With the November midterm elections now less than five weeks away, a new report warned Colorado’s Native voters continue to face numerous roadblocks at the ballot box.

The report tapped federal data from the past three general elections. In one example, voter registration applications were rejected by an average of 200% more in counties where tribal members make up at least a quarter of the population.

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Allison Neswood, senior staff attorney for the Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund, said the report confirmed what Native communities have long known to be true.

"Their registration is getting denied, their ballots (are) getting rejected and all of this really adds up to the systemic disenfranchisement of our people in our own homelands," Neswood asserted.

The report outlined how disruptions at the U.S. Postal Service had a significant effect on Native voters. Even as overall mail-in voting numbers declined between 2020 and 2024, the rejection rate of ballots in areas with larger Native populations increased by 134%.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order calling on the Postal Service to oversee mail-in ballots, a move plaintiffs successfully argued would have severely restricted voting by mail.

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A recent MIT study found no evidence of fraud at a scale actually affecting election outcomes. Neswood believes partisan actors are intentionally pushing a false narrative around votes cast by mail.

"It feels like an effort to sow doubt, which impacts the outcome of elections is the systematic disenfranchisement of groups that are already disempowered in our society," Neswood contended.

The report’s recommendations include expanding automatic and same-day registration to areas with larger Native populations and paying poll workers comparable wages. Neswood argued more investment is needed for voting infrastructure in Indian Country.

"Making sure that our Native communities have polling locations in a reasonable distance from where they live, making sure they have registration opportunities, making sure that they can participate in mail voting," Neswood urged.