Some tribal members cry foul over election proceedings

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1997 | 10:55 a.m.

Elko Band Council Chairman Raymond Gonzales refused to discuss the election results.

"I don't get involved in it. I have no comment," Gonzales said.

Former election board member Marian Sam said poll workers left the voting place at the Elko Colony Gym promptly when voting closed at 7 p.m. Monday and election administrator Cheryl Finau took the ballot box.

"They're really going nuts because of the ballot box being taken off the reservation. It's unknown (where it was) for a 12-hour time period. Then it showed up at the Elko Band office at approximately nine this morning," Te-Moak Tribal Chairman Felix Ike said Tuesday. "The ballots have yet to be counted and yet to be posted and the election committee is to do it sometime in the next couple of days."

"The candidates I talked to, they're not contesting whether they won or lost. What they're contesting is the handling of the election," Ike said. "It's just the mystery of it all."

Among some members of the Elko Band, the election resurrects memories of the 1994 election, which was thrown out by the council as invalid and another election held in January 1995.

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