Cherokee Election Hearing

New controversy has surfaced in the Cherokee Nation election for Principal Chief after election commissioners told the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court that they are not sure the election recount results are accurate. The issue came up during a hearing Friday for Court to decide how to settle the disputed election.

Challenger Bill John Baker was named the unofficial winner by 11 votes after the initial vote count on Sunday, June 26. But a day later incumbent Chad Smith was declared the official winner by seven votes after the election certification process. Then Baker was certified the winner on Thursday, June 30 after a complete hand recount.

But there were 251 fewer total votes counted during the recount than in the initial count. Smith has petitioned the Supreme Court to either order another recount to be conducted by ballot-counting machines, or throw out the election altogether and hold a new vote.

Friday's hearing began just before 10am, and the Court adjourned for the day just after 5pm. The hearing is scheduled to continue at 8:30 Saturday morning.

But those who were in the hearing Friday had very different views of what they heard in the testimony.

"The election commissioners are testifying strictly on the procedure, and how they adhered to the procedure and followed Cherokee law," Cherokee citizen and Baker supporter David Cornsilk said.

Commissioners testified that the procedure for the hand recount was followed exactly, and that there were no ballots found that were not counted.

"It didn't speak to me so much that they had confidence in the procedure because something obviously happened," Cherokee citizen and Smith supporter Gayle Ross said.

The Supreme Court Justices asked each election commissioner individually if they are certain the recount results are accurate. Each said they were not certain of the results, despite signing a count certification. Later, while being questioned by Baker's attorneys, each commissioner said there was no firm evidence to suggest anything went wrong with the recount. But there were 251 fewer ballots counted overall in the recount than in the initial count, causing them to question why there were fewer votes.

"You heard speculation that it was probably not in the counting, but in the tabulations," Ross said of where a mistake might have occurred. "But from what I've heard from eyewitness testimony in the room, there was plenty of room for error in both."

Commissioners testified that they used the exact same procedures for the recount as they had in previous election recounts. Both candidates had representative watchers in the room during the recount. Still, Smith and his supporters believe something went wrong.

Cornsilk says he didn't hear anything in the testimony that convinced him there was an error in the recount. But he says he understand why Chief Smith would exhaust all his options.

"I want the final result of this to set at ease the mind of the Cherokee people, that they have elected a Principal Chief, that he wasn't slipped into office, that he didn't do anything sneaky, that both parties were just simply adhering to the law," Cornsilk said.

Representatives of both candidates speculated the hearing could potentially last several days.

Under Cherokee law, the Principal Chief is supposed to be sworn into office on August 14.