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 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.