Judge selects legislative district map in tribal voting rights case

A federal judge has taken the task of drawing legislative district lines away from North Dakota lawmakers and into his own hands to ensure tribes get fair representation. 

U.S. District Judge Peter Welte on Monday ruled that a redistricting plan known as Map 2 from a previous ruling will be used for the 2024 election, putting the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Nation in the same legislative district. 

The tribes had sued the state, arguing that the legislative maps drawn in 2021 violated the Voting Rights Act by not putting the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake reservations in the same district, thus diluting the voting power of Native Americans.

Welte on Nov. 17 ruled in favor of the tribes, giving the Legislature until Dec. 22 to come up with a redistricting plan that would comply with the Voting Rights Act. Legislators missed that deadline, prompting Welte to choose from one of two maps included as options in his ruling. 

It is now up to the North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe to comply. However, his office has filed an appeal of Welte’s ruling with the Eighth District Court of Appeals.  Howe did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

“The time has come for the Legislature and the Secretary of State to stop spending taxpayer dollars litigating against fair maps in North Dakota,” attorney Tim Purdon, who represents the tribes, said in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor.   

In written testimony to the Legislature’s Redistricting Committee, tribal leaders said state Sen. Richard Marcellais of Belcourt lost reelection in 2022 because of racial bloc voting in Towner and Cavalier counties after legislative district lines were redrawn in 2021. 

Turtle Mountain Chairman Jamie Azure and Spirit Lake Chairwoman Lonna Street said Native American voters in northeastern North Dakota should have the fair opportunity to elect two representatives and a senator. “A unified district that combines Rolette and Benson Counties — and thus the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake reservations — achieves that legal requirement.”

Both maps in the judge’s order connect the two reservations with a corridor of land between. 

The Turtle Mountain Reservation had been given its own subdistrict, District 9A, in 2021. Spirit Lake was within District 15.

Map options

Map 2, specified in Welte’s order, affects Districts 9, 15 and 14. Welte’s order said the map fits the population requirements and aligns with traditional redistricting principles.

P106 - Plaintiffs' Demonstrative Plan 2 Map

Map 1 would have affected Districts 9, 15, 14 and 29. Redistricting Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Sorvaag, R-Fargo, was critical of the map for splitting Rolla, in Rolette County, away from Turtle Mountain, even though Census data showed more than 500 Native Americans in Rolla and it had been historically included in the same district as Turtle Mountain. 

Map 2 keeps Rolla with the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Map 1 provided a wider corridor connecting the two reservations, giving less of a “dumbbell” look that legislators say they had been advised to avoid when drawing district lines. 

After Welte’s Nov. 17 ruling, legislators had created two more alternatives and were scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider those options further. The legislative calendar shows that meeting has been postponed. 

2021 legislation

In an effort to give tribal members a fair shot at representation, legislators in 2021 created Subdistrict 9A for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and a subdistrict for the Fort Berthold Reservation. 

Sorvaag said legislators looked at creating a subdistrict for Spirit Lake, but the Census numbers did not support one. 

2 tribal redistricting maps introduced; judge’s maps criticized

Sorvaag defended the work of the Redistricting Committee in 2021, when Census data was behind schedule because of COVID-19. 

Even though the process was rushed, “We were thorough,” he said Dec. 13. “We were public.” 

Legislators said Map 2 was presented to the committee late in the 2021 process and it had not seen Map 1 before Welte’s ruling. 

Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck said during the Dec. 20 redistricting meeting that Map 2 was brought to legislators “in bad faith.” 

“They wanted to sue us,” Nathe said. 

The tribal leaders questioned the efforts of legislators. 

“There is no evidence in the legislative record that the Legislature or the Redistricting Committee engaged a VRA (Voting Rights Act)  expert to conduct its own analysis, which could have corroborated the Tribes’ analysis and perhaps prevented this violation from occurring in the first place,” Azure and Street said in written testimony.