Flashbacks Valvaka 2020

The Navajo and Hopi nations stretch across parts of Coconino, Navajo and Apache counties. Of Navajo County's 108,000 residents, 43% are Native American. Of Apache County’s population of about 71,000, Native Americans make up 73%.

ASU law student MacArthur Stant, a volunteer with the Arizona Native Vote Elections Protection Project, was also out visiting polling places on the Hopi Nation. He stopped in Polacca and Sipaulovi

The project is part of the ASU Indian Law Clinic and provides resources to tribes and tribal citizens in Arizona, “to ensure access to the polls and to prevent voter disenfranchisement,” the project's website says.

At the polling stations, Stant said he saw a steady flow of voters throughout the day.

“It’s been very exciting. A lot of first-time voters and it feels as if those first-time voters are going to stay voters,” Stant said. He noticed a lot of the first-time voters are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

“These are people who haven’t voted in their life and they’re starting to see the value and importance of it,” he added. “I think as a whole this starting to be very important.”

For state elections, there were 14 Native candidates on ballots across Arizona and 11 of them won their election.