Why is Yes on Proposition 309 leading in Apache County?

[Mexican Wolf]

With 75% of its population being Native American and Alaska Native, Apache County is unsurprisingly solidly Democratic, with every statewide Democrat candidate this year winning at least 60% of the vote there. At the same time, Proposition 309 (which "requires dates of birth and voter ID numbers for mail-in ballots, requires photo ID to vote early in-person, and eliminates the option to provide two forms of non-photo ID instead of photo ID") is leading in the county by 6%.

At least in the past 15 years or so, pushes for stricter voter ID requirements are usually more strongly favored by Republican voters, so I found it a bit strange that such a solidly D county would be backing this proposition. I also figured that Native voters also wouldn't be in favor of stricter ID requirements given the longstanding issues they've faced with voting rights and accessibility, and nothing in the summary of the proposition seems to address any of those issues anyway.

A similar thing happened in 2020, when Apache County voters voted against legalizing recreational marijuana while still voting 66% for Biden and 68% for Kelly, although in that case I can kind of see a rationale for a majority of voters voting no there.

I know county-level results on ballot initiatives don't always match up with the county's usual partisanship, but does anyone have any insight on why Apache County tends to vote more conservatively on these initiatives?