Election office gets needed boost; attempt to postpone election fails
WINDOW ROCK
With elections a few days away the Navajo Election Administration is still in need of funding for poll workers, personal protective equipment and ballots. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez is set to sign resolution approving the funds.
The highly anticipated U.S. presidential election is not the only voting happening on the Navajo Nation. Chapter officer elections are happening as well and NEA requested $442,583 from the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund Balance during the fall Council session last week.
“It includes everything from paying poll officials their stipends, mileage,” said interim NEA Director Rodriquez Morris. “This is all for poll sites across the Navajo Nation. “The actual ballots are $260,000 and this goes to ballot printing and delivery of the ballots,” he said. “This will also pay for personal protection equipment. It will also cover communication, which is $1,000.”
Morris said the total of 110,000 registered voters represents an increase over last year. The bill’s co-sponsor, former NEA director Edison Wauneka, said filing fees for candidates total more than $171,000. “Just think if this legislation doesn’t pass what we will go through with people asking for their filing fees back,” said Wauneka.
The pandemic caused issues with the chapter primary elections in August after Council had voted to cancel the primaries and President Jonathan Nez vetoed this resolution, then Council overrode the veto.
The cancellation led to a Navajo voter suing the Navajo Nation saying Council violated the rights of the Navajo people and the cancelling of the primary election offends Navajo common law doctrines of egalitarianism and participatory democracy. On Tuesday a hearing took place and the suit was dismissed.
For the most part, Council believed it would be too risky to hold a primary during the pandemic. The COVID-19 cases when the primaries were scheduled were lower than current numbers.
On Aug. 4, when the primaries were scheduled, there were 17 new coronavirus cases. This Tuesday, 24 new cases were reported for the Nation and a total of 575 Navajos had died of the disease. The cumulative number of positive COVID-19 tests is now 11,386.
Now with the general elections right around the corner and COVID-19 numbers higher than they were in July, Budget and Finance Committee member Elmer Begay spoke against the supplemental funding, saying he wanted to postpone the elections for a year. “How many relatives were taken from this virus?” said Begay. “We are saying as leaders, the lives of Navajo people, which is more important … or is the election more important?”
Begay pointed out the increase in numbers, but he also pointed out cancelled events such as Navajo fairs and in-school learning as reasons the chapter elections should be cancelled because of COVID-19. “Absentee voting … in all the five agencies … there are probably a lot of people who have already voted,” said Wauneka, who revealed during fall session he and his wife had recovered from COVID-19.
“It is important,” he said. “There are people who want to vote for their choice of candidates. There’s posters and people on the air.”
Trying to ensure the safety of voters is a priority, Morris said, noting polling sites would have available PPE. Health guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and the Health Command Operation Center will be put into consideration. “We could have a safe election,” said Morris. “Even though we are in the midst of this pandemic we go to public sites … to stores, to hospitals, and to other public areas. By using PPEs we are able to function.”
Resource and Development Committee member Wilson Stewart said he was in support of having the election and said it is also the responsibility of individuals to follow health mandates such as wearing masks and sanitizing hands.
Begay continued to speak against having the chapter election because of COVID-19. Even after Council had approved the UUFB bill, Begay sponsored another bill the next day extending the current terms of office and postponing the chapter election for a year. “This legislation is the safety of our people,” said Begay. “The lives of our Diné people are more valuable than any politics.”
Begay’s bill to postpone the election failed to get a second and wasn’t voted on.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow