Two new OST elections scheduled for November

PINE RIDGE—Trying to discover the precise list of reasons why the Oglala Sioux Tribe has thrown out the primary election results and scheduled a new primary for November 3 and a new general for November 17, is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. What we do know for certain is a special primary election will happen November 3, which is the same day as the state/federal midterms. The general election, which is between the top two vote getters of the primary election in every race on November 3, will be November 17, all of this according to a resolution KILI Radio announced and OST posted on the Tribal Council page.

The October 6 primary results were discarded, never certified. An October 8 draft resolution attributed the irregularities to errors by a nontribal election-services provider. OST is considering legal action against the provider. Again, here, the problem is the document may have the incorrect name of the provider, so nothing concrete has been established about provider identity let alone incompetence.

A public notice detailing established polling locations and hours, absentee-ballot procedures, status of original ballots, or a complete official explanation of what went wrong, when it what wrong, and why it went wrong, was unavailable at press time. Lack of transparency has been an escalating OST problem and is on display in the rescheduled November elections.

A tally of the discarded October 6 primary has been unofficially circulated across social media platforms, and although these totals mean nothing officially, they do give us an indication of what we might expect in the upcoming November 3 primary.

Discarded October 6 primary results for President:

Alicia Mousseau 568

Henny Whalen 524

Frank Star Comes Out 511

John Long 203

Given the controversy over irregularities like challenge votes, the top three, could easily change position. Which matters because only the top two advance to the general. Incumbent Star Comes Out was eliminated but now he only needs to make up 13 votes to replace Whalen at number two.

Vice president has become an office for people looking for a salary and a minimal amount of actual service to earn it. Whether that is the motive of every candidate is pure speculation. Here are the top four vote getters:

Justin Pourier 416

Josey Eagle Bull 341

Emmanuel Black Bear 326

Trina Lonehill 284

As in the presidential primary, Black Bear needs only 16 votes to pass Eagle Bull.

The number of councilmen was recently dropped from 21 to 9. Five of these districts were primary contested by four were not: LaCreek, Pass Creek, Porcupine, and Pine Ridge.

EAGLE NEST DISTRICT

Blaine Little Thunder 69

Ronald Randall 40

Wesley Hawkins, Sr. 25

MEDICINE ROOT

Ryan Jumping Eagle 119

Ronald Red Owl 72

Randi Hunter 54

Jeremy Rosales 53

WHITE CLAY/OGLALA

Troy Little 112

Tyler Yellow Boy 52

Valerie Janis 44

Josh Williams 40

WAKPAMNI

Jackie Siers 88

Marcus Palmier 67

Reno Red Cloud 63

Charles Standing Bear 17

Red Cloud missed the general by the narrowest of margins, 5 votes. Even if we gets those five votes on Nov 3, Jackie Siers is a formidable general election opponent.

WOUNDED KNEE

Garfield Steele 105

Joshua Steele 83

Dave Kelly 76

Kevin Yellow Bird Steele 19

Hobart Yankton 13

Madonna Her Many Horses 8

Kevin Ramos 2

Kelly only needs eight votes to pass Joshua Steele. Regardless of which two win the primary, those who voted for the third place finisher will swing the general because the third base vote total far exceeds the separation between first and second.

The most noted example of an OST primary being redone happened in 2002. The primary results were invalidated because of irregularities involving ballot handling. Russell Means defeated John Yellow Bird Steele in both primaries. But in the general, held on November 19, Yellow Bird Steele defeated Means. This is similar to Toby Doeden recently defeating Larry Rhoden in the primary, but in the runoff, Rhoden crushed Doeden, once all the other candidates were removed from the ballot. Not only can the new primary (irregularities presumably corrected in the interest of fairness) produce dissimilar results, the subsequent general, can and has gone to the second place primary finisher, and in dramatic fashion. There is also no guarantee that these two new elections will not themselves be subjected to review for irregularities that might invalidate their results.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him as skindiesel@msn.com)

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