SALT LAKE CITY — A legal settlement over Native American voter access in San Juan County expired with the 2024 elections. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah tells FOX 13 News it would like to see an extension.
The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission and ACLU sued San Juan County in 2016 over voter access in Utah's largest geographic county. The lawsuit alleged that San Juan County's shift to vote-by-mail also created some hurdles to ballot access. Navajo is a primarily unwritten language and there were limited in-person polling locations, leading to long drives to vote.
"We have a Native American culture that has a completely different language and it's not a language that you can learn easily because it's not written any place," said San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams. "To get the people that can interpret that language at the polling places is probably the most difficult thing that we face."
The county and the plaintiffs reached a settlement that stretched from 2018 to this election cycle in 2024. That settlement has benefited voters, said Tara Benally, a San Juan County resident who also works on voter registration for the group Stewardship Utah.
"With this settlement, we're able to have a lot more dropbox ballots at the chapters, we're able to do early vote... we're even able to help people with interpretation if they need it during the general election," she told FOX 13 News in an interview.
Benally said the settlement and work to get more people involved in local politics has led to increased voter turnout in San Juan County. Photos provided to FOX 13 News from Stewardship Utah shows long lines at polling places — which is a good thing, Benally added.
"People generally like to cast a ballot at polling location on the day of the general election as opposed to the mail-in ballot because they still have questions," she said.
Commissioner Adams said he believes things have been working out well.
"I think we've gone out of our way to get interpreters where they're needed, to get ads on the Navajo radio to get everybody informed whether they're on the reservation or off the reservation. I think we've done a great job in trying to make sure that everybody gets a chance to vote," he said.
But Aaron Welcher, the ACLU of Utah's communications director, said that while there has been great improvements since 2016, things are not perfect. The ACLU has someone based in Bluff to respond to voter concerns. Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would monitor for any issues in San Juan County during the 2024 elections.
"Right now we're hoping that we will be able to continue protecting voting rights through the settlement," Welcher said. "Either by working closely with San Juan County to extend the settlement if possible or even if we cannot do it through this litigation, that we are going to be there."
