Election board settles on reapportionment plan

The Navajo Board of Election Supervisors approved on Friday a reapportionment plan dividing the Navajo Nation into 24 voting districts for a new, reduced tribal council election.

The board also voted to extend the filing deadline for council delegate candidates by one business day, to 5 p.m. Monday, June 14. This will give candidates at least a little time to acquaint themselves with the new apportionment plan, the board said.

"This is good," said President Joe Shirley Jr., who presented the plan approved by the board. "This is something we should have done a long time ago. We are moving along and progressing."
The board unanimously approved both measures.

The reapportionment plan, as introduced by President Joe Shirley Jr., keeps intact the original five agencies, as opposed to his original version, which would have created a sixth agency in the southwest region.

The plan uses previously established chapter and agency boundaries, which people are already familiar with and commonly use, Shirley stated in a memorandum to the board.

The 24 districts are established so each delegate would represent about the same number of people, with a target of 7,137 people per district. The plan uses 2000 Census data, which reported that there are 171,289 Native Americans living on the Navajo Nation. That number was divided by 24, leaving 7,137 as the target figure.

The board added an amendment, stating that the tribe will revisit the apportionment plan in 2012, when new Census data should be available.

According to Shirley's plan, the reservation's larger communities - Tuba City, Chinle, Fort Defiance and Shiprock comprise their own districts. The satellite communities - Ramah, Alamo and Tohajilee - make up one single district.

Shirley said he abandoned the six-district plan after gathering input from the election board, which had concerns about the logistics of creating an additional agency.

"While working with the Board of Election Supervisors there were some questions about how to create the sixth district," Shirley said.

Shirley presented the new plan after a lunch break Friday, with the dark boundary lines identifying the agencies gone. The plan was not new, Shirley said his staff had drafted similar plans in the past.

"This has been discussed before and it's on the table again today," he said. "The five agencies are still intact."

The board approved a second resolution extending the filing deadline for council delegate candidates until 5 p.m. Monday, in an attempt to give time to review the new plan.

The board had considered extending the deadline until June 18, however, that would have severely cut short the election timeline, which is already alarmingly abbreviated, said Kimmeth Yazzie, Program and Project Specialist with the Navajo Election Administration.

The NEA still has to print absentee ballots and give voters living outside the reservation time to vote, Yazzie said.

In addition, further delays could affect the tribe's ability to find a printer willing to work on such short notice.

"At some point, they are going to say 'no,'" Yazzie said. In any case, the tribe is looking to pay extra as the printing company is likely to charge for overtime in order to print the ballots so quickly.

Election board vice chair Jonathan Tso, agreed that extending the candidacy deadline too far would lead to more troubles. However, the board could at least provide a little time, he said.

"If we can give them just that one day, it's better than not giving them anything at all," Tso said.

Back to top ^