In tight vote, Navajo voters approve language fluency requirement changes

Navajo Nation voters on Tuesday approved a change to the election code that would give the Navajo people the say over whether or not candidates for official offices speak and understand the language well enough to hold office.

The vote was tight, with 13,017 voting to change the language requirements and 11,778 voting to keep them the same.

Current Navajo law says candidates for the Nation’s highest offices, including president and vice president, must speak fluent Navajo.

The language requirement was the crux of an argument against former Navajo presidential candidate Chris Deschene, who was barred from running for office in the official presidential election because he was deemed not-fluent in Navajo despite winning the presidential primary election.

The new rules will go into effect starting with the 2018 election.

Lawmakers approved the vote after changes to the fluency requirement failed through other legislation.

More than 122,000 Navajos were registered to vote Tuesday, but only 21 percent of them voted.