By a popular vote of the people, William R. Rhodes secured the Governor's seat on Tues. Nov. 4, the date the Gila River Indian Community conducted its general election for its top officials.
Rhodes secured 1149 votes. Jennifer Allison-Ray came in at 1019 votes. Allison-Ray presently holds the position of Lt. Governor. Oaths of office take place Jan. 1, 2009 for family members and special invited guests. As is customary, an Inauguration ceremony will be conducted on Sat. Jan. 3, 2009 to introduce the leaders to the Community. The Sheraton at Wild Horse Pass is the venue for the 2009 Gila River Indian Community Governor's Inauguration.
Joining the 2009-2012 Rhodes administration will be Joseph Manuel, who garnered 1454 votes for the office of Lt. Governor. Manuel presently holds the position of Community Manager for GRIC operations. Tina Notah-Enos, Community Manger presently assigned to Community Housing as acting director, secured 917 votes.
The Legislative Standing Committee (LSC) on Wed., Nov. 12, voted to certify the election results and forwarded the item with recommendation for approval to the Tribal Council for the next regular meeting to be held on Wed., Nov. 19.
However, certification of the election results was not met without a hitch. Election Ordinance GR-02-02 provides that protests can be filed with the Community Election Board within three business days following the election.
A formal protest was filed by Allison-Ray on Fri. Nov. 7. According to Allison-Ray, who was present at the LSC meeting, ". . . A Community members' right to vote was negated."
According to the Chief Election Judge, John Giff, "This was the first election where same day voter registration occurred." Ballot forms ran out at Dist. 3 and 4 polling sites. As a remedy, absentee ballots were delivered to the sites and utilized in place of the marked ballots.
Allison-Ray further stated that ". . . This is the reason why I presented my protest."
According to an opinion memo presented by Jason Hauter, Assist. Gen. Counsel, before the LSC, "None of the protests provided sufficient evidence to warrant a new election." Additionally, he stated "There were no sworn statements, no affidavits, no specifics as to when, who, or how an individual did not have an opportunity to vote." He added, "No specific acts occurred or were stated. To have a new election would be drastic. Having a new election would outweigh and inconvenience the voters who voted."
Election officials stated to the LSC that they took extra precaution and paid special attention to detail to their processes to ensure no errors or possible wrongdoing occurred which could potentially set off a protest action. So much so that it took the D3 polling site several hours to deliver its official numbers to the Governance Center. This fact elicited an apology from Byron Jackson, D3 Election Judge because it was well after midnight when the results were finalized and the numbers announced.
Giff stated that no more than 30 minutes passed from the time of notification to the time of delivery of the absentee ballots. "No one was denied the right to vote." Additionally, in a wrap up session held by election officials the Sunday after the election, each was asked the specific question: "Was a Community member who wanted to vote denied a vote or any that walked away?" All said no, Giff reported.
As a precautionary measure had an election protest been ruled valid, the Election Board presented to the LSC steps to perform a recount had it been determined to be necessary. After weighing the facts, the LSC determined that a recount would be redundant, costly, and unnecessary.
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