Roscoe Pond breaks down Umatilla Tribal election absentee ballot fiasco 2015

This is news coming out of Pendleton, Oregon on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. There are 2,199 Umatilla Tribal members who were eligible to vote in the 2015 elections. Only 753 voted. A whopping 1,446 members "Did Not Vote."

There were 142 absentee ballots counted including the 6 that were returned to tribal members who live off the Indian Reservation. Those 6 ballots were sent back in at the expense of the election committee. The Pendleton U.S. Post Office didn't give the committee an exact number of absentee ballots that were sent back to tribal members. This after the committee's "P.O. Box" expired.

Ellen Taylor filed a complaint that forced the election committee to postpone the "swearing-in" of the newly elected candidates on Dec. 2, 2015. She was running for a board of trustee "at-large" member seat who received 229 votes. There are only 4 positions & Ellen came in 5th place behind Armand Minthorn who received 265 votes. He was re-elected.

Ellen needed 37 votes to pass Armand if more absentee ballots were counted. That might be questionable because Armand could have taken away some of those 37 votes. Those votes also could've been taken away from him too, going to another candidate. Some off reservation voters probably gave up & didn't send their ballots back in. Which is their choice. Some didn't even vote & that's their choice too.

If only 142 off reservation members voted. What are the chances that you will get anymore votes? Think about it. Only 753 voted against the 1,446 members who didn't.

The "swearing-in" of elected candidates has been moved to Dec. 7, 2015.

Umatilla Indian Reservation upper right hand corner in Oregon. Click on Map for Tribal election news.