Fewer Navajos voting in Tuesday’s primary election

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Nation election officials were wondering Wednesday, where have all the voters gone?

The primary for the chapter and school board elections were held Tuesday and just 35,180 of the 118,673 registered voters sent in ballots or went to the polls. That’s a rate of 29.64.

“That was very disappointing,” said Edison Wauneka, the director of the tribe’s election office.

Usually in these primaries, about half of the voters participate. General elections have an even higher percentage.

“But this year, there seemed to be a lot of voter apathy,” said Wauneka.

One of the reasons, he said, may be due to the fallout from the last general election when many Navajo voters expressed their anger over the fact that Chris Deschene was removed from the ballot (even though he came in second in the primary) over a challenge dealing with his ability to speak Navajo.

“Many of his supporters, said they would never vote again and that may be what’s happening,” said Wauneka.

Wauneka said he also saw a lot of dissatisfaction among voters who came in to file their ballots early. According to Wauneka, many looked at the ballots and expressed disappointment that the same people have been running election after election.

And then there is the standard reason as to why a lot of people choose not to vote in these elections: apathy. They simply do not care about who wins the chapter and school board elections.

This includes most of the young Navajos, many of whom are required to register to vote to apply for college scholarships.

“The majority of the people who vote are still the older Navajos,” said Wauneka.

Election results are available online here.

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