Tribal Election Law changes fail to pass

Three Tribal Council members stopped the attempt to rig the upcoming tribal election.  Carlton Hendricks Jr., Selena Jonas and Laura Tobey Miranda voted against a multitude of changes to the Tribal Election Ordinance .Their vote killed the changes disguised as minor revisions to the tribes election laws.  While 6 Council members ( Cheryl Frye Cromwell, Mark Harding, Marie Stone, Yvonne Frye Avant, Winnie Johnson, and Patricia Keliinui ) voted for the controversial changes, the Ordinance Regulating the Adoption of Ordinances Resolutions and Measures says ;

After considerations of the Ordinance and after all debate and amendments have been made the Tribal Council may enact an Ordinance by the affirmative vote of nine (9) members of the Tribal Council present.

So  the author of this election law overhaul, Mark Tilden, the Navajo lawyer who loves to play golf with the Tribal Supreme Court Judge Henry  Sockbasen ,  once again gave his bosses some very expensive  bad advice.   And apparently he thought no one would notice that they had to have a super majority vote to pass the travesty.  When questioned by Hendricks, Tilden could not say who told him to overhaul the election laws that allowed Cedric’s sister -n-law  Kimmie Frye, to dispose of  voter challenges and    “The Court of No Resort“ to dispose of election irregularities. Voter suppression is hard to disguise. Especially when the overhaul allowed Jessie’s illegal minions to register by mail.  That was a glaring mechanism designed  to wrench control from the true Mashpee.

No stuffing the ballot box !

And the paper trail on these birds is long. Long and telling.

Cedric and crew want to rig another election. They are so desperate to stay in office,  they have to  change the rules 2 months before an election. But we have to say that they were stopped this time   only because Selena and Laura decided to stop the bleeding.  It takes guts to stand up and say you’ve had enough and that’s what is required sometimes.  Sometimes doing the right thing is the only thing you can do.