Curley urges Navajo voters to protect access and turnout

At a Navajo Voters Coalition conference in Window Rock, Crystalyne Curley pressed a message that reached well beyond tribal politics: protecting voting access is a local issue in McKinley County, where Gallup is the county seat and Navajo communities help decide close races at every level. Curley said Navajo voters have shaped tribal, county, state and federal elections, and she urged community leaders, youth and chapter officials to keep voter education moving before the next election cycle.

Her warning focused on barriers that sound bureaucratic but land hard in rural life. In March, the 25th Navajo Nation Council formally opposed the federal SAVE Act, and Curley sponsored the council action. The council said the proposal could disproportionately burden Navajo voters, especially elders who were not born in hospitals and may not have birth certificates. It also said some voters could face travel of more than 100 miles to comply, with gas prices on the Navajo Nation averaging around $4 per gallon.

That matters in McKinley County, where the 2020 Census counted 72,902 residents across 5,451.1 square miles, and where the Navajo Nation CCD covers 1,029.2 square miles with a population of about 10,084. In a county that stretches from Gallup to Zuni and into wide rural areas, distance alone can make registration and ballot access harder for elders, working families and residents without reliable transportation. New Mexico Secretary of State results showed the state’s June 2 primary drew 24.60 percent turnout statewide, underscoring how much room remains to expand participation.

Curley also tied voting access to everyday issues that shape life in Native communities, including health care, education, water rights and economic development. The Navajo Nation Election Administration says it provides voter registration for Navajo Nation elections and helps residents pick up Arizona, Utah or New Mexico state registration forms to mail to county or state offices, a practical reminder that tribal and state election systems overlap here.

The coalition’s own conference packet showed how broad the work has become, with discussion of rural addressing, voter registration, plus codes, redistricting outcomes, voting rights, bills and voter initiatives. It also recalled the 2014 controversy in which nine Navajo Board of Election Supervisors members were removed four days before the general election, a reminder that election administration can be fragile. Curley’s push, and the coalition’s organizing, point to the same conclusion: turnout in McKinley County will depend on whether residents can register, reach polling places and cast ballots without unnecessary obstacles.