At 4:22 PM yesterday the election board responded to the candidates statement I submitted.
December 22, 2009
Dear Ms. Warren;
After receipt and review of your proposed candidate's statement received today via email, the Election Board unfortunately must reject the statement as submitted for the Voter's Pamphlet based upon the approved Voters Pamphlet Guidelines. The Voters Pamphlet guidelines, which were published, clearly state that “Candidates statements must not be offensive and abusive or contain personal attacks upon any individual.” Your proposed candidate's statement actually scarcely refers to you as a candidate for election and it contains personal attacks upon seven individuals.
If you would like your candidate's statement printed and sent to all eligible tribal members please submit a new statement via email to sdrilatos@gmail.com before 4pm on Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Your candidate's statement should include statements about yourself as a candidate and also according to the Voters Pamphlet Guidelines your statement cannot include any statements that are “offensive and abusive or contain personal attacks upon any individual.” We will gladly accept and print your candidate's statement that meets these guidelines by the deadline.
Sincerely,
Selina Rilatos
Election Board Chairman
Kelley Ellis
Election Board Member
Heidi Hibdon
Election Board Member
So the Election Board says my statement contains personal attacks on seven individuals. The only way they can get to that number is by saying that this passage contains personal attacks on five individuals:
Last year the reform candidate, Lisa Brown, was elected to the Tribal Council with a resounding 401 votes. But at her very first regular Tribal Council meeting in Februrary council members Dee Pigsley, Bud Lane, Robert Kentta, Tina Retasket and Jessie Davis voted to initiate expulsion proceedings against Brown. The first notice that tribal members saw in the Siletz News concerning these expulsion proceedings was the notification in Chairman Pigsley's column in April that Lisa Brown had, in fact, been expelled from the council on March 29th. All tribal members in the community and across the country should have had the opportunity to have their voices heard on so grave a matter as the immediate expulsion of a newly elected Tribal Council matter. Instead many tribal members were not even aware this was going on until it was over.
This is the only time in my statement I mention Robert Kentta, Tina Retasket, and Jessie Davis. Their vote last February to initiate expulsion proceedings against Lisa Brown is of course a matter of public record. But the Election Board is saying it is a personal attack to even mention to tribal members how these Council members voted.