Election Limbo Part II, Day 14: John Blutarsky Edition

The voting is over right?  Please tell us the voting is over right?  That’s what the schedule says, that’s what the calendar says, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from this election, it’s that we should never say it’s over.   

We thought it was going to be over June 25.  Then we thought Baker won on the 26^th.  Then we thought Smith won on the 27^th.  Then we thought it would be over after the recount.  After the Election Commission botched that one, we thought it would be over after the court hearing, and their own personal recount.  We bet Smith hoped so too, because he was ahead then.  But was it over any of those times?   

Nope.  A new election was scheduled.  So we thought it would be over on September 24.  But then S. John Crittenbaker decided to extend the election two weeks for the freedmen, and then, AFTER ELECTION DAY, they decided SOME Cherokees could still vote, as long as, heaven forbid, they didn’t mail in their absentee ballots.  The Election Commission then decided that Cherokees who voted by mail deserved just as much an opportunity to vote as the ones who live in Tahlequah.  But it’s still not over.  Not even today.  Or tomorrow.

When will it be over?  Well, to quote an American icon:  “Nothing’s over until we decide it is!  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

Ummmm…. No.  

We’re putting the over-under for the inauguration as Halloween.  Which side is the smart money on?

Stayed tuned: tomorrow we get unofficial, semi-formal, partial results from the election commission.

Cherokee Truth will tell you what the numbers mean tomorrow night.

Election Limbo Day 42: The Mrs. Justin Timberlake Edition

This hot man is also not
Principal Chief of CN

As we discussed yesterday, Bill John Baker sent out a news release yesterday with some very interesting information.  First, he accused the council of holding an illegal meeting, and said the council’s attorney Todd Hembree said it was illegal.  Hembree was at the meeting, though, and according to our sources, never said a word about it being illegal.  Also, the meeting was cancelled for lack of a quorum, though that’s never stopped Baker: in the 90s he voted to impeach the whole Supreme Court in an illegal meeting without a quorum.

But to us, it’s not even the most interesting thing about his news release from yesterday.

To us, the most interesting thing is right there at the top.  Some of our eagle-eyed readers already spotted it.  Baker’s letterhead says “Bill John Baker Cherokee Nation Principal Chief.” 

It’s hard to keep track of how many levels that this is NOT the Cherokee Truth.  First and foremost, no one has been elected chief in 2011.  Smith was certified a winner once, Baker was certified a winner based on an unreliable recount that the court threw out, Smith won an excrutiatingly long hand recount in which the court and both candidates participated and saw every ballot be counted.  But Baker didn’t win.  Neither did Smith, according to the Supreme Court. Even though Smith had the most votes, the court gave Baker a do-over, which will happen on September 24, 2011-- just seven weeks from today.

The truth is, there are absolutely no factual circumstances under which Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation right now. Chief Smith’s term to which he was elected hasn't even expired yet.  But, Baker sent out a news release proclaiming the title of Principal Chief anyway. 

Maybe he likes the way it looks when he sees it in writing, like those middle school girls who write Mrs. Justin Timberlake in their notebooks or whatever.  Or maybe he is trying a Jedi mind trick, though he should know that only works on the feeble-minded, and it’s apparent that he has not completed his training.   Or maybe he’s just got a whole bunch of business cards burning a hole in his pocket that he can’t wait to use.

"This not the Chief you're looking for..."

Regardless, we just want to clarify for everyone that no matter what Bill John Baker might send you via email, he is NOT principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.  Maybe he will be someday, but until then, he should probably sign all his correspondence as District 1 Tribal Councilor, since that is a post to which he has actually been elected.

Election Limbo Day 26: Second Verse, Same as The First

It’s déjà vu all over again.  Coming soon to the Cherokee Nation, a Principal Chief election featuring Chad Smith and Bill John Baker!  Just like the one we’ve had since March that was supposed to end in June, but now might last until, oh, Columbus Day or later.

The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued a one-page order (page 2 contained their respective signatures) that unanimously invalidated the general election and set the stage for a new election.

They did not order one be conducted within 30 days, or have special rules, like Baker asked for in court.  

That leaves it up to Smith to call a new election, which he says he will do next week after he meets with members of the tribal council and the election commission. 

Some interesting tidbits:  Smith says he’ll leave office on August 14, when his term expires, and no one knows what that means.  We assume whoever wins the Deputy race Saturday would fill in for a while, which raises the stakes there significantly.  

What conspiracy theory will Baker come up with next?

Also, Baker came out swinging again today, with some more outlandish Terry Rainey accusations.

It’s just a little weird that the very day the Court gives him what he wants, Baker still can’t help but throw out a conspiracy theory!  Baker seems to think people will actually believe that every member of the Supreme Court (who gave him the new election he wanted) watched the videotape and then covered up evidence of this Rainey guy monkeying with the election.  Oh, and also four election commissioners (including ones Baker helped appoint) also being in on the "fix."  Baker thinks those commissioners are corrupt--except when they conducted a hand recount and accidentally left out hundreds of Smith ballots.  According to Baker, when they did that, they were all doing a great job-- even when they stood up in court and said they’d screwed up.  But never forget that no matter what Baker says about the numbers being changed, he saw the actual ballots counted in front of his own eyes and in the end he got either four (his version) or five (the commission’s version) votes less than Smith.  

Bill John Baker's got more conspiracy theories than Oliver Stone.

Election Day Limbo Day 20: Court + Voters + Recount + Election Commission + Candidates + Lawyers + Watchers =?

Ever tried to get on an airplane and been told that the flight is full, even though you already paid good money, up front for your ticket?  Well, just like Delta, our Election Commission is seriously overbooked on Saturday.

Their front lobby will be used for early voting for the run-off election, which takes place on July 23.  Somewhere in the back offices, the Election Commission, the candidates, their lawyers, their watchers, the Supreme Court and a partridge in a pear tree will be re-recounting the ballots from the first election. 

Since the Election Commission was reportedly packed with early voters before, and had more people than it could handle for the first recount, we’re thinking it’s going to be a crowded on Saturday.  

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. 

Election Limbo Day 17- Do Over!

At 2:10 this afternoon, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued an order that all ballots for the office of Principal Chief shall be recounted by hand starting at 8:30 a.m. this coming Saturday. What's more interesting is that the Justices themselves will be in the room for the recount with the election commission, the candidates and their legal counsel, which is the same manner in which the Court had the absentee ballot envelopes recounted this past Sunday evening.

Photo Credit Tulsa World

So what does this mean? Well, it definitely shows the Court believes the recount that declared Bill John Baker the winner was incomplete, lacking hundreds of votes on the final tally. The testimony of the Election Commission, and ultimately the count of the absentee envelopes proved that. 

Today, Bill John Baker, who probably can no longer call himself "Chief-Elect," did a 180-degree turn from the statements he normally puts out when on the defensive, and said the following to reporters:

“We’ve always wanted every vote to count. I paid $4,500 for a full hand recount, and if they didn’t count them all, then I didn’t get what I paid for. I’m glad I’m going to get what I paid for, and I feel confident that we’ll be victorious.”

However, he did make a jab saying, "I am thrilled that the court chose to reject Chad Smith’s demand that the ballots only be counted by machines -- machines run by the same man who entered the ballot vault and changed numbers on a tally sheet."

It's interesting to us that Baker keeps sticking to the story that Terry Rainey, the contractor hired by the Election Commission, somehow rigged the election in Smith's favor, when that has never been proven even remotely true in court testimony or video tape surveillance.

Photo Credit Tulsa World

Chief Smith was happy with the news, saying, "With this recount, every Cherokee has assurance that votes are going to be counted.  I’m pleased that we’ve moved on to the logical next step in the process and look forward to the recount on Saturday.  I was ahead when the original recount began, and I’m confident I’ll be ahead when all the votes are counted and tallied on Saturday."

The truth is, hopefully this new recount will actually count every single vote, and the people's choice will be clear. But indeed, neither candidate can expect a landslide.

Election Limbo Day 10: New Election?

From media reports it appears to be quite a day, with court filings by both Baker and Smith, news conferences by both Baker and Smith, and the surprise resignation of our election commission chairman, Roger Johnson. 

That’s a busier than average Tuesday.

We’ll start with the court filings: Baker wants Smith’s request for a machine recount (filed last Friday) thrown out.

Baker doesn’t address the discrepancy of two-hundred-something votes between the two certifications, only saying that since the Election Commission certified the recount it should stand according to Cherokee Nation law. But he does use a lot of legalese to say why Smith’s Friday request should be thrown out.

Smith, on the other hand, raises some new topics with his filing today as well as trying to get the machine recount.

He wants the recount to continue, but he says if it doesn’t, the court should order a new election because of three things he claims:  1) UKB members who had relinquished their Cherokee Nation tribal citizenship voted in the election and shouldn’t have; 2) 273 Absentee voters were disenfranchised; 3) not all the ‘challenge’ ballots were counted, only some.  His lawyers say that the true test is that the court has to decide if there is a mathematical certainty of one or the other of the candidates being the winner --- if not, Smith says there has to be a new election.

That’s right, something a lot of you have been calling for:  a new election.  It’s on the table now, for the justices to consider.

The Supreme Court is getting everyone together on Friday morning at 830 to sort this all out.

Baker’s statement on his facebook page says, in part “ I won this election.  There is no doubt about it and I ask in the name of our Cherokee Nation and in the name of our Cherokee family that Chad do the right thing and allow us to begin moving this nation from good to great.”

Chad, on the other hand, says on his web site that "Just looking at the numbers, it’s clear that there are hundreds of unexplained, vanishing votes. Bill John Baker is willing to say anything and do anything to become Chief. If he has to throw out Cherokee votes to do it, he will."

Smith also references the resignation Tuesday of Roger Johnson from the Election Commission.   

The Tulsa World has some information on it, and the resignation letter itself which Smith cited as confirming the irregularities. 

We’ll have to wait until Friday for the CN Supreme Court to rule on these matters, so it might be a slow couple of days—or will it? Stay tuned to find out.

Election Limbo Day 5 & 6 (early hours)- Baker Wins? Part 2

Tonight, Bill John Baker was declared the winner of the Principal Chief's race in a recount that started around 3 pm this afternoon. According to the Cherokee Phoenix, the recount showed Baker with 7613 votes and Chad Smith with 7347 votes-- a staggering 266 vote difference. 

So, is it over? Not by a long shot, we bet. When asked for a reaction to tonight’s recount, Smith said, “Tonight’s recount totals are perplexing and result in more questions than answers. The No. 1 questions is how I lost 262 votes while my opponent gained 11, and the total vote count in the election dropped by more than 250. We have not gotten an explanation from the Election Commission about the 250 vanishing votes.”

Meanwhile, Baker celebrated his victory, addressing supporters saying, “I truly want to thank everybody that’s been praying and all of my supporters. No one had better supporters than what I had. Now, it’s about the business of reuniting the Nation and taking care of our people.”

We'll wait to see in the coming days if those 250+ vanishing votes are addressed.