Here’s a story that if true, remains on no pundit’s radar screen: Might Native American vote be the decider in the race for Alaska senator? Author Mark Trahant, a member of the Shoshone and Bannock Tribes, writes that ‘the only way Lisa Murkowski returns to that office is if Alaska Native voters turn out in large numbers and write her name on the ballot.’ For Native American newspaper Indian Country Today, Mark Trahant writes in part:
Here is one prediction you won’t read in the press: Not a single poll will capture what’s going on with Indian country voters during this election cycle. The science of polling doesn’t work very well with small population groups living in rural or isolated locations.
The Alaska Federation of Natives last week endorsed Murkowski by acclamation at its annual convention in Fairbanks. … If AFN delegates can translate their organizational support into community support on Election Day, then Senator Murkowski will be re-elected.
“It’s estimated that Alaska Natives constitute 14 percent of the statewide adult population. If all Natives voted during a normal turnout year (in which 55 percent of non-Natives voted), approximately 25 percent of the electorate at the polls would be Native,” according to the Alaska Native Vote website. “This voting bloc would be more powerful than the Republican vote (24 percent), the Democratic vote (16 percent), and the non-partisan vote (14 percent) in Alaska.
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