BLAINE CO. — Three Blaine County voters filed suit Wednesday, Nov. 4, asking a federal judge to order a new county commission map ahead of the 2028 election.
William White, Avis Ball and Franklin Nezperce, all enrolled members of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, allege the map the county adopted in 2024 violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee by giving voters in some districts more influence than in others.
Each of Blaine County’s three districts elects one commissioner. But District 1 has 2,777 residents, nearly 700 more than District 2, which has 2,098, according to county figures cited in the complaint. District 3 has 2,295 residents.
About 95% of District 1 residents are Native American, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs argue that because more people share a single commission seat in District 1, voters there have less say in who represents them than voters in the smaller districts.
Blaine County began electing commissioners by district after a federal court found in 2002 that its countywide elections diluted Native American voting power.
When commissioners adopted the current map in 2024, they said the county had to preserve roughly the same racial makeup in each district as under the original map, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs say the 2002 ruling imposed no such requirement and argue the population gap is too large to meet the Constitution’s one-person, one-vote standard.
The plaintiffs are asking the judge to declare the current map unconstitutional, bar the county from using it in 2028 and future elections, and require a new map that divides the population more evenly among the three districts.
Blaine County commissioners told MTN they had no comment at this time.
