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 Part II, Day 13: What’s One More Week?

Yesterday, the election commission told us that even though we’ve already waited three and a half months since Election Day, and almost two months since inauguration of APCSJC, we still have to wait another week after voting ends tomorrow.

Usually on election night, they count the votes, declare a winner (unofficially), and they go home. Well, in June, their unofficial winner turned out to be different than their official winner, which may be why they want to take at least THREE DAYS to count the ballots this time, and then take up to another 48 hours after that to certify the election. That could put us into next Friday or Saturday.

The Election Commission did put out a news release about this, which is how we know, and they have some explanations:

“Because of the circumstances surrounding the special election for Principal Chief, the Commission has established a three-day process for counting the election results,” said Susan Plumb, chairperson of the Election Commission. “We know that this has been a long process and people are eager to know who will serve as the next Principal Chief, but the Commission must remain focused on its responsibility of providing the Cherokee people with an accurate, fair and impartial election.”

The commission says they will count walk-in votes on Sunday, then spend Monday processing absentee ballots, getting them ready to be counted. Why do they need a whole day? The commission has a reason: “12,000 registered Cherokee voters requested absentee ballots, which means there were more than 3,800 absentee ballots requested in special election than were requested in the June general election.”

That’s a bunch more absentee ballots. We know there were about 700 more walk-in votes on election day, but also that the increases mainly came in Smith areas. Now we find out that there are 3800 more mail-in votes possible (remember, not all those will be returned), and Smith had the edge on those in June as well, by about a 54-46 margin.

Which leads us to the last little chestnut from the election commission:

“Our sincerest hope is that the candidates will not speculate outcomes of this election until the last citizen’s vote is counted and that candidates will respect the Commission’s procedures and timelines that enable the Commission to fulfill its responsibility,” said Plumb.

We’re sure neither candidate would ever speculate--awwww… who are we kidding?? After all, they are going to count votes on Sunday, and presumably tell us who has the most, and then not count any more votes until Tuesday.

The ONLY thing that will happen between Sunday and Tuesday is speculation. Heck, there was speculation after the commission released TURNOUT figures about who was ahead, and we’re admittedly guilty of that (but at least we labeled it speculation). So Sunday night it will be interesting to see if our speculation from a couple of weeks ago is true: Did Smith gain ground on Baker in the walk-in votes? If so, by how much? If not, did Baker gain enough to offset what was a significant Smith advantage in mail-in votes in June, and might be larger considering how many more absentee ballots might now be in play?

Sorry Susan Plumb-- if it's going to take a week to tell Cherokees who their chief is, we’re pretty sure Cherokees will use that week to “speculate outcomes.”

Election Limbo Part II, Day 12: Go Vote

Barring anything unexpected, today and Saturday are the last two days to make your voice heard in the election for Cherokee chief.

First, if you didn't catch the debate between Baker and Smith back in May, then check out our post from that day. Or watch it for yourself by clicking here. Perhaps there are a few of you out there who are still undecided and have yet to head to the polls.

And of course, you could always head back to the beginning and spend the afternoon digesting the truth. Since we started back in early May, we've written a staggering 147 posts (including today) where we've delved into candidates' claims to see if their words are the truth. And we've backed up our findings with documentation.

The truth isn't easy, and sometimes it hurts. But like the great Winston Churchill said, "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."

Election Limbo Part II, Day 10: Accountability Watch, Part 1

Today’s post doesn’t have a lot to do with the election, but it does have a lot to do with why Cherokee Truth even exists in the first place.  

We are going to make it a point to call out elected officials when they vote for something that is bad for their constituents but good for their political career.  And some of that happened last week at the Rules Committee meeting.

Lost in some of the discussion about who gets to vote after election day, and where they get to vote and when (all of which was decided by the freedmen, APCSJC and the BIA--at least two of which favor Baker for Chief), is the fact that the tribal council had an opportunity to send a message to the election commission about the idea that LATE voting should only take place in Tahlequah.

Smith made a big deal out of Baker voting against having any voting locations anywhere but Tahlequah. But Smith probably gives Baker too much credit--- the vote was 7-7, so Baker didn’t singlehandedly kill the idea of voting in other places besides Tahlequah.  He had some help.  Which made us wonder:  who was it that voted against their own constituents having a convenient way to vote late?

To start, there are 15 members currently on the council (APCSJC seat has yet to be filled, and Meredith Frailey is Acting Deputy Chief, so two seats are currently empty).  David Thornton arrived late, and didn’t vote.  So the council members who voted in favor of allowing people to vote in their own district were:  Lee Keener, Buel Anglen and Cara Cowan Watts, from District 5, Don Garvin and Janelle Fullbright from District 3 and at large council members Julia Coates and Jack Baker.  Voting against it were Baker, Tina Glory Jordan and David Walkingstick, who are all in District 1. Their folks are already voting in Tahlequah, so they were actually voting in favor of keeping an advantage for their constituents.  

That’s not the case for the other four voters. Jodie Fishinghawk from Stilwell and Curtis Snell from Kansas basically told their neighbors that if they wanted to vote late, they needed to drive to Tahlequah.  Same with Chuck Hoskin, Jr. from Vinita and Dick Lay from Ocheleta.

Lay is new on the council, so this was really one of his first votes, and it was to tell his constituents that they don’t deserve to be able to vote in  their district-- only in Tahlequah.  Our google maps show its 101 miles one way from Ochelata to Tahlequah.  202 miles round trip.  If you get 25 mpg that’s 8 gallons of gas-- a whopping $25+ to cast a vote.

Chuck Hoskin lives 70 miles away in Vinita.  That’s 140 miles round trip to vote.

Granted, any vote in a committee meeting would not have been binding, but it could have sent the election commission a message.  Hoskin, Lay, Fishinghawk and Snell could have at least made a symbolic gesture to fight for their constituents right to vote in their district during the extended voting times.

What do all of these council members have in common?  They all support Baker, not Smith, in the election. Baker wants the voting only to happen in Tahlequah, and at least four council members made the conscious choice to do what Baker wants instead of what would be good for the people that elected them. How's that for representation?

Election Limbo Part II, Day 3: Pleased to Meet You, Mr. S. John Crittenbaker

Three days after election day 2, our election rules are changing thanks to Jon Velie, APCSJC, Baker, Smith, the BIA, Judge Kennedy in Washington DC and our own beloved Cherokee Nation Election Commission. But the two biggest players seem to be the guys sharing a brain that wants to do whatever the BIA and the freedmen tell them to.  

And henceforth we shall call it... S. John Crittenbaker!

Picture Credit & Caption: www.joecrittenden.com

This morning, S. John Crittenbaker worked out a deal with the freedmen and the BIA saying not only should freedmen be given more days to vote because APCSJC didn’t comply with last week’s court order, but also that Cherokees would now get to walk in and vote.  Hooray for Cherokees, right?  Not so fast. 

1) APCSJC's deal didn’t extend the mail-in voting for Cherokees, so if you forgot to mail your absentee ballot, or mailed it late, too dang bad for you. 

2) Freedmen who haven’t voted by mail already, but did request an absentee ballot, will all be sent a SECOND ballot via overnight mail. 

3) If Cherokees by blood still want to vote, they better know somebody who knows somebody (or just read Cherokee Truth, but we’re sure all our readers already voted, right?), because APCSJC’s custom-made court order does NOT require any notification about extra voting days be sent to Cherokees by blood. But EVERY Freedman must be notified. And lucky for them, that’s already happened.

So while that was sinking in, the election commission met today and Smith told them he didn’t think it was fair that only Freedmen got two extra weeks to turn in their absentee ballots and that only local Cherokees who could drive to Tahlequah (and Freedmen) got to vote, not people who live far away or voted by mail. And the Election Commission agreed with Smith and changed things some more, allowing all Cherokees to turn their absentee ballots in by October 8th.

Smith and Baker both put up comments online, as did the election commission and APCSJC.

Smith pointed out that he was the guy who fought for Cherokee absentee ballots to be counted and equal notification of the extra voting days, while Baker (again) accused Smith of stealing the election the first time saying the AG and the Supreme Court were just doing Chad’s bidding. Keep in mind, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court hasn’t done anything in a month or so, and declined to make Smith Chief even after they found he had the most votes.

So the votes haven’t been counted yet and it looks like Baker is already lining up his excuses.

The Election Commission got their digs in saying, "It appears that people who know little about the mechanics and physical requirements of conducting an election have decided to try and insert themselves into the Election Commission's day-to-day operations."

On that same page, APCSJC's statement seems to be just a repetition of what the order says. Towards the bottom, he does say: "As of today, the required notice to the Cherokee Freedmen has been mailed. There were never any negotiations that non-citizen Cherokee Freedmen, Cherokee Freedmen unregistered to vote, non-citizen Cherokees or Cherokees unregistered to vote were going to be allowed to vote during the Friday hearing. The Nation will continue to work through this important matter."

So, now we know what "never" happened in the negotiations. But we wonder if we'll ever know what actually DID happen when S. John Crittenbaker was making another deal with the freedmen and the BIA to change our election laws.

Four Days Until the New Election: Beat to the Punch

So today was the day a federal court judge was going to tell us how or if we could run our own election, but it turns out the Freedmen and the BIA, working with APCSJC beat him to it.

According to media reports, our election is not only going to be this Saturday, but also the next few Saturdays. 

Crittenden cut a deal with the BIA and Freedmen that gave them their citizenship back, and allowed them to vote-- even extending the timeframe for voting until October 8, though the regular election is still on for Saturday.  Which Crittenden basically told us he’d do a few days ago if we were listening, when he said:  "They may have helped put me in office. I believe they're entitled to vote again.”

We’re not sure how this works, because the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court ruled that freedmen weren’t citizens, so how can APCSJC agree in federal court to grant them citizenship anyway?

We’re not sure, but he did.  His statement on the Cherokee Nation web site says “I am especially concerned about the funding that has been withheld.  I hope the action today will allow those $33 million in HUD funds to be released to us.  It’s a significant sum and the people at the Cherokee Nation who work in housing programs will not have to worry about the funding or services to our people.”  So, I guess if the Cherokee Nation does something the BIA doesn’t like, all they have to do is tell us they won’t give us any money and we’ll do whatever they say. 

So now the BIA and the freedmen get to tell us who votes in this upcoming election, not our Supreme Court and not our own Constitution.  How do the candidates feel about that?  Well, they are both pretty sure it is the other guy’s fault.

Baker blamed “Smith and his Supreme Court” for trying to steal the election and then demanding a new election, spending a fortune on lawyers and then losing the case.

All of which is a little weird,  considering that if the court was going to steal the election, they could’ve just made Smith Chief a few weeks ago and saved us a lot of trouble.  And that it was Baker who argued for a new election after the Supreme Court told him he had less votes than Smith, the court gave him what he wanted!  And that the Cherokee Nation didn’t lose the case, APCSJC just handed over the decision about who votes in our election without much of a fight.

Smith blamed Baker by saying "The agreement in the federal court is in direct violation of the decision of the highest Cherokee Nation court that Freedmen are not citizens of the Cherokee Nation.”  He said that Crittenden was doing Bakers dirty work, getting Freedmen special treatment and accusing them both of “sell(ing) out the Cherokee Nation to the BIA and non-Indian freedmen descendants for a few votes.”

To put this all in perspective, the people in Taiwan this morning are reading about us in their paper.  Here’s the message they are hearing: “Osiyo, y’all.  Cherokee Nation is a sovereign nation.  We’re just waiting for another nation to tell us how to run our elections and government.”

10 Days Until the New Election: Britney Spears Edition

Yesterday, the freedmen filed something called a “motion to reconsider” with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court.  Basically, asking for a do-over in the court case, because, hey why not? We’re having a do-over election, right?  Certainly worth a shot.

Today, a surprise so weird we’re not sure what to compare it to:  the Cherokee Nation agreed to the do-over, and oh-by the way asked the court to put the injunction back in place that allowed the freedmen to have citizenship.   

What?  Since March 2007, the Cherokee Nation has been fighting for its Constitutional amendment in court.  Last month, the Cherokee Nation won.  But today, they told the court we can do this over.  So… what’s changed?  If you say the Echo Hawk letter or the HUD funding hold, that might mean you think money is more important than our people’s constitutional amendment.   And APCSJC might agree with you according to his statement on the Cherokee Nation web site today, which said in part: "I believe the Nation should do what is best for its people especially sinceFederal HUD funding is currently frozen."

  

Or you could go with what APCSJC said to Channel 2 tonight:  

"They may have helped put me in office. I believe they're entitled to vote again."

Surely he didn’t mean it the way it sounded, because some people might interpret that to mean he’s in favor of doing something for the people who voted him in, even if the Supreme Court disagrees.

Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation Election Commission met tonight and decided freedmen could vote in this election after all, despite the Supreme Court ruling.  The Commission is going to send ballots to freedmen absentee voters and is going to allow freedmen to walk in and vote as well.  They are going to cast challenge/provisional ballots, which means… well, we’ll let Election Commission Chair Susan Plumb explain it: "If a court decides the freedmen descendants can vote we will have the ability to certify the election," Plumb said. "If the court decides they cannot vote we will still be able to preserve the election."

Anyway, to paraphrase Britney Spears: it looks like everybody involved wants our Supreme Court to say Oops!

11 Days Before the New Election: BIA Goes Nuclear

As our alert readers have pointed out, the BIA sent a letter to the Cherokee Nation saying the BIA won’t recognize the upcoming election if the freedmen don’t vote. And that had Cherokee Truth blowing up!

Eight years into the freedmen court case in DC, the BIA decides to tell the world that the “Department’s position is, and has been” that the freedmen have citizenship rights in the Cherokee Nation.   

Really?  Even though they've recognized tons of other elections where Freedmen didn’t vote (Wilma Mankiller, anyone?), suddenly the BIA has always said the Freedmen should be citizens. Odd, they didn’t think to mention this once in the previous eight years!

Our readers and other news sources (the Tulsa World was first and thorough) have covered what this letter and the accompanying court filing might mean:  an unrecognized election, no election at all (which is what the freedmen have asked for), a loss of sovereignty and/or the BIA basically picking who would be chief.

APCSJC put a letter on the Cherokee Nation web site today in response. It said, in part: 

“The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA.  We will hold our election and continue our long legacy of responsible self-governance." 

He also says some more interesting stuff:

“I am also pursuing political remedies that are in the best interest of the Cherokee Nation. I will do my best to quickly resolve this issue and I have mobilized all resources to quickly resolve this matter so that services to our people and the operation of the tribal government are protected.  I will also do my best to ensure that services will not be interrupted and the election will occur timely.  The Cherokee Nation will emerge stronger because we will act quickly.”

Notice he uses the word "quickly" three times and "timely" once. Even though this issue has basically been going on at the Cherokee Nation since 1866, APCSJC is going to fix it all in his six weeks or so running the show. Which will be impressive if he can do it. It makes us wonder what he means by ‘political remedies.’  Thousands of Cherokees thought that a constitutional amendment was a political remedy to this issue, in part because our Supreme Court told us so.

The BIA says the election can happen, but in their opinion it won’t count unless the Freedmen vote.  The Freedmen say the election shouldn’t happen at all unless they get to vote, and oh by the way, if they don't get their way-- just terminate the whole dang Cherokee Nation.

But no worries-- APCSJC says he’ll "quickly" resolve it.  Let’s hope he does it while following the Supreme Court and upholding his oath to defend the Cherokee constitution.  Election Day is little more than 10 days away, absentee ballots are being mailed in as we speak, and early voting starts Saturday.

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 34: Save the Date!

Chad Smith has called the new election for September 24th.  The Election Commission and Smith apparently worked together on it and set the date.  There will be a couple of weeks for people to request an absentee ballot (until August 12), then the absentee ballots will be mailed out the week before the Cherokee National Holiday.  We think the holiday will be quite a spectacle this year, with both campaigns in full force and S. Joe Crittenden giving the State of the Nation speech.  Depending on how long it takes after the election to certify, recount and appeal, it could be October before our election is over.

A couple of important things to note: 1) if you are an At-Large voter, the ONLY way you can vote is via absentee ballot. If you just show up at a precinct on September 24 and cast an At-Large Challenge Ballot, your vote will NOT be counted. There was much voter confusion over this in the general election on June 25th. 

2) If you requested an absentee ballot for the general or run-off election, the EC should send you one for the September 24th election. 

3) If you want an absentee ballot, the only way for you to get one is to request the ballot in writing. So, if someone just calls and asks you if you'd like to vote absentee and you say "yes," that doesn't mean you are getting a ballot. Download this form here and fax it to the Election Commission at (918) 458-6101 (or mail it or drop it off). Yes, we are aware this form was for the run-off election last week, but just write "Sept. 24th Election" at the top for clarification. The information is what is important, not the form itself. We imagine there will be a new form available on the EC website, but as of tonight it was not.

Election Limbo Day 31: Church Lady Edition

It looks like we’ll have a special meeting before the special election.  Isn’t that special?  On August 5, the council will meet to possibly change the election law before the special election.  It seems like there are some things that might need changing (recount procedures anyone?), but given that the new election is just a few weeks away, it will be interesting to see what kind of changes the council wants to make, and if there is time to make those changes in a way that doesn’t make life more difficult for the election commission.  

Also on the agenda are some nominations:  Election Commissioner:  Susan Plumb; Marshal: Sharon Wright; Attorney General: Diane Hammons.  Speaker of the Council Meredith Frailey wanted this special meeting to address these issues quickly, and asked Smith to call it, because terms were either up or expiring soon.

We’re sure this will turn into a campaign issue, but it shouldn’t.  Baker likely won’t want to do anything Smith proposes (remember when Baker said the new election should be held on August 13th? That was a ludicrous proposal by any stretch), but hopefully our elected officials will make judgments based on people’s qualifications rather than today’s supercharged political climate.

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 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. 

2 Days after the Election- What the ?

Photo credit Tulsa World

Just when we thought we could take the day off. 

On Sunday morning, the Cherokee Nation Election Commission posted the unofficial results of the election which showed after pulling an all-nighter that Bill John Baker had bested incumbent Chief Chad Smith by 11 votes and won. Even though the results were not official, and Smith had not yet conceded the election, Baker addressed his supporters in a statement saying, "I’m humbled and honored to be the new Chief of the Cherokee Nation. I want to thank everyone who supported me. Your prayers, hard work and dedication made the difference. I think it's fair to say that every vote counted. We've come far, but we have far to go."

Chief Smith also issued a statement Sunday saying, "Early this morning, the Election Commission posted unofficial election results to this point, which shows my opponent leading by 11 votes. With such a slim margin among 15,000 ballots, it is important to make sure that each and every one of them were properly cast and were counted correctly."

This afternoon, the election commission posted the official results on the door. And the world turned upside down for both candidates.

Photo courtesy of a CT reader who posted on our FB page earlier today

Early Sunday morning, unofficial results showed Chad Smith with 7,589 votes and Bill John Baker with 7,600 votes. But this afternoon, the official results showed Smith with 7,609 votes and Baker with 7,602. Chad Smith, according to the Election Commission's official tally, won the office of Principal Chief.

Chad Smith, on his Facebook page and website today, said in part, "We were ahead at 3 am on Sunday, then fell behind about 7 am on Sunday, but today when the final results were certified by the election commission, we came out on top. With a margin this close, I expect my opponent may ask for a recount, so we know the process may still continue." He went on to thank his volunteers and the Cherokee people.

Bill John Baker, on his election Facebook page, said, "We're shocked at the developments. We're trying to fully understand what has occurred and we're reviewing all options."

What happens next? Bill John Baker has until Wednesday to ask for a recount, and we're sure he will because--who wouldn't? So, most assuredly this isn't our last blog of the week. 

Stay tuned! There's no good TV on in the summer anyway.