Indian Voting

Last week some national liberal group released a report attacking South Dakota as hostile to Indian voting, making the state sound like 1950s Mississippi.  Today's Argus Leader editorial calls that "hogwash."  Excerpt:

A civil rights report released last week blasts South Dakota for a climate of discrimination, racial hostility and unfair treatment of Native Americans. It calls the state a "hotbed of voting rights litigation."

We have problems, but that's just over the top.

The report, commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., a national coalition of civil rights organizations, was timed to coincide with congressional review of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One provision requires federal approval of state laws and regulations governing voting in areas with a history of discrimination. Shannon and Todd counties of the Pine Ridge reservation are on the list. South Dakota ignored this provision from 1975 to 2003.

South Dakota's record has been checkered. After all, we're home to Wounded Knee. And it wasn't until 1951 that South Dakota allowed Native Americans to vote.

But to paint South Dakota as a place of widespread racism today, where county auditors and poll workers look for ways to discriminate against Native Americans, where lawmakers secretly connive methods to make it more difficult for Native people to vote, is hogwash.

Amazingly, what they do not mention is that Tom Daschle was pushing the report that attacked his home state.  Argus Leader excerpt:

Former Sen. Tom Daschle is scheduled to help unveil a report today criticizing enforcement of Native American voting rights in South Dakota, prompting political opponents and observers to speculate about his motives.

The report, "Voting Rights in South Dakota 1982-2006," documents the state's "rocky voting rights record," according to a news release from the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The release did not detail Daschle's role in the report, and attempts to contact him Tuesday were unsuccessful.