Sunrise Precinct Project
Sunrise Precinct Project Aims to Remove Voting Barriers for White Mountain Apache Tribal Members
Whiteriver Arizona is the heart of the White Mountain Apache Nation. Whiteriver and the surrounding communities are home to 17,000 citizens of the White Mountain Apache Nation. However, there is no Arizona Motor Vehicle Department office in the area, close by. Meaning community members must travel more than an hour each way to update or apply for their license or state issued ID. These IDs are Arizona’s gold standard for voter identification. We know this lack of services acts as a barrier for voting because 80 people were turned away from the polls in November 2022 for not possessing adequate ID. Eighty (80) people made a plan to vote, traveled to the single polling location in Whiteriver, waited in line and were ultimately turned away, not because they were ineligible to vote, but because Arizona’s voter ID laws are in place to disenfranchise voters.
