BILLINGS — Fort Peck tribal members said Thursday they are planning to file a lawsuit against two northeastern Montana counties because of how far away voting polls are from the reservation.
The lawsuit — which hasn't been filed yet — will ask Roosevelt and Valley counties to establish satellite polls on Fort Peck lands in Fraser and Poplar so that voters don't have to travel so far to find a place to vote.
The group behind the lawsuit claims that both counties denied their original requests to add polls and so now they are turning to legal action.
On Thursday morning, advocates and members of the legal counsel behind the lawsuit gathered at the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse in downtown Billings to discuss the lawsuit.
"Equal means equal," witness Bret Healy said to the crowd Thursday. "It is not equal."
Native American activist One Who Rides His Horse East said that voters from the Fort Peck reservation can be forced to drive too far just to vote.
"Native people who live in Fraser, Montana, have to drive 56 miles round trip to vote," One Who Rides His Horse East said.
Cher Old Elk is a part of the legal counsel filing the lawsuit. She said it's an honor she doesn't take lightly.
"We're just really looking at making sure our Indian communities have the equality of access to that same voting that all of the citizens in Montana have," said Old Elk. "Voting is important, but what this really boils down to is equality means equality."
MTN spoke with officials in Roosevelt County, who said that they were waiting on confirmation from the Fort Peck tribe that they were not asking for satellite election locations, but Fort Peck members said that is not true.
There is a precedent for this scenario. A case settled 10 years ago, called Wandering Medicine v. the Montana Secretary of State, established that satellite offices could be opened twice a week on reservations through Election Day.
Healy — who has helped with similar lawsuits in South Dakota and Nevada — said that while the Nov. 5 Election Day is near, there's still time to make a change.
"The effort in the short term is to get a preliminary injunction or TRO (temporary restraining order) to ensure that for this election, there's a satellite office fully congruent and equal to the county seat for this election," Healy said. "This could be set up in 48 hours after a favorable ruling from the judge."
Roosevelt County commissioners told MTN that they are working with the tribe on the issue. Valley County commissioners were not available for comment Thursday afternoon.
"The Montana Constitution says that equality matters to Montanans," Old Elk said. "We're included in that too."
