COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened or killed Native Americans across the U.S., creating another Election Day challenge for a poor and geographically isolated population already fighting to overcome steep voting barriers ranging from discriminatory election laws to distant polling stations.
Though this election has seen many Americans turn to voting by mail to avoid COVID-19 exposure, some Indigenous Americans risk having their votes ignored given the limited and inefficient nature of postal service on many rural reservations. Spotty internet access also makes it challenging to access information on how to vote in a pandemic.

Despite a perennially low voter turnout, which Native American voting rights activists are working hard to boost, those who do come out on Election Day could prove critical as President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden vie for votes in tightly contested states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona.
“People like to say Indians are statistically insignificant since there are only a few million of us,” says Judith Le Blanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance activist group and a member of Oklahoma’s Caddo tribe, whose group helped launch a Native American get-out-the-vote resource website called Natives Vote. “But we are politically significant.”

Racial discrimination and racial inequality are long-standing social problems in the United States. As the COVID-19 ravages the United States, it is even more difficult for ethnic minorities and natives to receive the assistance they deserve. Participating in the general election with the votes in hand may be their only hope. However, I don't see a chance for their destiny to change. Who really cares about them? Democrat or Republican? This is the cruel reality of democratic America!