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2004 Election Disenfranchisement conversation
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----- Original Message -----
From: Mark A. Landrie
To: WebMaster@LittleShellTribe.com
Cc: bwlandrie@bresnan.net
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 9:21 PM
Webmaster of the NOT OFFICIAL WEB SITE,
The information you post is in correct and certainly not what was done according to your information. All changes that were made to the elections process were posted on the OFFICIAL WEB SITE and not on this fake site. You say you are for the betterment of our tribe then please post the truth and not what you think will get you the spot light. It is not fair to our tribal members to give one sided information and expect them to make sound judgments based on it. If you truly think you are giving the whole truth and nothing but the truth then I would suggest you ask those of us that actually are on the Elections Committee and not take someone else's word as to what we said or didn't say. Clearly you have another agenda in mind and I for one will not accept your lies. Post this if you like or better yet if you dare, the truth might just be known about your hidden agenda.
Mark A. Landrie
Elections Committee Chairperson--------------------------------------------------------
From: Robert D. Rudeseal [mailto:webmaster@littleshelltribe.com]
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 9:02 AM
To: Mark A. Landrie
Subject: Re:
Mark Landrie,
You say that the items on the website are lies, please list which items are lies, I would be most happy to post corrections to them. Not all actions were posted by you on the Official website, for example, I had sent several e-mail to you asking for reasons why absentee ballots were not sent out on time. I received 3 different explanations for it from you personally. The first being that a particular Election Committee Member was sick, the second being that you had decided to delay the mailing because you had extended the Ballot request period and wanted to send them out all at the same time, the third reason being that there had been an election challenge with eligibility requirements on one of the candidates. The only explanation you had posted was that of the third reason and you only posted that AFTER the election was conducted and it was in response to a message from a Candidate's question that was posted on the website. Either way and whatever the reason, at no time did you post information that you had changed the deadline for sending out Absentee Ballots in accordance with Rule 3 of the Election Rules which states that Absentee Ballots will be sent out on or before November 20th 2004. I checked daily, especially after sending the emails. I checked for amendments to the rules posting and the postings you were doing in the General Information thread. You only announced changes to Absentee ballot Request deadlines and Candidate Nomination deadlines.
Either way you did not send out Absentee Ballots until December 2, 2004 as attested by the Postmarks on the Envelopes of the ballots that were sent out. (US Postal service only placed Postmarks on envelopes the DAY they are received at the post office). Although some members never did receive ballots as attested by their postings on the message board. I have received information from Members on letters they have written to agencies of the Federal Government and their intention to draft letters to other federal agencies disputing the Election Committee's actions and the handling of the Election and the "Changing the Rules" in the middle of the game. These members feel these actions were illegal and disenfranchised them. If you consider direct quotes from your own correspondence to be lies and falsehoods then there is not much I can say other then I think it strange that a person would consider his own words to be lies because they are not inline with their latest excuse.
Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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----- Original Message -----
From: Mark A. Landrie
To: 'Robert D. Rudeseal'
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 1:16 PM
Subject: RE:
(Personal Message from Mark Landrie to myself redacted for privacy reasons)
This email is from me personally and is not the opinions or views of the Elections Committee.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Robert D. Rudeseal [mailto:webmaster@littleshelltribe.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 7:56 AM
To: Mark A. Landrie
Cc: Little Shell Tribe
Subject: Re: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Mr. Landrie,
I am sure you and the other members of the Election Committee worked very hard to make sure the election was handled efficiently as possible, but the fact remains that mistakes were made and some Tribal Members feel Disenfranchised and some may very well have been disenfranchised.
Just before and right after the Election, some members posted on the "Official Message Board" complaints that they never received Ballots after they requested them. You told them to basically "Not Panic". In fact, here is your response in total:
Quote:"EVERYONE, Please be calm there is no reason to get upset over the elections. All of the 63 absentee ballots were sent all over the nation and not just Spokane. We must as a tribe be united and therefore all must have say no matter where they are located. Since they did not have the opportunity to vote at no fault of their own. It is the fault of the Elections Committee and we will certainly take the heat for it. I have never seen a perfect election, there is always going to be problems but if we stick together and work through it the elections will be done and the best we have had. "
Unquote
These members are upset that you blew off their complaints and have not responded to their requests as to why they sent in Absentee Ballot Requests and never received a ballot. These Enrolled Members reside all over the United States. To quote one angry disenfranchised Tribal Member:
quote "It's just not fair that because I live so far away that my vote doesn't seem to matter!" unquote
You said in the earlier e-mail that I must have a hidden agenda and that the truth must be known. You are correct in this, the truth must be known. We must know why enrolled tribal members were denied their Constitutional rights to vote in this election, why were their legal requests for ballots ignored, if the Absentee Ballot Requests were rejected, why were the Enrolled Tribal Members not notified that they are ineligible to vote and given an opportunity to appeal the decision.
The Definition for "Disenfranchised" is as follows: "to deprive a person or organization of a privilege, immunity, or legal right, especially the right to vote."
This term is not a "Lie" as you claim, it is fact. If you as the Chairman of the Election Committee will be investigating these claims of Disenfranchisment, please let me know and I will post the information on the website, If you forward to me the results of your investigation or your statement declining to Investigate these claims of Disenfranchisement I will also post them for the world to see. If you do not answer at all, then I will post your earlier statements included below as your response to the Claims of Disenfranchisement.
Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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----- Original Message -----
From: Mark A. Landrie
To: 'Robert D. Rudeseal'
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:17 AM
Subject: RE: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Please give me a list of those members and I will see if they sent their ballots back after they posted their problem on the web. As for your "disenfranchised tribal members" statement it seems that only you are making this claim and I for one have not heard any ones make this claim. If there are some out there why are we hearing from you and not them? I certainly would have been making calls and finding out why. If there was some that were missed by mistake it could be because either their address was wrong in the office so we could not get in touch with them or it could even be possible that some stuff got lost in the mail. Don't get me wrong I'm not claiming mail problems at all. There is no intent on anyone's part. You are being an unreasonable since the comments made in regards to what you took off the web page is exactly what it was meant to say. Again give me their names and we will look to see if we sent a ballot and if we received it back. Don't make this harder then it already is by making claims without getting the facts strait from the committee. We certainly have nothing to gain from anyone not being able to vote if that happened. Again I say give us the names so we may investigate your claim. The following is a quote from a very informed person.
"It is easy to see a problem from afar; it is even harder to see the solution to that problem if the problem is your inability to provide that solution".
Unless you can give name of those who are making these claims so I can do an investigation then you are simple blowing in the wind and up somebody's tail!!
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----- Original Message -----
From: Robert D. Rudeseal
To: Mark A. Landrie
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
You replied to the Tribal Member's complaint with the quote I sent you. She was very upset that you never followed up on her posting. I sent her an email asking if she ever received any response from you and whether or not she was able to vote.. She replied that she never heard from you and was not satisfied with your response to her complaint on the message board.
Thank you for making the effort to Investigate this. I look forward to hearing the results of your Investigation.
Here is the list of name I received:
(10 Names and addressess of Members making Disenfranchisement Complaint Redacted for Privacy reasons)
Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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Mr. Landrie,
Here are more names that have been forwarded to me.. Some Claim they were never notified by the Tribe of the election, I have not cleaned it up but will just paste it as is. I have been basically getting names of Tribal Members who feel disenfranchised on a daily basis.. I will forward them all to you as I receive them for your Formal Investigation.
Thanks
Bob R.---------------------
Here are the names in Hardin Mt. who were not informed of the election. All enrolled members!!.(16 Member Names redacted for Privacy Reasons) has all there addresses and gave me the names.
Billings: (3 member names redacted for Privacy reasons)
Sheridain Wyo: (1 member name redacted for Privacy reasons)
California: all sent for absentee ballots, I'm told. very upset that they weren't given a chance. (4 Member Names redacted for Privacy Reasons)
There are more coming in this evening. Family of (1 member name redacted for privacy reasons). All of these would have voted if given a chance.
------------------------Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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From: Mark A. Landrie
To: 'Robert D. Rudeseal'
Cc: suzi_q94@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 9:52 PM
Subject: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Here's the names of the ones that ARE ENROLLED
(6 member Names redacted for Privacy Reasons). and i checked all of my forms and my list and none of these names or any of the other ones are there.. here you go have at it..
This was an email from my secretary. She was able to get with Ethel the enrollment officer. Only the ones listed above were in fact enrolled at this time. Either they others are expecting to be enrolled for what ever reason or they might be enrolled in Turtle Mountain and not the Little Shell. Dual enrollments are not allowed and the enrollment officer is looking for these people and notifying them to make a choice as to which tribe they wish to be with. None of any of the names you gave me sent an absentee request form to the elections committee. We are missing about 15 to 20 absentee ballots from the list we sent out including the Spokane special absentee ballots. We also were able to check with the person who does the newsletter and she did not recognize most of the names as someone who is getting newsletters. Some of the names you gave me you had also included their email address. This leads me to believe that they have access to the internet which means they could have done just what you did and request an absentee ballot request form. It would seem to me that you are blowing a lot of hot air my way and I would very much thank you to please turn your head and blow it elsewhere. Please give me something that is true and you actually have something for me to investigate other wise please go away. Quite being the problem and start being the solution!! You continue to stir the pot for no reason other then to think you are the good guy. I'm here to tell you are not the good guy but rather a trouble maker and a cheap shot artisit.
MARK A. LANDRIE
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From: Robert D. Rudeseal [mailto:webmaster@littleshelltribe.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 7:45 AM
To: Mark A. Landrie
Subject: Re: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Mark,
Thank you for taking the time to check the names out. I am going to assume you consider your official investigation of these complaints of disenfranchisement closed.
Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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From: Mark A. Landrie
To: 'Robert D. Rudeseal'
Cc: suzi_q94@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Robert,
I consider this unforntionate that our extended tribal family members did not have the chance to cast their vote for what ever reason seems to fit. It is very difficult to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to vote. Regardless, it was incumbent on them to ensure that their information was up to date in the office so they could in fact get newsletters so they can be kept up to date. I would certainly put the ball in your court and ask that you help them to get the information by getting them on the newsletter list. It is a small donation to get them but a great help to our tribe that all have knowledge of what is going on within the tribe. Since there is no intent on anyone or any group to "disenfranchise" anyone then yes I would consider this closed.
Mark
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From: Robert D. Rudeseal
To: Mark A. Landrie
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: Disenfranchised Tribal Members
Mark,
Just out of curiosity, why didn't the Council make the Tribal Rolls available to the committee? According to BIA rules (CFR 25-81), the Rolls are to be made available to the Election committee so the notice of elections can be sent to all adult enrolled members (18 and over) no earlier then 30 days and no later then 60 days prior to an election. The Election Committee having to rely on "Word of Mouth" and the chance that the members are subscribed to a newsletter instead of the Official Rolls of the tribe because the Council did not make them available is, to be honest, inexcusable.
Personally, I do not think there was any intent of anyone on the Election Committee to disenfranchise anyone. I think the way the system is currently setup does that already, as seen in this election and past elections. As you have seen, the biggest complaint is that "I was not aware there was an election". Two of the names on the list I sent you said they sent in the ballots but never got anything back, your records showed that you never even received them but they were enrolled. How to resolve this problem? What guidelines were given to the committee by the council? That's the problem, no guide lines were given for situations like this. There is no real "System" in place other then the Council making an edict that basically say's "We need an election, here is the list of volunteers, go do it" without any guidance or structure.
I don't know how any of this can be resolved, but perhaps, since the Election Committee will be in existence till the new Council is in place and the Committee is disbanded, perhaps you and the other committee members could turn this experience into something that will prove to everyone that we as a tribe are working through our differences and are being flexible enough to make changes in a system that does not seem to be working.
Our Constitution says that we are a reorganized Tribe under the enabling act of 1934. This Act is incorporated in Title 25 of the United States code and is codified by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian affair rules under CFR Title 25. Guide Lines for Reconstructed Tribes to conduct elections is listed in CFR 25, Section 81. This section gives guidelines on how the Secretary of the Interior is to conduct elections ordered by the DOI and also gives Guidelines on how Tribes can setup their own elections. (you can read this section here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/25cfr81_04.html )
Perhaps the Election Committee can come up with a list of recommendations for the Tribal Council on how future elections are to be handled. Not only will this provide structure that will abide by our own Constitution (as described in our Preamble and in Article 3, section 10) and also guarantee the rights of Tribal members guaranteed to us under the United States Constitution. Our Government will be conducting itself in the manner described by our Constitution by incorporating the Rules of CFR 25. If the government of our tribe conducts ourselves as if we were Federally Recognized, perhaps that will help us in being Recognized in reality. What makes people mad is the "Make up the rules as we go along" attitude of some people in our government. This is frowned on by the BIA, and since we are asking Congress to Recognize us, we cannot allow ourselves to be seen as being governed by anarchy that is in complete ignorance of our own constitution and laws.
Anyhow, that is my personal opinion and my hopes for the tribe. You wanted to know what my ulterior motive is? This is it. Thanks for listening and I return you to your normal programming.
Bob Rudeseal
Webmaster of Unofficial
Little Shell Tribal Member website
Webmaster@LittleShellTribe.com
http://www.LittleShellTribe.com
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