In 2024, Navajo voting rights advocates raised the alarm that rural Navajo voters in Apache County had their ballots rejected more frequently than other voting groups across the state. The reasons for this are varied and often rooted in historical efforts to suppress native voters, but there is a solution that could help allow Navajo voters to cast their ballots more easily and effectively: The Apache County Board of Supervisors and election administrators need to add vote centers on Election Day in Apache County. 

For many Navajo voters in Apache County, showing up to vote on Election Day can feel like a gamble. Many voters are unsure whether their precinct lines have changed, whether an update to their voter registration that required them to provide their address has placed them in a different precinct, or if they are simply new voters navigating the process for the first time with limited access to voter education. This can lead to long lines and frustration for voters who may decide not to vote or cast a provisional ballot that gets rejected because it was cast in the wrong precinct. Exercising one’s right to vote should never feel like a gamble.

A “solution” that gets tossed around is voting early via early voting sites and mail-in ballots, but early voting only alleviates a portion of these issues. For example, there were six early voting locations in Apache County in the 2024 general election. While these were spread throughout the county, the early voting site in my hometown of Teec Nos Pos was open only on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you were unable to make it during that time, the following closest early voting sites from Teec Nos Pos were in Chinle and Fort Defiance, both from 95 miles (1.5 hours) to 113 miles (two hours) away — and these drives were only accessible if the road that goes over the mountain near Narbona Pass wasn’t closed due to the weather. And with mail often taking longer to reach rural communities and post offices located only in certain areas, mail-voting options for Native voters can also be limited. 

Vote centers, which allow eligible voters to cast their ballots from anywhere in the county, rather than at specific precincts, are a surefire way to ensure that Navajo voters can cast their ballots with greater confidence.

The legacy of voter suppression in Native communities in Arizona is a long one. It continues to this day, with policies that divert resources away from Tribal communities and fail to account for their geographic and economic features, which require thoughtful planning by election officials whose role is to ensure that all eligible voters can exercise their constitutional right to vote. 

For instance, according to the Native American Rights Fund, the furthest Navajo community served by the county seat is a whopping 220 miles away, with the average distance for Navajo communities being 50 miles. For many of these communities, the county seat is the only place where voters can access critical registration and early voting services. From my own community of Teec Nos Pos, the drive to the Apache County Recorder’s Office in St. John’s is about 212 miles one way. A round-trip would take almost seven hours, which would mean taking a full workday off if a voter needed to make it to our county seat for help. 

Adding vote centers is a necessary step toward closing some of these gaps for Navajo Nation voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections — with the caveat that adding vote centers should not result in a decrease in current polling locations. Along with adding vote centers, we must also ensure the Apache County election office is fully funded and staffed ahead of the upcoming election cycle. We encourage the Apache County Board of Supervisors and election administrators to take this forward step to improve access to the ballot for Navajo and rural voters. 

Above all, Arizona’s Native voters must be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. As the original inhabitants of this land, it is of the utmost importance that we have a say in its governance. 

Natalia Sells is the Arizona senior campaign manager at All Voting Is Local Action, a nonpartisan organization that works for free and fair elections at the state and local level.