Election Board decisions: Election Board Opinion Russell McClellan 7 13 10 and Election Board Supplemental Opinion.
From the Leelanau Enterprise:
A General Election to seat three members of the seven-member Tribal Council of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians has been delayed yet again.
The election was slated to occur today, July 15, but has been postponed for a third time. A new date had not been determined as of press time this week.
The tribe’s appointed Election Board met in special sessions on Monday and Tuesday to hear testimony, review evidence and discuss a complaint that one of the six candidates in the election failed to comply with election regulations by campaigning during working hours and taking other actions that threatened the integrity of the election process.
Former Tribal Councilor and current candidate Thurlow “Sam” McClellan was accused of campaigning during working hours by having phone conversations with incumbent Tribal Councilor Brian Napont, whose term does not expire until 2012. During the conversation, McClellan and Napont were heard in a recorded conversation disparaging other candidates and incumbent tribal leaders.
The phone conversations had been recorded, apparently inadvertently, through a voice mail system in a tribal office. The recordings were subsequently copied and distributed among tribal members by third parties.
“While it is clear that McClellan did not intend for his phone conversation with Napont to be recorded, or for it to be circulated among members of the tribe, the fact remains that the message was recorded, and that the message has been circulating among Tribal voters,” according to an opinion and determination issued by the Election Board on Tuesday evening.
Turtle Talk 