Obstacles to Democratic Participation: Native American Voting Rights and Political Culture in Polarized Societies

Racial minorities in the United States often face obstacles in their effort to cast a vote in elections. Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, minorities face disenfranchisement tactics, which include gerrymandering, strict voter ID laws, and voter intimidation. The most affected racial group is Native Americans because they face additional unique and systemic obstacles to voting, rooted in cultural, linguistic, and geographical factors. Many Native Americans, particularly those who live on tribal reservations, have distinctive political cultures and unique issues. Many tribal lands are also remote from urban centers where polling places are located, and therefore voters must travel great distances to exercise their right to vote. Absentee voting is often not a solution to these problems, as many houses in tribal communities do not have personal mailboxes or physical addresses. Thus, this paper asks: How do the structural and cultural barriers to voting experienced by Native Americans reflect broader polarization and eroding democratic norms in the United States? This paper focuses on political culture in the United States by examining the interplay between polarization, democratic resilience, and marginalized communities’ political engagement. The study builds on literature examining the erosion of democratic norms and voter suppression in polarized contexts, particularly in the United States. Scholars such as Carol Anderson argue that voter suppression is not a relic of the past but rather a deliberate strategy employed to maintain political power by disenfranchising certain groups. However, existing literature often overlooks the distinctive challenges faced by Native Americans. This paper examines these unique barriers within broader debate about political culture, polarization, and disenfranchisement. Based on the data from American National Elections Studies’ (ANES) research of public opinion and electoral behavior, the paper analyzes trends in voting participation and barriers among racial minorities, with a focus on Native Americans. The paper compares challenges faced by Native Americans to those experienced by other racial minorities, contextualizing these within broader trends of political polarization and erosion of democratic norms in the United States. The research will use data regression analysis based on the data from the ANES study for the period from 2016 to 2024. The analysis will try to identify key predictors of voting obstacles while controlling for socioeconomic variables. By isolating these variables, the paper will try to determine how unique factors contribute to voting difficulties for Native Americans, compared to other racial minorities. Since Native Americans are often underrepresented in ANES studies, the results and findings of this research will try to identify significant trends rather than making generalizations. The research expects findings that Native Americans face distinct barriers to exercising their voting rights, shaped by both structural inequalities and cultural factors. It argues that these barriers are part of a broader trend in the United States, where racial minorities experience disproportionate impacts of democratic backsliding. Additionally, the study contributes to the understanding of political culture of Native American communities.