Ballot Collection and Native American Voters: An Assessment of Benefits and Costs

Abstract

This article assesses the benefits and alleged costs of ballot collection on Indian reservations. Using the conceptual frame of the “cost of voting,” the research analyzes the impact of ballot collection by examining trends in vote-by-mail programs, socioeconomic variables, distance to polls and mail locations, and US Postal Service delivery on Indian reservations. It then uses a statistical analysis to test the claim that ballot collection leads to voter fraud. Our analysis reveals that ballot collection offers significant opportunities to reduce inequality in voter costs for Native American voters but finds no support for the hypothesis that ballot collection leads to fraud. These findings have significant implications for the voting rights of Native Americans, who tend to rely on ballot collection more than other voters. This research also offers a modification to the concept of voter costs.