Overview:
The commentary argues that voting rights are under coordinated attack ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, with communities of color—particularly Native voters—at heightened risk of disenfranchisement. It connects redistricting efforts with new restrictions on mail-in voting and argues that these measures could create confusion and barriers for voters who depend on absentee ballots.
Guest Opinion
Racism used to disrupt the midterm election.
Immediately after the unelected right-wing majority on the Supreme Court dismantled vital voting rights protections, state legislatures across the South implemented district maps designed to deny the power of voters of color to elect candidates who share our lived experiences.
Now the president is ramping up his attacks on our right to mail-in voting, despite continually voting by mail himself.
On Monday. the Supreme Court allowed the U.S. Postal Service to proceed in implementing his executive order that would severely restrict mail-in voting — before the midterm elections.
This could create chaos and disenfranchisement of millions who rely on voting by mail, especially Tribal members living on reservations.
Native peoples’ right to vote is intertwined with our right to sovereignty and self-governance over our lands, our communities, and our resources.
Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund will keep working with Tribal Nations, Native voters, and community partners to protect the shared right to vote, expand self-governance and access to the ballot, ensure our voices are heard, and build a more deeply democratic society for all — where Native voters have equal access to voting and can participate in the decisions that affect our lives.
That includes supporting the recently introduced resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives, which calls for urgent action to:
- Restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act to enforce our shared constitutional rights
- End racial discrimination in voting and representation
- Guarantee every eligible voter’s ability to participate
- Structurally reform the corrupt Supreme Court, including a binding ethics code and term limits
Speak up now to urge your U.S. Representative to support and pass this resolution right away.
To overcome chaos, totalitarianism, and repression, we must build a majority movement, which can leverage our community power to show our elected officials that a multiracial mass movement is growing and is taking action. We’re helping grow this movement together.
Judith LeBlanc (Caddo), executive director of Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, whixh is a partner to Native Organizers Alliance.
