Navajo Nation leaders want answers about Election Day chaos in Apache County

A week after Apache County faced polling site technical glitches on Election Day, the cause of the ballot chaos on the Navajo Nation remains unclear, though a poll book update the day before may have been a factor.

On Tuesday, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apache County — its second since Election Day — after learning about delays in processing early ballots.

"This is not the first time we’ve seen these kinds of issues in Apache County, and sadly, it’s been an ongoing pattern of disenfranchisement in previous elections," said Speaker Crystalyne Curley. "The Navajo Nation will continue to fight for our voters, holding Apache County accountable until every Navajo voice is heard and every vote is counted."

The polling site issues caused voters to wait in line for well over two hours, and some left altogether without voting, prompting Navajo leaders such as President Buu Nygren to implore voters to stay in line and vote.

In trying to rectify the problem, the Navajo Nation requested and secured a court-approved extension. Although tribal leaders sought an extension for all poll sites on the Navajo Nation within Apache County, the court decided to keep only nine of the most affected polling sites open for an additional two hours.

Council Delegate Carl Slater was a poll observer in the community of Lukachukai when chaos erupted with ballot issues, leading to widespread disruptions throughout the day.

Lukachukai is one of five communities Slater represents in rural Apache County. According to officials, Apache County was the only county in Arizona reporting severe issues on Election Day, and many of those were on the Navajo Nation part of the county.

“I can’t remember at what time I figured this out, but we were told that there was a poll book update that took place before the election,” Slater recalled. “That poll book potentially corrupted the ability for the ballots to be printed correctly.”

The update refreshes the voter list to provide more accurate and up-to-date information, he said, which is a good idea if it functions properly. However, there didn’t seem to be any protocols in place to verify that the ballots would print correctly after the update, which was implemented a day before the polls were supposed to open.

At the Lukachukai polling site, he noted there were two voting machines connected to a poll book. However, he had little information about how things went in other parts of the county outside the Navajo Nation.

When the machines started having issues, an ExpressVote machine, typically used for out-of-precinct votes, was brought in. Slater said the machine offers audio options in English, Navajo and Spanish. But as more voters were directed to use it, problems quickly arose with this device as well.

“What we learned from Apache County on the Navajo Nation is that precinct polling stations attempted to do that and the machines started failing,” Slater said. “They would freeze or just wouldn’t work. I think the issue was the number of propositions and amount of information that the proposition … it was a lot for the machine to load each time.”

When voters tried to use the machine, he said, it took about half an hour per person, leading to long lines forming outside. For elders, it would take longer, up to at least 45 minutes. He also noted that most polling sites had about 100 provisional ballots, which quickly ran out, and no additional ballots were being supplied.

“That left locations without a machine for people to vote and without provisional ballots for people to vote,” Slater said.

Apache County officials didn’t respond to a request for comment on the problems.

Longer hours: Judge extends voting hours in 9 Navajo Nation communities after glitches

The U.S. Department of Justice designated Apache County as one of four counties in Arizona to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws, but issues continued to plague the county. The Justice Department, which enforces the laws to ensure eligible citizens can vote, coordinates the effort through its Civil Rights Division. According to a news release issued on Nov. 1, the DOJ deploys staff nationwide to monitor compliance and communicate with state and local election officials on Election Day.

“The Department declines comment,” the U.S. DOJ said in an email to The Arizona Republic when asked about the issue and what was being done.

Misinformation spread about polling sites

As the issues persisted, Slater, Speaker Crystalyne Curley, and Katherine Belzowski, a Navajo Department of Justice assistant attorney general, contacted Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Lisa Marra, the state elections director. He said during this meeting Marra was receiving incorrect information from Apache County Elections Director Rita Vaughn about how grave the situation really was.

“(Marra) was receiving information that was false, saying that we identified the fix at 9 a.m., the lines aren’t bad, everyone will have the right to vote, this isn't a big issue,” Slater recalled. “Whether it was a matter of their ignorance, or purposeful misinformation to the Secretary of State’s Office, it definitely had the effect of downplaying the scope of the issue and disenfranchising our people from voting.”

In a previous interview, Curley said they weren’t able to get through to the county and weren’t receiving any updates or information on the matter from them. Slater said this was definitely the case, which is why they worked on getting a meeting with Fontes.

“We scrambled to get a meeting with the secretary of state because we were not able to establish direct communication with the elections director at the county,” Slater said. “Everything was going through their attorney. They were immediately lawyered up.”

Slater said the incorrect information Marra and Fontes had received from Apache County was an insult to those involved, especially the poll workers who were left with no direction and feeling abandoned by the county.

“It was incredibly insulting to the observer and our people, and everyone involved in the election, and particularly the poll workers who were there struggling to make sure people have the right to vote,” Slater said. “I feel so bad for those poll workers who were left with no communication.”

During the 11 a.m. meeting, the Navajo Nation requested assistance for more preprinted provisional ballots. Listening from his truck outside the Lukachukai polling site, Slater heard officials claim the glitches were fixed, including at Lukachukai. But when Slater went inside to check, he was told the printers had only printed two ballots before breaking down again.

“I immediately went back into the meeting and said this information is incorrect,” Slater said. “It’s not up to date, and that’s why we need your assistance in getting preprinted provisional ballots for people to vote, and we need those deployed as quickly as possible across the district to reduce the lines.”

He said there was a "generic assurance" that more provisional ballots would be delivered, but that, across all five of his chapters, he was not aware of any provisional ballots sent after the meeting as promised.

Apache County fought to refuse extension

As the day went on, Navajo leaders filed a complaint to extend voting hours. According to a complaint filed by the Navajo Nation seeking the time extension, voters across the Apache County portion of the Navajo Reservation faced numerous obstacles. These included machine malfunctions, a lack of printed and provisional ballots, long lines, inadequate acceptance of valid IDs, and polling sites that were either not operational or not open during posted hours.

In response, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against the Apache County Board of Supervisors, Apache County Recorder Larry Noble, and Apache County Elections Director Rita Vaughan. The complaint accused them of interfering with "lawfully registered voters in the free exercise of their right to vote," and sought to extend voting hours by an additional two hours after the county refused to do so.

Without the extension, the complaint alleged, "voters in Apache County will be denied their state constitutional right to uniform access to vote in the electoral process.”

An hour before polls were set to close that day, the Navajo Nation and Apache County held a hearing to decide whether the county would extend polls or not.

Election troubles: Navajo Nation reports long lines, major voting issues in Apache County

Emily Craiger, an attorney with The Burgess Law Group representing Apache County, had come out of an executive session with the Apache County Board of Supervisors just as the hearing on the possible extension began an hour before all polls were set to close. The supervisors include former Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, former Navajo Council Delegate Alton Joe Shirley and Nelson Davis.

Explaining the county's decision against extending voting hours, Craiger said there were initial issues with the ballot-on-demand printers. The county insisted the problem was identified and resolved quickly, with the fix implemented by 9 a.m. and effective across Apache County. She added that backup paper ballots were available at all locations, and additional paper ballots were distributed as needed. Accessible voting devices were also provided to ensure everyone could cast their vote.

“Extending the hours would be nearly impossible to do for the county,” Craiger said at the hearing. “First is the nature of the rural community; getting in touch with each of the 44 voting locations to ensure the location stays open and operates in the same way would be exceptionally challenging, especially given cell service and other related issues.”

Craiger referenced federal law, which requires that if a court orders a polling station to remain open past the state's designated closing time, all voters must cast their ballots provisionally, and those ballots must be kept separate.

“Providing additional provisional ballot envelopes to all 44 locations across the rural community would be impossible for Apache County to do under these circumstances with these time constraints,” Craiger said. “Many of these locations are hours away from where these envelopes are located.”

While the Apache County Board of Supervisors, along with election officials, flatly rejected the extension, calling it "impossible,” Judge Michael Latham, who has visited the Navajo Nation multiple times and is familiar with challenges such as the lack of public transportation and difficult roads, suggested and ultimately decided that the nine most affected chapters would stay open until 9 p.m.

Latham said it was these specific polling sites that were noted in the petition that also had declarations of people's experiences, which were gathered by Slater and others quickly in an effort to secure an extension.

“That was used to support our motion to extend the polling location time across Navajo by an additional two hours,” Slater said of the declarations they were able to quickly gather. “We started hearing that the supervisors were going to oppose that request, and that they were standing behind their election director that all the issues were taken care of by 9 a.m. and that is absolutely unforgivable.”

Long lines, cold weather

Fifty miles from Slater, Council Delegate Andy Nez was in Fort Defiance, the same community where, just weeks earlier, actors Mark Ruffalo, Wilmer Valderrama and Cara Jade Myers joined Allie Young, founder of the nonprofit Protect the Sacred, in a walk to an Apache County office to raise awareness about early voting by dropping off early ballots at the office’s ballot box.

Nez said the issues began not long after the polls opened and continued throughout the day, and as he was getting updates he was told voters were waiting for up to two hours.

“One of the voters mentioned that they felt their vote wouldn’t count,” Nez said.

Although earlier in the day the weather was mild and sunny, as the day went on, the wind brought clouds and it turned colder. Nez said weather was a factor in why people started to leave without voting.

“In my mind, I was thinking how we can help maintain voters to stay in line because we certainly didn't want them to leave because of the issues they were having,” Nez said. “We decided to help to try to keep them warm. We called out for blankets and we took some coffee there. At the same time, I hoped Apache County was resolving the issue.”

Nez said he was letting voters know that the time had extended for the Fort Defiance polling site and if they knew anyone who had left before casting a vote, to inform them of the extension so that they could return and vote.

Slater said not all voters live within their communities. Some live in cities for work or school and a few drove hours from cities like Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Flagstaff and Albuquerque to vote in federal, county, and tribal elections.

A Northern Arizona University student emailed Slater and said while they were in their community of Round Rock to vote, they noticed at least 50 voters leave without voting after waiting in line for two hours.

Torey Dolan, a volunteer with Arizona Native Vote Election Protection Project, wrote in a declaration that they were trained to oversee the hotline. Dolan wrote that they arrived to answer calls at 5:30 a.m. and by 6 a.m. they began receiving calls about Apache County polling site issues.

Dolan reported that in Chinle, volunteers found the gates were locked at 6 a.m., and by 6:20 a.m., ballots were still not printed at the Rock Point polling site. From 6 a.m. to 7:10 a.m., voters in Lukachukai were unable to cast their ballots due to printer malfunctions. Despite Apache County's claims that the issues were resolved promptly early in the day, problems persisted throughout the entire voting process.

“At 1:17 p.m. a Navajo voter called our hotline to report that he was at the Wheatfields polling location and that a lot of voters were leaving without voting because the ballot printers were down,” Dolan wrote.

Dolan wrote that at 2:15 p.m., volunteer Drew Cooper was at the Teec Nos Pos polling location and said that polls were down. By 2:44 p.m., Cooper called back to say Teec Nos Pos was out of printed provisional ballots.

“Our volunteer reported that 120 people voted provisionally and 30 provisional ballots remained with no working printer,” Dolan wrote. “Voters were waiting in line for over 25 minutes in 40-degree weather.”

Rock Point voter Johnny Descheny reported that although he intended to vote at 9:40 a.m., he had to wait in line and was not able to cast his ballot until 12:40 p.m. He noted that he used an “electronic vote machine” because the polling site had run out of paper ballots. Additionally, Descheny claimed that when a new batch of ballots arrived, it only included the propositions section, omitting the candidates' page.

The Navajo Nation Department of Justice will hold a public meeting in Chinle on Monday for those who experienced Apache County’s Election Day failures.

“I am proud of the work they were able to help support the extension at those locations,” Slater said. “I am dissatisfied that all locations weren’t extended for two hours. I don't understand how in a county where there are two Navajos, they have the majority on the board of supervisors, they live on the reservation and they know what our people confront and they talk about supporting democratic values and government and meaningful democratic participation, that they would try to diminish our people's ability to cast a ballot; it makes no sense to me. This is not a decision made by administrators, bureaucrats; this is a decision made by the elected leaders of the county.”

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(This story has been updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Navajo leaders demand answers about Apache County election chaos