Thursday, July 14, 2011

Election Limbo Day 19: When a Recount Isn’t a Recount

Leave it to lawyers to make a two page document so confusing that normal people and other lawyers aren’t sure what it means.  That’s apparently what the Supreme Court did on Tuesday, when they called for ‘a manual hand recount of ballots for the office of Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in the 2011 General Election….”

A little bit above that, it says ‘this Court cannot confirm the accuracy of the results of the 2011 General Election to a mathematical certainty.’

The Cherokee Phoenix and the Tulsa World are saying the court isn’t really ordering a hand recount like us normal people would think of one: whoever is ahead is the winner.  They are saying, and using Cherokee Nation Attorney General Diane Hammons as their source, that the recount is only part of the court hearings and may not be the official outcome.  Hammons says there are still other issues, like the claims of non-citizens voting, that the court has to address.  But the Tulsa World says  “Attorneys for both candidates are treating the court-ordered action as an official second recount.” 

The court, of course, is silent except for their apparently mysterious two-pager.  We’ll have to wait until Saturday morning to find out the Cherokee Truth. 

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