Here is the court order referenced in the Record-Eagle article — Bailey v. GTB Election Board
PESHAWBESTOWN — A new election will be held for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ chairman’s post after a tribal court ruled the band’s election board improperly censured candidate Derek Bailey just before the initial vote.
A 23-page order issued by the band’s appellate court last week threw out the results of the May 21 tribal chairman’s election and ordered a new vote for the four-year post.
Bailey lost by 23 votes to two-term incumbent Robert Kewaygoshkum. But he challenged the results because the band’s Election Board held an emergency meeting two days before the election and subsequently issued an e-mail censuring him for allegedly using his tribal computer to visit his campaign Web site.
No date for the new election has been scheduled, tribal officials said.
“Although the Election Board found no violations of the 2008 Election Regulations (by Bailey), it appears the Board did not like what Bailey had done, and therefore chose to ‘go the extra mile’ by censuring him for alleged violation of government policies, which is far outside the scope of the authority granted to the Election Board under the Constitution,” the court ruled.
Bailey said the decision is historically significant and should ensure that tribal members who seek election will be treated in a fair, consistent manner.
“The integrity of our electoral process was questioned, and by taking this matter in front of the full judiciary committee, we now have established that there were violations of the election regulations by the election board,” Bailey said. “In doing so, we set now a good precedent in 2008 to carry us forward in our future elections, and that I’m proud of.”
Election board Chairman Sam Evans could not be reached for comment.
Kewaygoshkum defeated Bailey 233 to 210 in the election. Almost 460 tribal members voted, representing about 53 percent of the band’s registered voters, tribal election officials said.
The ruling does not impact the other three tribal council seats decided at the election. Incumbents David Arroyo and Sandra Witherspoon were the top vote-getters, while newcomer Brian Napont was elected to the seat vacated by Bailey.
Kewaygoshkum said he’s ready to move past the long-pending election dispute.
“I’m just glad it’s moving forward,” he said. “We’ll have another vote and hopefully we’ll have the same result.”
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