hearing body or court.

Residency requirements listed on both sheets, three years of continuous physical presence within the Navajo Nation, are marked inapplicable following Lee v. Nelson-Charley, a 2006 Navajo Nation Supreme Court ruling. A parallel note on the presidential sheet states a long-standing requirement of prior elected service or Navajo Nation employment was set aside by Bennett v. Navajo Board of Election Supervisors in 1990.

Presidential candidates face two additional disqualifiers that do not apply to delegate candidates. They cannot be under a federal grand jury indictment at the time of filing and any candidate indicted after filing is disqualified. They also cannot hold permanent employment with, or elected office in, the U.S. government or any state or subdivision. The Navajo Nation president is limited to two consecutive terms, and the vice president is limited to two terms.

The Navajo language requirement, the same provision that tripped up 2014 presidential hopeful Chris Deschene, now explicitly puts the electorate in the judge’s seat, at least for the presidency.

A presidential candidate “must be able to speak and understand the Navajo and English language; and this ability shall be determined by the Navajo voter when he/she casts a ballot,” the March 23 qualification sheet reads.

The delegate sheet sets a lower bar, requiring only that a candidate “be able to speak and understand Navajo and/or English.”

Asked how the fluency standard is applied in practice, Burbank declined to elaborate.

What voters, candidates should know next

With the prior cycle’s mass disqualifications still shaping enforcement expectations, Burbank said her office is emphasizing the requirement with every candidate who walks in. In that cycle, 192 candidates were barred from future office after failing to file campaign expense reports on time.

The primary is set for July 21. The expense-report deadline falls 10 days later, on or before July 31. Failure to file triggers a five-year disqualification from Navajo Nation office, Burbank said.

Jasper Long, a voting-machine technician for the Navajo Election Administration, will work with the election systems vendor, AES, on a roughly weeklong calibration and certification cycle that includes verifying ink levels, running test prints and signing a certification for each machine, Burbank said.

Ballot print orders will be scaled to each chapter’s registered voter rolls. Ballots are printed at roughly 80% of the registered voter total for each chapter, though Burbank cautioned that she did not have exact totals.

Each of the Nation’s 110 chapters must nominate its own poll officials by chapter resolution and return that resolution to the Election Administration, which will then organize poll worker training, Burbank said.

The last day to register to vote in the 2026 Navajo Nation primary is June 11, Burbank said. Voters may verify their registration by providing their census number at any agency election office. Early voting will run through the agency offices. On primary day, voters will report to their chapter precinct.

Navajo voters participating in state elections will continue to follow separate state procedures, which differ from tribal ID requirements. Burbank said the Nation does not coordinate state polling locations, a point she acknowledged could create hardship for voters who live far from state voting centers, particularly as fuel costs remain elevated.

“It’s up to the voter,” Burbank said of state-side polling arrangements. “So mainly it’s going to be at their chapter precincts.”

The Nation does not require Arizona’s Real ID star at its own precincts, Burbank said. A tribal ID card and census number are sufficient to confirm registration at the chapter.

Get instant access to this story by purchasing one of our many e-edition subscriptions HERE at our Navajo Times Store.

---