Tribal voting rights case settled, Washoe County pays the most

The parties involved in a voter discrimination lawsuit between two Native American tribes and state and county officials was settled for almost half of what the tribes’ lawyers requested, with Washoe County paying the most.

The Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute tribes won a case in federal court against Washoe and Mineral counties and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s office on Oct. 7 for early polling and Election Day voting sites on the reservations. The tribes’ lawyers initially requested $117,000 in costs, but the suit was eventually settled for $60,000. Washoe County is on the hook for $25,000 with the state’s split at $20,000 and Mineral County at $15,000.

“We felt the $25,000 was fair in terms of the total amount of attorney’s fees that they asked. The focus was on Washoe County,” said Michael Large, the Washoe County assistant district attorney who defended the county in court.

The plaintiffs projected costs for the counties to comply from the onset was $10,000 total.

Related:Judge rules partially in favor of tribes in federal suit

Related: Fighting tribal voting rights suit might cost taxpayers $117k

“This was never about money. This was about process,” Large said. “This was about a last-minute attempt to change Washoe County. If they had come to us earlier, we’d have had the capability of doing a lot of things, but it was very difficult for the registrar’s office of Washoe County.”

Bret Healy, a consultant with the Native American advocacy group Four Directions who headed the suit for the tribes, agreed that the settlement was fair, but questioned the motive behind the initial denial from the counties.

“The purpose of the lawsuit from the plaintiff’s perspective was to achieve equal access to the ballot box that did not exist prior to this lawsuit being filed,” he said. “While Washoe County and Mineral County claimed this couldn’t be done at such a late date, the proof is in the pudding. The satellite office in Nixon and Schurz moved smooth as silk. It was not a hard thing to do.”

Part of the settlement also includes an agreement by the counties to work with the tribes in the future on voting sites in future general elections, a point both Healy and Large stressed as a key win for everyone involved.

“There is a working strategy going forward for 2018 and beyond and we expect that ultimately it will be an acceptable agreement for tribal members on those two reservations and lays the groundwork for further equal access for other Native Americans living on reservations in Nevada,” Healy said.

As part of the settlement, the parties were supposed to release a joint statement announcing the settlement, which was never sent out.

Large said he was under the impression the statement was supposed to come from the secretary of state’s office and did not know why it was never released. The secretary of state’s and attorney general’s offices declined to comment.

Healy said they couldn’t come up with agreed upon language for the statement.

“The reason there wasn’t a joint statement is that there was not agreement on the language of the joint statement and that is because the secretary of state’s office did not want to have the word ‘equal’ twice in the news release and, most specifically, did not want the characterization of the plaintiffs seeking equal access,” he said. “That was the hang-up and that was the language that they wouldn’t accept and the plaintiffs wouldn’t accept less than they were seeking equal access.”

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Like him on Facebook here or follow him on Twitter at @SethARichardson.