October 11, 2012 –
(MAYETTA) In an effort of helping to ensure that Native Americans and Kansans vote this year’s election, registration applications that have been placed in the lobby of the PBPN Government Center and at the Fire Keepers Elder Center. The official deadline to register to vote in the national election in this coming Tuesday, October 16 and applications must be either mailed in by that date or hand-delivered to:
400 New York
Houlton, KS 66436
To register in other states-please check with your state’s election offices.
In addition, Native American actor Chaske Spencer, star of the Twilight movies, has also been urging American Indians to be the Native Vote. “Native American voters are one of the country’s most under represented and disenfranchised group of voters. Estimates show that over one million eligible voters are unregistered,” he said.
This is also the first year that voters will be required to show a photo identification when casting their votes at the polls and Kansas tribal members who can vote can use their tribal enrollment/CDIB cards thanks to Kansas SB 129, a bill that will allow tribal members to use their tribal IDs at the voting polls as part of the new voter identification legislation. The bill took effect July 1 and the Prairie Band Tribal Council and legal teams were heavily involved in seeing that the Kansas bill was enacted.