by Candice Norwood
For many Native Americans living on tribal reservations, a home address is not a standard number and street name, like 735 Bleeker Street. Instead, it’s a series of instructions.
“They’ll say something like, I live off highway 86 by milepost 125 and a half,” said Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and a Democratic candidate for Pima County recorder in Arizona.
These “nontraditional addresses” complicate things for indigenous voters during a time when the majority of states have moved to voting by mail to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. A record number of Americans are expected to vote by mail in the November election. States like Nevada, Idaho, Montana and South Dakota, which all include large stretches of tribal land, held their primary elections almost entirely by mail.
While these states will offer in-person voting options in November, the prioritization of mailed ballots creates hurdles for indigenous people — about 4.7 million of whom are of voting age — who already faced voting obstacles prior to the pandemic.
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Question
Read this evidence from the passage.
“States like Nevada, Idaho, Montana and South Dakota, which all include large stretches of tribal land, held their primary elections almost entirely by mail.”
The author provides this evidence to support which idea in the passage?
Responses
a. Even before the pandemic began, residents living on reservations found voting by mail difficult.
b. Voting by mail became the main way to vote in many state elections because of the coronavirus.
c. Rather than consisting of a standard number and street name, the addresses of many Native Americans are instructions.
d. The nontraditional addresses of many Native Americans living on tribal reservations make voting by mail difficult.
3 answers
The correct response is:
d. The nontraditional addresses of many Native Americans living on tribal reservations make voting by mail difficult.
This choice aligns with the broader theme of the passage regarding the challenges indigenous voters face, particularly in the context of voting by mail.
Response b, "Voting by mail became the main way to vote in many state elections because of the coronavirus," is also a valid statement based on the passage. It supports the idea that states shifted to mail-in voting in response to the pandemic.
However, the evidence provided specifically mentions states conducting their primary elections almost entirely by mail, which serves more directly to illustrate the challenges faced by Native Americans with nontraditional addresses.
While both responses (b and d) are relevant to the context of the passage, response d is more directly supported by the statement provided, as it ties directly to the challenges faced by indigenous voters when voting by mail due to their nontraditional addresses. Thus, while b is a correct observation regarding the context of voting by mail, d is the best answer specifically related to the evidence given.
