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Tuesday is voting day across Wyoming, and voters everywhere are making decisions about which candidates to back, what issues are most pressing and how to get to the polls.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards spoke with four likely voters at the Black Coal Senior Center on the Wind River Reservation to hear their thoughts. We talked with Gail Ridgely, Roberta Behan, Victoria Moss and Wally, who declined to give his last name.
Gail Ridgely: I'm a Democrat, so I'll just vote straight across Democrat.
Melodie Edwards: Are there any particular issues that you're hoping people will address this time around?
GR: End the war.
ME: The Iran war?
GR: Yeah.
ME: Is there anybody you're excited to vote for?
Roberta Behan: No, I haven't seen any candidates. The only one that I really want to vote for is Sergio Maldonado.
ME: Because he's running for superintendent of the schools?
RB: I just really believe in Sergio and what he does and how he communicates with the community.
Victoria Moss: Oh, I believe [Sergio Maldonado will] do a good job and that he's Native American. We need a Native American in the state of Wyoming to help us Natives here on the Wind River Reservation.
ME: Is there anything you were hoping that he could do for schools on the reservation?
VM: A lot more culture. Native American culture, Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho culture – bring some of that into the schools, because it's really important. And then get these advocates, like our elders, to come into the schools, and it could just be for the children, because we know our Native ways, and it would be more comfortable.
GR: Our programs are being cut. They're threatening to be cut more. They are to be cut on national level, all tribal programs are. The poorest group of people are tribal people, just like us here. Most impoverished people live on reservations. I have two degrees. I have a BA and a master's. I’m a retired principal. I look at those kinds of disparities of funding. I grew up about 20 miles up here with my grandmother, and we were so poor at the time. Eddie Murphy has that old saying, "We're so poor I can't pay attention," you know?
ME: Do you think you'll vote?
Wally: Probably not. You’ve got to be registered and all that, too. Yeah, that's another thing. See, I’ve got a state ID. I gave them the wrong address, so they took it back. So I’m waiting on that. See, I was gonna do something with it too, but it was expired, so that's another thing.
GR: We go to Fremont County and Lander and Riverton to vote.
ME: Do you still drive? Are you able to get yourself there okay?
GR: Yeah, I drive. I have real bad arthritis in one of my knees, and it kind of slows me down.
VM: I'd like to go there if I only had transportation.
ME: You don't drive?
VM: Well, I do. My car is broke down. Because I'm one of them that always relies on transportation, and our elders out there, they can't drive, and we really need that support.
ME: Are you going to do early voting or go on voting day?
RB: Voting day, but I would like to know more about [early voting]. I don't know how to do that, so if there was more info on how to do that. I don't know. It kind of sounds hard, kind of time-consuming. But then so is going to the polls.
VM: I wish I could read up on some of the politicians, but all I can do is pray that God will help each and every one of them do their best job that they could do.
GR: Hopefully they vote with a conscience about helping people rather than just a certain group of people. You know what I mean?
ME: That’s what you’re hoping for?
GR: Yeah.
