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BACKSTORY
For decades, white Mormons have dominated the San Juan County government in southeastern Utah, despite the fact that the area is majority Navajo. Many Navajo citizens describe a systematic disenfranchisement of Native voters, which has resulted in a lack of public services, including ambulance access, road infrastructure and education funding. In 2016, a U.S. district court ruled that San Juan County violated both the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by drawing the boundaries of its voting districts to disenfranchise Native voters (“How a Utah county silenced Native American voters — and how Navajos are fighting back,” HCN, 6/13/16).
FOLLOWUP
The county was forced to redraw its county commission voting boundaries, and the first-ever majority Native-American commission took office in January 2019. In June, the commission, now with two Navajo members, voted not to challenge an appeals court decision, which upheld the previous ruling that the county had violated the Voting Rights Act, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline San Juan County ends legal fight against Voting Rights Act decision.
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