Why registering to vote is more complicated, confusing if you live on a tribal reservation

Registering to vote in time for Election Day can be as simple as sharing an address, but it’s a more drawn-out process for those living across Indian Country.

It’s much harder and more complicated for Native Americans on sovereign tribal lands and reservations to register, because most rely on P.O. boxes, and that’s a problem, according to Arizona Native Vote executive director Jaynie Parrish.

“If they don’t have a physical address or know of one, especially if they’ve never registered before,” said Parrish, who is Navajo, “we have to find what that is through their own description, drawing a map and then finding a GIS code.”

Arizona’s voter registration form has a special field for those voters — who lack a physical home address — with a simple compass rose to plot their location. Parrish’s nonpartisan nonprofit has been helping hundreds of Navajos, Hopis, San Carlos and White Mountain Apaches navigate that hurdle all around rural Arizona.

“And as you know, when we talk about where our house is, it could be a half-mile off Route 264, near the cattle guard, the red house. That’s how we talk,” Parrish added. “We grow up, knowing our P.O. boxes as our home address; it’s not the same thing, so we have to teach people that.”

The Navajo, Hopi, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache reservations span some 22.5 million acres — or 30% of Arizona’s total landmass. These remote tribal communities are home to fewer than 200,000 residents, according to U.S. Census data.

Arizona Native Vote mainly focuses on the Navajo, Apache and Coconino counties in northeastern Arizona. So far, they’ve had more than 1,600 in-person conversations and nearly 600 phone calls with eligible Indigenous voters statewide ahead of November.

Year-round voter registration and education efforts are made possible through the nonprofit’s Firekeepers. They’re volunteer matriarchs that routinely check up on unregistered voters, who haven’t finished filling out their forms.

“Right now, we have two grandmas that make home visits,” Parrish explained. “They’re taking the time to follow up with them, so we’re not missing any information. You can see how time intensive this is, and that’s what we have to do to get it right.”

The last day to register for the general election is Monday, Oct. 7.