From the Leelanau Enterprise:
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians on June 10 completed a successful Primary Election process after experiencing delays earlier this spring.
“No challenges were filed and we certified the Primary Election,” reported Desmond Berry, chairman of the tribal Election Board. “We are moving forward with our schedule of events and look forward to a July 15, 2010 General Election,” he said.
The primary was originally scheduled for April with the General Election slated for last month. Election challenges delayed the process, however. The names of three candidates were removed from the original Primary Election ballot after the Election Board determined the three had violated campaign rules.
One of the candidates, incumbent tribal councilor Rebecca Woods, appealed the Election Board’s determination to the Tribal Judiciary. But the Election Board’s determination was upheld by the panel of Tribal Court judges.
Woods has since resigned from the Tribal Council and accepted a position as the tribe’s chief financial officer. The names of candidates Gail Diaz and Angela Shinos were also removed from the Primary Election ballot.
Held June 3, the rescheduled primary narrowed down a field of 18 candidates to six who will now compete for three seats on the seven-member Tribal Council in the July 15 regular election. The remaining three Tribal Council seats, as well as the seat of the Tribal Chairman, will be up for election in 2012.
The deadline for filing challenges in the June 3 election was last Thursday at 5 p.m. before the results were officially certified.
A certification document indicates that voter turnout in the primary was 41-percent. The total number of voters registered to cast ballots in the primary was 922, with only 374 actually voting.
Although total tribal membership is more than 4,000, only adults residing in the tribe’s six-county service area in northwestern lower Michigan may vote in tribal elections. Voting occurred at four polling places in the region. All of the 20 absentee ballots issued were cast in the election.
The largest number of voters, 164, turned out at the tribe’s polling place in the Tribal Council chambers in Peshawbestown. The tribe’s Three Mile Road office in Grand Traverse County accommodated 109 voters; and the tribe’s Benzie/Manistee office had the highest voter turnout, 40 percent, with 53 voters casting ballots there. Twenty-eight voters cast ballots at a polling place in Charlevoix County, representing 30 percent of those registered there.
The deadline for tribal voters to register to vote in the July 15 General Election is July 8 at 4 p.m. The deadline for submitting a completed application for an absent voter ballot is Friday, June 25.
Following the July 15 election, the deadline for filing election challenges will be July 22. Assuming no challenges are filed, three new Tribal Council members will be sworn in on July 26 at 2 p.m. at the Leelanau Sands Showroom in Peshawbestown.
Three incumbent tribal councilors who were running for reelection in the primary were not among the top six who made it through the primary election process.
The annual salary for a tribal councilor begins at around $60,000 and increases based on committee assignments and election to officer positions on the council. The Tribal Council runs the largest government operation in Leelanau County and serves as the board of the tribe’s Economic Development Corporation which, through the Leelanau Sands Casino and other enterprises in Peshawbestown, is the largest single employer in Leelanau County.
Turtle Talk 