I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7127 
To protect the voting rights of Native American and Alaska Native voters. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 14, 2018 
Mr. BEN RAY LUJA´N of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. MCCOL-
LUM, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. 
TORRES, Mr. SOTO, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. GRIJALVA, and Mr. RUIZ) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on the Judici-
ary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To protect the voting rights of Native American and Alaska 
Native voters. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Vot-
ing Rights Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
(1) The Constitution explicitly and implicitly 
grants Congress broad general powers to legislate on 
issues relating to Indian Tribes, powers consistently 
described as plenary and exclusive. These powers 
arise from the grant of authority in the Indian Com-
merce Clause and through legislative matters arising 
under the Treaty Clause. 
(2) The Federal Government is responsible for 
upholding the obligations that the Federal Govern-
ment has agreed to through treaties, legislation, and 
Executive orders, referred to as the Federal trust re-
sponsibility toward Indian Tribes and their mem-
bers. 
(3) The Supreme Court has repeatedly relied on 
the nature of this ‘‘government to government’’ rela-
tionship between the United States and sovereign 
Indian Tribes for congressional authority to enact 
‘‘legislation that singles out Indians for particular 
and special treatment.’’ Morton v. Mancari, 417 
U.S. 535, 554–555 (1974). 
(4) Legislation removing barriers to Native 
American voting is vital for the fulfillment of 
Congress’s ‘‘unique obligation’’ toward Indians, par-
ticularly ensuring that Native American voters are 
fully included as ‘‘qualified members of the modern 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
body politic.’’ Board of County Comm’rs v. Seber, 
318 U.S. 705, 715 (1943). 
(5) Under the Elections Clause of article I, sec-
tion 4 of the Constitution, Congress has additional 
power to regulate any election conducted at least in 
part to select Members of Congress. Taken together, 
the Indian Commerce Clause and the Election 
Clause give Congress broad authority to enact legis-
lation to safeguard the voting rights of Native Amer-
ican voters. 
(6) Despite Congress’s decision to grant Native 
Americans Federal citizenship, and with it the pro-
tections of the Fifteenth Amendment, with passage 
of the Act of June 2, 1924 (Public Law 68–233; 43 
Stat. 253) (commonly known as the ‘‘Indian Citizen-
ship Act of 1924’’), States continued to deploy dis-
tinct methods for disenfranchising Indians by enact-
ing statutes to exclude from voter rolls Indians liv-
ing on reservations, requiring that Indians first ter-
minate their relationship with their Indian Tribe, re-
stricting the right to vote on account of a Tribal 
member’s ‘‘guardianship’’ status, and imposing lit-
eracy tests. 
(7) Barriers to voter access for Native Ameri-
cans persist today, and such barriers range from ob-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
structing voter access, to vote dilution and inten-
tional malapportionment of electoral districts. 
(8) The Native American Voting Rights Coali-
tion’s recent 9 field hearings in Indian Country and 
4-State survey of voter discrimination revealed a 
number of additional obstacles that Native Ameri-
cans must overcome in some States, including— 
(A) a lack of accessible registration and 
polling sites, either due to conditions such as 
geography, lack of paved roads, the absence of 
reliable and affordable broadband connectivity, 
and restrictions on the time and place that peo-
ple can register and vote, and the manner in 
which people can register and vote, including 
unequal opportunities for absentee, early, mail- 
in, and in-person voting; 
(B) nontraditional addresses for residents 
on Indian reservations, which make voter reg-
istration, acquisition of mail-in ballots, and se-
curing required identification difficult, if not 
impossible; 
(C) inadequate language assistance for 
Tribal members, including lack of outreach and 
publicity, the failure to provide complete, accu-
rate, and uniform translations of all voting ma-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
terials in the relevant Native language, and an 
insufficient number of trained bilingual poll 
workers; and 
(D) voter identification laws that discrimi-
nate against Native Americans. 
(9) The Department of Justice and courts have 
also recognized that some jurisdictions have been 
unresponsive to reasonable requests from federally 
recognized Indian Tribes for more accessible voter 
registration sites and in-person voting locations. 
(10) According to the National Congress of 
American Indians, there is a wide gap between the 
voter registration and turnout rates of eligible Amer-
ican Indians and Alaska Natives, and the voter reg-
istration and turnout rates of non-Hispanic White 
and other racial and ethnic groups. 
(11) Despite these obstacles, the Native Amer-
ican vote continues to play a significant role in na-
tional, State, and local elections. 
(12) In Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and 
South Dakota, Native Americans comprise approxi-
mately 10 percent or more of the voting population. 
(13) The Native American vote also holds great 
potential, with over 1,000,000 voters who are eligible 
to vote, but are not registered to vote. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to fulfill the Federal Government’s trust re-
sponsibility to protect and promote Native Ameri-
cans’ exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed 
right to vote, including the right to register to vote 
and the ability to access all mechanisms for voting; 
(2) to establish preclearance procedures for a 
specific subset of State actions that have been used 
to restrict access to the polls on Indian lands; 
(3) to expand voter registration under the Na-
tional Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 
20506 et seq.) to cover all Federal facilities, at the 
request of the Indian tribe; 
(4) to afford equal treatment to forms of identi-
fication unique to Indian Tribes and their members; 
(5) to clarify the obligations of States and polit-
ical subdivisions regarding the provision of trans-
lated voting materials for American Indians and 
Alaska Natives under section 203 of the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10503); 
(6) to provide Tribal leaders with a direct path-
way to request Federal election observers, and to 
allow public access to the reports of those election 
observers; and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
(7) to direct the Department of Justice to con-
sult on an annual basis with Indian Tribes on issues 
related to voting. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) INDIAN.—The term ‘‘Indian’’ has the mean-
ing given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self- 
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 
U.S.C. 5304). 
(2) INDIAN LANDS.—The term ‘‘Indian lands’’ 
includes— 
(A) any Indian country of an Indian Tribe, 
as defined under section 1151 of title 18, 
United States Code; 
(B) any land in Alaska owned, pursuant to 
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 
U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), by an Indian Tribe that 
is a Native village (as defined in section 3 of 
that Act (43 U.S.C. 1602)) or by a Village Cor-
poration that is associated with an Indian Tribe 
(as defined in section 3 of that Act (43 U.S.C. 
1602)); 
(C) any land on which the seat of the Trib-
al Government is located; and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
(D) any land that is part or all of a Tribal 
designated statistical area associated with an 
Indian Tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na-
tive village statistical area associated with an 
Indian Tribe, as defined by the Census Bureau 
for the purposes of the most recent decennial 
census. 
(3) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 
has the meaning given the term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ in 
section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 
(4) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘Tribal 
Government’’ means the recognized governing body 
of an Indian Tribe. 
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIVE AMERICAN VOTING 
TASK FORCE GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Office for Civil Rights at the 
Office of Justice Programs of the Department of Justice 
(referred to in this section as the ‘‘Office’’) shall establish 
and administer, in coordination with the Department of 
the Interior, a Native American voting task force grant 
program, through which the Office shall provide financial 
assistance to eligible applicants to enable those eligible ap-
plicants to establish and operate a Native American Vot-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
ing Task Force in each State with a federally recognized 
Indian Tribe. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Native American 
voting task force grant program is to— 
(1) increase voter outreach, education, registra-
tion, and turnout in Native American communities; 
(2) increase access to the ballot for Native 
American communities, including additional satellite, 
early voting, and absentee voting locations; 
(3) streamline and reduce inconsistencies in the 
voting process for Native Americans; 
(4) provide, in the community’s dominant lan-
guage, educational materials and classes on Indian 
lands about candidacy filing; 
(5) train and educate State and local employ-
ees, including poll workers, about— 
(A) the language assistance and voter as-
sistance requirements under sections 203 and 
208 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 
U.S.C. 10503; 10508); and 
(B) voter identification laws under section 
8 of this Act; 
(6) identify model programs and best practices 
for providing language assistance to Native Amer-
ican communities; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS
(7) provide non-partisan poll watchers on elec-
tion day in Native American communities; 
(8) participate in and evaluate future redis-
tricting efforts; 
(9) address issues of internet connectivity as it 
relates to voter registration and ballot access in Na-
tive American communities; and 
(10) facilitate collaboration between local elec-
tion officials, Native American communities, and 
Tribal elections offices. 
(c) ELIGIBLE APPLICANT.—The term ‘‘eligible appli-
cant’’ means— 
(1) an Indian Tribe; 
(2) a Secretary of State of a State, or another 
official of a State entity responsible for overseeing 
elections; 
(3) a nonprofit organization that works, in 
whole or in part, on voting issues; or 
(4) a consortium of one or more of the entities 
described in paragraphs (1) through (3). 
(d) APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Office, in coordination 
with the Department of the Interior and following 
consultation with Indian Tribes about the implemen-
tation of the Native American voting task force 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:55 Nov 16, 2018
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7127.IH
H7127
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS