Letter to Indian Affairs on NOOKSACK Election "Irregularities" And Dereliction of Duty by BIA

Dear Mr. Black,

I'm quite aware that you are very tired of hearing complaints about Nooksack Indian Tribe especially in regards to the upcoming election; however there are several concerns I and other members believe need to be addressed. We have been informed that B.I.A. was in the vicinity when the ballots were mailed out; however I do not believe that you are aware of the fact that many voting members did not receive ballots. Below is a list of reasons identified so far:

1. addresses are incorrect due to one or two numbers wrongly written
2. addresses have had apartment numbers left off so have been returned, yet not remailed, rather put in the safe, although voter had been informed it was being mailed out and always received tribal correspondence before with the apartment listed
3. voters have waited for ballots after making several calls to the superintendent only to never receive it and having to finally go into the election office to get their ballot that again was in the safe.
4. voters including elders that had updated their addresses and receive all Nooksack correspondence previously have not received a ballot and told by the superintendent that they needed to go in and update their address--again
5. voters that were told their ballot had been mailed out and returned finally went in to the election office and retrieved their ballot that was supposedly returned however it did not have evidence that it had been previously mailed out--was not even postmarked.
6. voters in Canada have not received ballots or just received them within the last few days when their is a 10-day turnover time for mail from Canada
7. voter that called in to receive a ballot on October 14th was told her ballot would be mailed on the 18th and on the 25th went in and found hers sitting in the safe--this was one that had the apartment number left off--although she gets all other tribal correspondence with the apartment listed

Lastly I would like to inform you that an individual who has been sitting in a seat of power--never had won the seat--for position C rather been placed there when other members were removed--twice over--Agripina "Lona" Johnson is posting that 386 ballots have been returned...this is also posted on the Nooksack Tribal website. Is this not a breech to already be aware of how many ballots have been returned? Shouldn't these ballots have gone directly into a secured box without anyone's knowledge until they are to be counted?

These are serious concerns and the reason that many Nooksack Tribal Voters were in agreement on having the B.I.A. provide a neutral third party to conduct this election.

I pray that these serious concerns will be addressed since it's become very clear that many have not received ballots and due to living a great distance away will not be able to travel to the election office to retrieve them from the safe therefore denying them of their right to vote. It's bad enough that our young voters who are now 18-19 years old are being forbidden to vote because they are being told they were not 18 as of March of 2016--the date the election should have originally been scheduled.

Sincerely,

Deborah E. Alexander---Concerned Nooksack Tribal Member