Opinion | BOOTS POND, General Council Vice Chairman
On Nov. 4, 2025, this was sent out to the General Council regarding the Interpreter Position on the last Ballot.
“CTUIR Voters should have noticed there was no write-in option listed on any ballots for the General Council Interpreter position. This happened because no nominating petitions for this position were received by the Election Commission, and we did not catch the missing write-in line until after the absentee ballots were mailed.
The Election Commission accepts full responsibility for this oversight and apologizes to voters for the confusion. To be clear, this does not compromise the integrity of the 2025 CTUIR General Election.
To ensure this position is still fairly decided by voters, the Commission will set up a separate voting process for all General Council members to vote for the General Council Interpreter.
Until a new Interpreter is elected, the current Interpreter will stay in the position, as allowed in Article V, Section 5 of the Constitution and Bylaws.’’
Now, it’s been almost a full year. I do believe the integrity of the 2025 CTUIR General Election has been compromised due to no further action from the Election Commission to resolve this situation. There have been no updates since this time either.
Our group of General Council Officers met earlier this past spring to discuss this issue. Even our ‘’Interim’’ Interpreter Thomas Morning Owl expressed concerns about this. There needs to be action by the Election Commission as they said they would in this Nov. 4, 2025 letter. It puts many avenues at risk with the lack of movement.
I hope this letter gets some action going. Doing nothing definitely ‘’compromises’’ this past election and future elections. This situation deserves closure.
