SIOUX VALLEY DAKOTA NATION — Three ballot drop boxes that were locked at a Sioux Valley Dakota state government office Thursday night were opened and counted Friday afternoon without an elections official present to sign the boxes.
According to a livestream on First Nation's YouTube channel, Jennifer Bone was leading the race for president at press time last night after a tumultuous two days of vote counting.
Electoral officer Burke Ratte stopped counting First Nation ballots on Thursday due to concerns for his safety and the safety of his team, he told the Sun on Friday. He said he received numerous threats throughout the day and that a group of people forced open a locked door to the building during the election.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation member Jonah Vacanta issued a brief statement to the media Friday regarding the decision elders reached during a closed meeting on the vote-counting process. Vote counting was stopped Thursday night due to election official concerns for his safety. On Friday everything resumed without him. (Photo by Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
“It's very bad. I mean, it's just terrible,” he said in a telephone interview. “We received so many threats of violence during the voting that we had to leave after I started counting the ballots last night.”
Around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Virden RCMP received a call asking for assistance in keeping the peace. The report states that a threat was received against a representative of the election commission.
Ratte was taken out of the village under the supervision of linemen.
An election officer left signed ballot papers with First Nations security officers. The ballot boxes were then locked inside the government building, where cameras monitored them until Friday afternoon.
The chief election pitted Bone against incumbent Vince Takan, who was indicted earlier this month for alleged sexual assault in 1984. There were also 14 candidates running for council.
A community meeting was held Friday with about three dozen Sioux Valley elders and representatives of candidates on the ballot. The group decided to continue counting votes, which had been stopped the night before.
“Our elders came together and held a meeting,” community member Jonah Vacanta told reporters after the meeting. “We're going to count the ballots.”
Community members decided to write Ratta a letter relieving him of his duties immediately and organized a ballot count live on YouTube. The broadcast began around 16:00 and continued until the evening.
As of 8:45 pm last night, Bone, the former chief, was leading by about 160 votes to Takana's 85 votes.
Ratte said he doesn't know how Friday's vote count will work from a legal standpoint. He said he had informed the federal government of the situation but had not received a response as of Friday afternoon.
Members of the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, appointed as elders Friday, counted ballots for Thursday's chapter and council elections at the SVDN Office Building as community elders looked on.
“I am the election official and I am not counting these ballots,” he said. “I'm not only responsible for counting the ballots, but also for signing the results. So it will be interesting to see what happens.”
Ratte said he was appointed by the chief and council by council resolution, and that he was unsure whether the same authority extended to the group of elders that relieved him of his duties on Friday.
The Sun contacted Indigenous Services Canada this evening for information about the process, but did not receive a response before publication.
While not a member of the Sioux Valley, Ratte came from Winnipeg to serve as election official. He said he felt in danger that people would break into the concert hall, but he did not see the group of people who opened the door.
Tatedutawin Pompana, who later broadcast the event on social media, said she believed the threat was overestimated.
Pompana said a group of six women opened the locked hall door, which is known to be pulled open. She said no one entered the room, it was peaceful and that First Nations security officers had the situation under control.
“Everything was fine, I wasn’t scared,” she said. “I didn’t feel threatened standing there.”
Approximately seven First Nations security officers were at the scene. Police officers occupied the doorway to prevent people from entering.
Another community resident who was in the room and did not give her name said she felt threatened by all the commotion caused by threats earlier in the day.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation community member and supervisor of elections Teresa McKay talks to community members about the decision made by elders at a closed meeting Friday.
“We have three doors in the veterans’ hall, they knocked on all three doors,” the woman said.
The RCMP told the Sun that as of Friday afternoon, the threat against the election official was unfounded.
“The threat remains unfounded, there have been no arrests and there have been no RCMP reports of weapons at the polling place or any damage to the building,” an RCMP spokesperson wrote in an email to the Sun on Friday.
Ratte said he would have finished counting ballots Thursday night if there had been no unrest. When he left, Ratte said he planned to return under safer circumstances.
“We're going to find a day when it's truly safe here and I can go back and count the ballots,” he said on a campaign broadcast Thursday.
