Election Limbo Part II, Day 22: Opposite Directions

We took a few days off (because we have real lives, after all) and when we sat down tonight to decide what to write about, we found out that Smith and Baker have two different ideas about what the next step is with our election, which isn’t surprising.  

Baker sent out an announcement today, setting the time and date for his inauguration.  Just in case you don’t get an engraved personal invitation, the Cherokee Phoenix was kind enough to tell us that it is at the Sequoyah Gym in Tahlequah at 2 pm on November 6.  According to the Phoenix “Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters will serve as master of ceremonies and the chiefs of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes will be present.”  So the UKB is trying to get along with Baker. They banished Smith for opposing “efforts by the UKB to have Keetoowah land put in trust by the Cherokee County Commissioners.”

Cherokee Truth's cat?

Putting aside the fact the Cherokee County Commissioners can’t put land into trust any more than Cherokee Truth’s cat, Baker and the UKB are certainly more chummy than Smith and the UKB were.

 

And what Smith up to today while Baker was making party plans?  Well, he was trying to get the whole election thrown out, or stopped, or at least keep Baker from getting sworn in.  Smith filed an appeal with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, which one of our readers forwarded on to us, and you can read for yourself.

Basically he asks that the Cherokee court stop Baker from being sworn in until the federal court decides whether freedmen should be citizens or not.  Or, as he puts it: “If non-Indian Freedmen have citizenship  rights based on the treaty, then Bill John Baker should be chief.  If they don’t, then the court would have to order yet another election, because the acting chief disregarded the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

Baker’s response?  Poppycock! (Or the Cherokee version of that).  He put out a statement tonight saying he is “not going to let this baseless lawsuit keep me from moving forward.”  He didn’t address the freedmen issue at all.

The question for a few days was whether Smith would ask for a recount or not.  It looks like he skipped that and went straight to court at the same time Baker was heading for an inauguration.

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.

3 Days Until the Election: Mr. Crittenden Goes to Washington

It’s official:  Freedmen can vote in our new election, thanks to an agreement approved Wednesday by APCSJC, the Freedmen and the BIA.  Significant in the deal is that the election ain’t over on Saturday:  Freedmen get extra time to get their absentee ballots in (which makes sense since they didn’t get them as early) and they also get two extra days to go vote in-person, besides election day and the other early voting available to the rest of Cherokee citizens.  

Oh, did we mention the best part?  The federal court ruling seemingly trumps our Supreme Court by telling them that Cherokee law doesn’t count and that freedmen are citizens.  So that whole referendum to gain signatures, and then the vote of the people and then the four year court challenge all meant jack squat, because it was tribal law.  Freedmen are citizens as long as the judge in DC wants them to be, according to the court order.

Pretty harsh huh?  The judge really handed it to us on that one. Oh wait, the judge didn’t decide that! Crittenden decided that himself by signing the agreement.  Maybe he felt he needed to compromise and let the BIA have what it wanted and let the freedmen have what they wanted, but in doing so he ignored what the Cherokee people voted for in 2007, and he did so voluntarily.  Ouch.

The election will go forward on Saturday.  For the people who were Cherokee citizens on Monday, that’s their last chance to vote for chief.  For the people APCSJC decided to make citizens on Tuesday, they have until October 8 to vote. 

Let us make sure you understand what we're saying here: if you are Cherokee by Blood-- you can vote early in person Thursday in Tahlequah from 9-5, and in your assigned precinct on Saturday, the 24th. Your absentee ballot MUST be received by the Election Commission on Saturday. ONLY non-Indian Freedmen get extra days to vote. Check out the Cherokee Phoenix's online story today for all the hairy details.

 

P.S.  Late tonight we heard that Baker and Chuck Hoskin, Jr. are accusing Smith of colluding with Barney Frank to somehow keep HUD money while Smith was Chief.  When asked by Channel 6, they could produce no evidence, and Frank himself said it was bull BLEEP.  Really. Only he didn’t say bleep!  Watch the channel 6 story if you don’t believe us.  This time Baker is getting busted by the media and a Congressman immediately when he’s not telling the truth. We’ll see if it slows him down.

14 Days Until the New Election: Money Money Money!

Maybe it’s a little overdue (since we’re into September), but we owe it to you, our readers, to keep up with our campaign finance watchdoggery. Mainly because no one else is really trying very hard!  We’ll look at Smith and Baker’s August 15 financial reports in the next couple of days.  Today, we’ll start with Smith and tomorrow we’ll go with Baker.

Keep in mind, this reporting period is for the calendar month of July, which, looking back, went something like recount, court appeal, second recount, court orders new election, Deputy Chief election, then we’re pretty much in August.  The new election was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 21 (see our riveting blog from that day here).

So there wasn’t much time for fundraising, or much to spend money on, for either of the candidates.

Smith started with $28,060, raised $12,890 and loaned himself $26,003.  That brings his total loans to about $40,000. Click here to reference Smith's entire report.

Interesting donors include state legislator Brian Bingman, former Cherokee Supreme Court Justice Philip Viles, and an employee Baker wrongfully accused of breaking the law. 

Smith’s expenditures for the month totaled $53,824.  The biggest expenditures were for miscellaneous/recount/election challenge, which includes paying some lawyers.  That total was $18,631.  Next was advertising, which might be bills coming in from the ads placed prior to the June election.  The total there was $16,698.

Smith’s cash on hand at the end of July was $13,129.87

Smith’s fundraising total through the whole campaign $391,565.07. On top of his $40,103.91 in loans,  Smith has had a total of $431,668.98 to spend on his campaign thus far. 

23 Days Until the New Election: Judge Not the Judges

More thoughts tonight on the recent Freedmen decision. We’ve seen a lot of comments from people online saying that the court which made the decision, did so to impact Chad Smith’s chances of re-election.  Like we mentioned yesterday, the perception seems to be that 1) the Supreme Court Justices knew that Freedmen were all Baker supporters; 2) that the Supreme Court wants to help Smith get re-elected; and 3) that the Court kicked the Freedmen out so that they couldn’t vote for Baker, thus making it easier for Smith to win.

This line of reasoning really does a HUGE injustice to our Supreme Court.  Whatever you think of them and their decisions, you do need to look at the public record.  Trivia time:  What is the only court in the whole United States to say that people who aren’t Indian at all (at least according to the Dawes Rolls) can be citizens of the Cherokee Nation?  

If you guessed the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, you are right!

Federal courts have upheld the right of Cherokee nation to decide who its citizens are.  And we have, through our courts in the Allen case and through our 2007 Constitutional amendment.

Whatever your stance on the Freedmen citizenship issue, it’s easy for any Cherokee to be a little upset by the idea that the Cherokee courts are brilliant, infallible, legal minds when they rule in your favor, like they did in 2006 and again in Cherokee Nation district court in January.  But when the court rules against you, they are political hatchetmen?  Neither of those things is the CHEROKEE TRUTH.

The TRUTH is that if the Supreme Court wanted to make it easy for Smith to be Chief, they could’ve made him Chief back in July.  He asked them to, after all.  They counted the votes with their own hands and saw that Smith had more than Baker.  Most times, the person with the most votes wins an election, but the court said there were too many irregularities on behalf of the election commission and ordered a new vote.

Our point is, if the Supreme Court were going to do everything in their power to make Smith the Chief, he would’ve been sworn in a couple of weeks ago and he’d be front and center at the Cherokee National Holiday this weekend. 

To say anything about our court besides the fact that they are qualified, accomplished Cherokee attorneys who can impartially adjudicate the law is a disservice to them, and to some degree the Cherokee Nation as a whole.

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 Limbo Day 25- Hurry Up & Wait

The waiting game continues.  This time tomorrow we might be done with this whole election… just in time for the run-off.  Or we might be gearing up for a new election a few weeks after the run-off.  At some point, we should give some attention to the run-off.  We’ll schedule that in for Friday.  

Tomorrow night we’ll save for glancing at the court’s ruling and pulling out the TRUTH.   Until then, we’ll just keep hitting refresh on the court’s web page and waiting.

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 18- A View from the Outside

We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Cartoon Courtesy of Indian Country Today Media Network

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 15 & 16- Lost & Found

We've sat back and watched for the last couple of days as this election saga continues to unwind. 

And late yesterday evening, the case of the Vanishing Votes came to a head. The Supreme Court, candidates and their lawyers watched as the Election Commissioners opened the vault and counted the envelopes that absentee ballots were mailed in-- all 6,166 of them. That's nearly 300 MORE than were accounted for in the recount tallies for absentee ballots. And with that count, Baker's theory that some of Smith's absentee ballots were double-counted on election night flew out the window and the results of that "recount" are now under scrutiny.

The Supreme Court hasn't yet reconvened to tell us what they will do with this information but we expect that to happen this week.

Meanwhile, late this morning, Smith called a press conference and talked to the media about these developments. He later posted an update and statement on his website, and said in part, "The court still has to tell us what the next step is, and how to go about fixing this mistake, but it is time for my opponent to acknowledge what the election commission, and common sense, tell us all:  the recount was wrong and the original total was right.  For him to do anything else is to deny what he saw up close with his own eyes.  If he refuses to admit he was wrong about the recount, when every bit of evidence shows that he was, it means that Bill John Baker will say anything and do anything to be Chief."

Baker's only statement was sent to the media. If you go to his website, his acceptance speech is still the home page. He also hasn't made any comments on his campaign Facebook page as of post time tonight. But, you can see some of what he wrote to the media in this news story that The News on 6 aired tonight. He actually said, "[Smith] behaves like a dictator who believes the Cherokee Nation belongs to him and his henchmen."

It's been interesting to watch how each candidate reacts to the twists and turns this election has thrown at them. The only thing we know for sure, is that we should be close to some kind of resolution because the Supreme Court has figured out those "Vanishing Votes" on recount night were always there. 

Election Limbo Day 13: Romeo Blue Edition

Yogi Berra

 What do Yogi Berra, the former Romeo Blue (Lenny Kravitz), and our election have in common?  “It aint’ over ‘til it’s over.”

Romeo Blue aka Lenny Kravitz

We think everyone was hoping the court would decide something, anything today.   Mostly, what they did was listen.  There are plenty of media reports, but we’ll keep it close to home, with the folks over at the Cherokee Phoenix who are providing multiple updates every day.  The first one was simply reporting something that some of our readers have doubted:  the election commission, each and every one of them, say the recount has problems and they don’t think the totals are right. 

That had to make Smith folks happy, but Baker’s people tried to go down the road that maybe the recount was right and the first count was wrong.

Media reports say they start again tomorrow morning.  We don’t know what they’ll find out, but we hope they give us answers about why the vote counts were so different.

Election Limbo Day 12: Eye of the Storm

Something is going to happen tomorrow, and nobody knows what.  We’ve already had election day, an unofficial winner, an official winner, a recount winner, a recount scandal and a resignation by the election commission chairman.  That’s enough drama to win whatever award it is they give out for dramatic non-fiction stuff.   Today was pretty quiet, with Baker’s attorneys filed a couple of things:  a motion to intervene, which makes sense, because otherwise it’s just Smith’s attorneys suing the election commission, and a motion to dismiss Smith’s whole lawsuit, basically by saying it wasn’t specific enough.

Tomorrow, we move out of the eye of the storm, and the Supreme Court may tell us a lot more about what comes next.