Native Vote

Deadline is Today for Michigan Voter Registration

Check Your State Below for Deadline

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

LANSING, MICHIGAN – If you are a Michigan resident, today is the deadline to register to vote in the August 7 primary. The primary election is the day individuals vying for the same position running in one party will be elected.

Derek Baily (r) Campaigning
in the 101st

For instance, the 101st House of Representative district features Derek Bailey, who is the former chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians, running against Allen O'Shea.

If you live in the 101st District and want to vote and are not registered to vote, you must register today.

Voter registration among American Indians is a focus of Native Vote 2012, a program of the National Congress of American Indians, based in Washington DC.

"Over the last century since securing our rightful place at the ballot box, Native people have remained one of the most disenfranchised group of voters in the United States. Today as a result, only two out of every five eligible American Indian and Alaska Native voters are registered to vote,"

Jefferson Keel, Chickasaw, president of the National Congress of American Indians told delegates of the organization’s mid-year conference in Lincoln, Nebraska last month.

"In 2008 over 1 million eligible Native voters were unregistered. I think that Indian Country should consider this a civic emergency. We should all be concerned; American Indians and Alaska Natives, tribal, and state and federal governments. There are a number of concrete actions that we can take now to change this situation."

For the Voter Registration deadline in your state, Click Here »

posted July 9, 2012 7:00 am edt