Those of you who have received a mail in ballot may be wondering what’s going on especially with the historic ruling by Judge Amanda White Eagle saying that our Tribe cannot vote by mail. Well, we’re not voting by mail unless the Tribal Supreme Court Judge says so. Mean while the Election Committee told members to keep their ballots because essentially White Eagle “made a mistake”. Well unless Francie’s a mind reader that’s not true. Just more misinformation guided by Paula and Cedric.
In an effort to suck more money out of the Tribe, the very expensive ($60k) lawyers are appealing to “Supreme” Court Judge Robert Mills. it’s rare for a higher court to over rule a decision like this, but they’re appealing anyway. You see, the lawyers get paid more money for the appeal. All three of them. By the way Aaron Tobey did not file against us (the Tribe) it was against the Council and the elections committee.
The judge said the election committee was without authority. Again they violated the Constitution. Believe us…the higher court will see that too.
This letter was written by a Frye and it sounds like Bobby Frye don’t cha kno.
But on to really serious stuff. The election committee did send out the mail in ballots anyway. The ballots are wrong in several ways. The election may not be on March 26th, Rita Gonsalves is no longer running for chair and they never took into account the length of time it takes to get ballots back in. They couldn’t get the voter registration forms to those who needed to register on time. They sent them to everyone. Talk about confusion. Everyone did not need to re register. This goes to the fact that the election committee is clueless about the logistics of running an election and the precautions that need to be taken. And in the letter to Tribal members they accuse Judge White Eagle of “causing confusion” by declaring the mail in ballots unconstitutional? Condescending to a judge? Boy that’s brilliant!
The ballot is bootleg too. Names aren’t listed by incumbency or alphabetical or anything…just random and wrong.
Voting the way we should, on election day, in Mashpee can be done safe and sound. You can’t use ballots with the wrong dates or candidates who dropped out that can be copied a hundred times and sent in. How do they know if they are registered Tribal members without revealing their identities? All you have is the ballot and return envelope. Who’s going to put their return address and name one there to be thrown away?
Trying to meet the March 26 date depends on whether Robert Mills hears the case right away. Meanwhile the Monday (March 15) morning status hearing goes forward to figure out how the election will be run. That should tell you something.
