Tribal voters across Arizona have historically faced decades of discrimination at the ballot box, but they can try to navigate any obstacles by dialing 1-888-777-3831 on Election Day.
Right now, the Native Vote Election Protection Project hotline — housed at the Arizona State University’s Indian Legal Clinic — has been relying on a rotating group of staff and volunteers.
They’re meant to help voters and poll workers through this free, statewide service that went online a couple weeks before early voting began. But on Tuesday, a dozen or so volunteers will be staffing it around the clock, all day long. They’ve received roughly a couple hundred calls each cycle since 2020.
Navajo, Hopi and Apache language translators are also on-hand “to answer basic questions about, am I at the right place, this ID going to work for me?” according to the project’s Democracy Director Joel Edman.
He said their goal is “to get people confidence that they will be able to navigate this, at times, complex system, and be able to cast a ballot that’s going to count.”
This project was founded four years after Arizonan voters passed Proposition 200 — the Arizona Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act — a 2004 voter identification law requiring proof of citizenship to register and vote in state and local races.
“The ballots are long, and Arizona’s process can be confusing, but that’s especially true for Native voters across the state,” Edman explained, “who may face particular issues when voting related to using a tribal ID or sometimes not being placed in a precinct.”
The Indian Legal Clinic also created an online polling locator tool that users can simply drag and drop a pin on a map to figure out what precinct they belong to, because many tribal voters live on reservations and lack physical mailing addresses.
“But if somebody just wants to call us up,” added Edman, “we will be able to use that tool with you over the phone to help tell you where to go.”
He estimated that about 75 trained volunteers, from attorneys and law students to paralegals and lay people, will be stationed at polling places across tribal lands statewide throughout Tuesday.
“Helping face to face,” said Edman, “advertising that hotline number and making use of it as they encounter people who have issues they can’t solve right on the spot.”
