NAVAJOS TURN OUT IN RECORD NUMBERS TO VOTE VS TRUMP IN ARIZONA

Huge numbers of Native Americans who have not voted in recent elections are turning out -- even creating a special bus line -- to win Arizona for Biden and end the racist, incompetent and dangerous administration of Donald Trump, Daily Kos reported.

In Kayenta, near Monument Valley and the Utah state line, fully one-third of the early ballots are coming from Navajos who have not voted in many years. Several hundred miles farther south, in the San Carlos Apache Reservation, a stunning 43% of the early voters have not cast ballots in recent elections. Many said they were voting in remembrance of the 574 Navajos who died from COVID-19 infection.

The 25 paid field organizers of Northeast Arizona Native Democrats have been working to produce this turnout for many months. Of the first 11,800 early ballots returned in Apache County (Arizona’s far northeast which ironically includes the heart of the Navajo Nation), 7,732 have come from Democrats.

Officials in Gila County refused to put a ballot drop box in the community of Canyon Day – forcing residents to make a three-hour round-trip drive through the winding and hazardous Salt River Canyon to drop off their ballots. The White Mountain Apache Tribe responded by creating a new bus line with twice-daily service between Canyon Day and Globe, the county seat with the nearest drop box for Gila County ballots. Fifty-three percent of Democrats statewide have already voted, topping Republicans who are down at 43%. The turnout reported so far is Democrats 742,876, Republicans 653,331 and Independents 89,545. This doesn’t account for the fact that many county election officials, particularly in Democratic northeast Arizona, are behind in opening their mail.