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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES BLAINE COUNTY, MONTANA OVER

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- A Montana county was sued today because its method of electing its governing body does not provide an equal opportunity for Native American citizens to participate in the electoral process, the Justice Department announced.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Great Falls, Montana, alleges that the at-large method used to elect the Board of Commissioners in Blaine County, Montana, violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it dilutes the voting strength of Native Americans. Today's lawsuit is the result of an extensive investigation conducted by the Civil Rights Division into the county's electoral practices and history.

"The Voting Rights Act guarantees that all citizens have the right to fully participate in the democratic process," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "We hope that today's lawsuit will help bring down the barriers preventing Blaine County Native American citizens from having an equal opportunity to elect a representative to the Board of Commissioners."

Although Native American citizens make up more than 38% of the total population of Blaine County, a Native American candidate has never been elected to or served on the three member Blaine County Commission. Under the current at-large method of election, each of the Board members is elected in a countywide election, although candidates qualify to run for the Board on the basis of three residential districts. The Justice Department's analysis of previous county elections found that although Native American voters in Blaine County are politically cohesive, white voters, who form a majority of the county's electorate, usually vote as a bloc to defeat the Native American community's candidate of choice. This racially polarized voting, in combination with the use of an at-large election system, results in a dilution of the voting strength of Native American voters in Blaine County in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Today's lawsuit seeks a change in the method of electing the Board of Commissioners in Blaine County that would give minority voters an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.

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