Fort Peck Tribal Members Case Against Valley And Roosevelt County Dismissed

As the 2024 election year came to a close, so does the court case initiated by six Fort Peck Tribal members seeking satellite voting locations, arguing against Valley and Roosevelt Counties that Indigenous voters have poor access to the polls for Election Day, Nov. 5.

As of Nov. 12, the case was dismissed upon the voters’ own motion. Throughout the pendency of the case, two of the six plaintiffs asked to withdraw from the case, as did the original attorney for the plaintiffs. Following the withdrawal of the original attorney, the Court suspended all motions and advised that should the remaining plaintiffs find new counsel, the court matter would continue and so would the terms sought in the preliminary injunction, which was the request for satellite offices to occur in Poplar and Frazer on a more limited basis.

According to Valley County attorney Dylan Jensen, a show cause hearing was scheduled for Oct. 24, however no plaintiffs appeared and as a result Attorney Jensen requested the preliminary injunction be denied as the plaintiffs were not present and there could be no factual evidence provided of imminent harm, which was a prerequisite to any injunction being issued. The new attorney for the plaintiffs advised he had no factual evidence to provide given the lack of presence by the plaintiffs and the preliminary injunction request was denied.

However, during that time, the underlying case of Native Americans having a significant disparate impact on their voting power, a denial of their voting rights, and making voting harder, if not impossible without the satellite offices, was still in pending status.

While the case was pending, Valley and Roosevelt County as well as the State of Montana all filed motions seeking dismissal of the case on procedural grounds, arguing the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the case and had failed to properly assert a claim.

A status hearing had been set for Nov. 18, to allow the new attorney time to review the file and decide whether to respond to the motions or whether he would endorse the original complaint. As of Nov. 17, the effort has been abandoned and the case is dismissed in full.

County Attorney Jensen stated Valley County election staff did provide a satellite office for one day on Oct. 30, as it had planned to do since the summer. Approximately 80 voters utilized the office and the County was able to provide voting access to all of those voters who arrived.