The Office of Congressional & Legislative Affairs is launching a survey of Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community members to learn about their voting patterns and what gets them to the polls on Election Day. 

During the senior breakfast hosted by the SRPMIC Senior Services program on May 3 at the Talking Stick Resort, OCLA Intergovernmental Relations Project Manager Angela Willeford provided a brief presentation on the survey to the seniors. 

“Last year was the Arizona election for governor and other positions … we had a turnout of only 34%,” said Willeford. She said there was an increase in promoting voter participation through a coordinated campaign for Community members, but there is room to improve. To help boost voter turnout, one way is to understand how and why SPRMIC members vote. 

Last year’s “Get out the Vote” campaign implemented a door-to-door voter registration drive, an online portal to access information via a QR scan, and a comprehensive voter guide disseminated to the Community through O’odham Action News. The previous voter campaign also took advantage of current trends in Indigenous communities by using the tagline “SkoVoteDen,” which was meant to attract younger voters. 

“What better way than to ask our Community members what can we do better to make sure that our [voter] turnout for the next year is higher?” asked Willeford, noting that Americans across the nation will be heading to the polls for the next presidential election in 2024.