To the editor:
August 2025 marks 65 years since the Voting Rights Act came into law and changed the course of history communities of interest like tribes. For the first time, we had federal protections that ensured we could participate fully in elections and choose our own representatives.
This is how I was elected. Under the Voting Rights Act, our tribal nations were protected from barriers that for generations diluted our votes and silenced our voices. It gave us the ability to elect people who understand our communities, our challenges, and our vision for the future.
“Though we fall directly under our tribal government, it is important to vote in statewide and federal elections, this is how we protect our sovereignty, defend our communities, and shape the future for our children. I will stand against any action that tries to take us backward. Our voices matter, and they will be heard.”
Now dangerous legal developments threaten those hard-won rights, if the legal challenges are allowed to set back the current voting maps, it would erase a critical path for ordinary citizens and tribal nations to challenge attacks on our representation. These efforts are a direct assault on our voices and our ability to govern ourselves.
I will always stand for the Voting Rights Act because it’s not just law. It’s how our communities send their own champions to serve them. And it’s how democracy must work in North Dakota.
Representative Lisa Finley-DeVille, District 4A, Mandaree
