{"id":16117,"date":"2016-12-01T23:21:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16117"},"modified":"2023-09-11T23:32:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T23:32:02","slug":"nnhrc-wants-to-keep-benally-as-defendant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2016\/12\/01\/nnhrc-wants-to-keep-benally-as-defendant\/","title":{"rendered":"NNHRC wants to keep Benally as defendant"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY KRISTA ALLEN
\n<\/strong>WESTERN AGENCY BUREAU
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

OLJATO-MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah<\/strong> \u2013 The Navajo Nation Hu- man Rights Commission is urg- ing a Utah federal court not to let San Juan County Commis- sioner Rebecca Benally escape part of a lawsuit challenging the county\u2019s predominantly mail-in voting system as detri- mental to Utah Din\u00e9 voters.<\/p>\n

The NNHRC along with seven Din\u00e9 individuals, including Mark Maryboy, earlier this year filed suit against the county and some of its officials \u2013 namely, Benally; two other commissioners, Bruce Adams and Phil Lyman; and clerk-au- ditor John David Nielson \u2013 al- leging that the county\u2019s voting procedures violate the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Con- stitution by hindering Din\u00e9 citizens\u2019 ability to participate in the political process on equal terms with non-Native voters.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs had hoped to force the county to put new voting procedures into place before the recent general elec- tion by challenging the mail- in voting system, which was implemented in 2014 by former clerk-auditor Norman Johnson and closed all but one physical polling location on the Nation side of the county.<\/p>\n

A set of procedures imple- mented over the summer main- tained that system but opened three physical polling locations and provided Navajo language assistance to voters.<\/p>\n

Under Utah law, the county clerk-auditor is responsible for the administration of elections and, at his or her discretion, can conduct elections by mail.<\/p>\n

Now, the plaintiffs are oppos- ing Benally\u2019s motion for partial summary judgment on their second claim for relief, which asserts that the county\u2019s voting system violates the Voting Rights Act section that abridges voting procedures that discrim- inate against race and color.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs included Benal- ly as a defendant because they say she, as a county commis- sioner, bears responsibility for maintaining the voting system and has failed to reopen polling places in the county.<\/p>\n

In court documents, Benally asks to be released from the suit, countering that \u201cThe (commissioners) have no authority over the manner in which elections are conducted, and (Benally) was not even a county commissioner when (Johnson) instituted mail-in ballots in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benally, the only Navajo on the county commission, ar- gued that the administration of elections is the exclusive responsibility of the clerk-au- ditor, that she played no role in deciding the county\u2019s election procedures, including Johnson\u2019s decision to implement a mail-in voting system in 2014, and that she did not take office until 2015.<\/p>\n

Benally asked for a summary judgment on the second claim \u201cbecause she had no personal involvement in the San Juan County clerk-auditor\u2019s decision to implement or modify the county\u2019s voting procedures.\u201d The plaintiffs disputed that assertion.<\/p>\n

Lawyers on the case stated that by suing Benally in her official capacity, the plaintiffs would be suing the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fact alone shows that her argument is misguided and her motion meritless because any particular officeholder\u2019s involvement in the county\u2019s election procedure decisions is beside the point \u2013 the commis- sioner\u2019s office is being sued for a county decision,\u201d states a Nov. 11 brief. \u201cAny order against the county commissioners in their official capacities will be against the county itself, and the county is the entity respon- sible for making sure that any order is followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Benally were correct in her claim that the commis- sioners must have a role in election decisions to be properly named as a defendant, \u201cthey have such a role,\u201d the plaintiffs contend.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs note Utah state statue delineates several county commission powers that affect voting procedures, such as approving election-related budgets, that give rise to a rea- sonable inference that commis- sioners have a meaningful role in election procedure, including whether a mail-in voting sys- tem is appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis conclusion is bolstered by the fact that the other two county commissioners, (Lyman and Adams), have not claimed that they are entitled to summa- ry judgment on plaintiffs\u2019 second claim for relief,\u201d the brief states. \u201cBoth were members of the coun- ty commission in 2014 when San Juan County\u2019s mail-only election system was implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Jill N. Parrish in October denied the plaintiffs\u2019 request for a prelimi- nary injunction against imple- menting the new voting rules for the November election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY KRISTA ALLEN WESTERN AGENCY BUREAU OLJATO-MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah \u2013 The Navajo Nation Hu- man Rights Commission is urg- ing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16119,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16117\/revisions\/16119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}