Court dismisses lawsuit filed against Navajo commissioner

Historical indigenous dwelling in Bears Ears National Monument. Photo: Bob Wick // Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management – Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court tossed out a lawsuit Thursday filed by a Republican candidate trying to overturn the victory of a Navajo commissioner in a county dogged by allegations of discrimination against Navajo voters.

Kelly Laws filed a lawsuit in January 2019, after losing the race to Democrat Willie Grayeyes in San Juan County. He claimed that Grayeyes was not truly a Utah resident, but the high court ruled Laws did not have the standing to challenge his victory.

County officials had tried to remove Grayeyes from the ballot before the election for the same reason, saying an investigation sparked by a complaint from a different Republican hopeful found that he lives primarily over the nearby Arizona border. A federal judge reversed that decision after deciding the county clerk falsified the complaint by improperly backdating it. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer did not rule directly on the residency issue, however.

Grayeyes has called the residency question a political attack as Navajos were poised to form a majority of the three-person commission for the first time. He has been registered to vote in San Juan County since he was 18 and held leadership positions in Utah for decades, his lawyers have said.

Laws’ attorney Peter Stirba did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Grayeyes has been an activist with Bears Ears National Monument, located in San Juan County, Utah.