With November’s midterm elections just around the corner, a new report detailed how Native Americans in Wyoming and across the U.S. face significant barriers to participating in the voting process.

The report tapped federal data from the past three general elections. It showed voter registration rejections grew by more than 200% in counties where tribal members make up at least a quarter of the population.

Allison Neswood, senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said the report confirms what Native communities have long known to be true.

Image

"Their registration is getting denied, their ballots (are) getting rejected and all of this really adds up to the systemic disenfranchisement of our people in our own homelands," Neswood contended.

The report outlined how disruptions at the U.S. Postal Service had a significant impact on Native voters. Even as overall mail-in voting numbers declined between 2020 and 2024, the rejection rate of ballots in areas with larger Native populations increased by 134%.

President Donald Trump has long claimed voting by mail is subject to mass fraud and is continuing to push for the Postal Service to oversee mail-in ballots in November’s election. A recent MIT study found no evidence of fraud at a scale capable of affecting election outcomes. Neswood believes partisan actors are intentionally pushing a false narrative around votes cast by mail.

"It feels like an effort to sow doubt. What impacts the outcome of elections is the systematic disenfranchisement of groups that are already disempowered in our society," Neswood asserted.

The report’s recommendations include expanding automatic and same-day registration to areas with larger Native populations and paying poll workers comparable wages. Neswood argued more investment is needed for voting infrastructure in Indian Country.

"Making sure that our Native communities have polling locations in a reasonable distance from where they live, making sure they have registration opportunities, making sure that they can participate in mail voting," Neswood urged.