Nick Hytrek
Sioux City Journal
OMAHA — The Winnebago and Omaha tribes have reached an agreement with Thurston County in which Native Americans would make up a majority of voters in five of seven county board of supervisors districts.
The plan does not displace any current supervisors from their districts, giving incumbents the chance to run for re-election in their present districts when their current terms are on the ballot in 2024 or 2026.
Also of importance, the redrawn districts, the tribes and county agree, comply with the Voting Rights Act. The tribes had argued in a lawsuit that the current map violated the law and was approved by the board to ensure white politicians maintain control in a county in which Natives make up a majority of the voting-age population.
The agreement awaits a federal judge's signature on a consent decree that would lead to the adoption of the new district plan and the lawsuit's dismissal.
Representatives of the tribes and the civil rights groups that represented them could not be reached for comment Monday.
County board chairman Glen Meyer said he did not want to comment on the settlement until everything has been finalized.
The tribes and nine individuals sued Thurston County, the seven county board members and the county clerk in January in U.S. District Court in Omaha for the alleged Voting Rights Act violations, saying the current district map approved in 2022 does not provide Native voters a fair chance to elect candidates of their choice in at least four of the districts.
Natives make up 50.3% of the voting age population, compared with 43% of whites, in Thurston County, which is home to both the Winnebago and Omaha Indian reservations. Other races make up the remainder of the county's population. Because of their majority, the tribes said in the lawsuit, Natives should have a legitimate chance to elect representatives in at least four districts, but the current plan gives them a clear majority in only three.
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Though Natives have a slight majority in two other districts, the lawsuit said, those districts were drawn purposely by non-Native board members to take advantage of traditional low Native voter turnout, making them safe for white incumbents. The current board currently has two members who are Natives and five who are white.
The county denied the discrimination claims and argued that the redrawn districts, which were drawn by an independent vendor, met Voting Rights Act requirements.
The new districts were used in the 2022 election cycle, in which no Native candidates ran in three of the four districts up for election.
Under the agreed-upon redistricting, Natives would have a majority of voters in five districts. Natives would have majorities of 95% and 87% in districts that include Macy and Winnebago, respectively. Native majorities in the other three districts would be 74%, 69% and 53%. In the remaining two districts, white voters would have majorities of 94% and 85%.
Under terms of the agreement, the county does not admit the current map violates state or federal law but acknowledges a judge could order the county to redraw the map when considering the evidence.
Once a judge issues a consent decree to approve the new districts, the county will have 30 days to adopt the plan. The new districts would be in place for the 2024 election, when three board seats are up for election. The plan will remain in effect until at least after the 2030 Census, when population shifts could cause the districts to be redrawn.
The current voting rights lawsuit is the third the tribes have filed against Thurston County. In 1978, the Justice Department sued the county over its at-large method of electing supervisors. A consent decree in that case resulted in the current seven-district format. A second lawsuit stemmed from redistricting after the 1990 Census that diluted Native voting strength by not creating a third district in which Natives had an effective majority.
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