Attorneys file motion to delay court-ordered Seneca-Cayuga election

MIAMI, Okla. – Attorneys representing chief Bill Fisher and a faction of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe’s business and election committees have filed a request with the Court of Indian Offenses to delay their tribe’s court-ordered election.

Documents filed Tuesday afternoon with the court clerk’s office include a notice of intent to appeal and a motion seeking a stay of the court-ordered election for seats on the Seneca-Cayuga’s Business Committee and Grievance Committee.

On June 21, Judge Tom Walker invalidated an election conducted at the Seneca-Cayuga’s June 4 General Council meeting and ordered the tribe reconvene its citizens for another vote on or near July 23 with an independent monitor overseeing the process.

Citing a 2008 council resolution, Walker’s ruling also explicitly stated that in-person voting would only be allowed in the new election, something the attorneys for the Fisher administration argued would create two classes of citizens. The tribe had previously allowed for absentee voting in its elections.

“By invalidating the election ordinance as to mail-in balloting, the court decided an issue not before it, imposed an order on the tribe and its officers which were not before the court and, without notice or hearing, deprived members of the military, infirmed tribal members and tribal members without the ability to vote due to work commitments, lack of financial resources to travel to a poll or for other reasons their franchise as tribal members and substantially affected the rights of non-party candidates to an election designed to expand citizen participation,” attorney Nancy Green wrote.

On April 26, the Seneca-Cayuga Business Committee announced that the tribe’s regularly scheduled June 4 election would not be happening due to litigation involving a candidate’s eligibility for office. However, an election was conducted anyway after an attempt was made to unilaterally conclude the meeting.

Video footage of the June 4 meeting taken with a cell phone shows two tribal members attempting to call a point of order with respect to the agenda during a presentation from an auditing firm. Fisher did not acknowledge either and eventually announced the meeting was adjourned without asking for a motion or calling for a vote to end the session.

The court clerk’s office deferred all scheduling questions on the matter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ headquarters in Washington.

Headquartered in Grove, the Seneca-Cayuga Nation has about 5,100 enrolled tribal citizens.