OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge has denied a restraining order request and the Kiowa Tribe’s Bureau of Indian Affairs-conducted election will continue Saturday as scheduled.

On Friday morning, Judge Timothy DeGuisti ruled against John Daugomah, a Kiowa citizen who was seeking a temporary restraining order to prohibit the BIA from conducting a special election for all eight seats on the Kiowa Business Committee.

Claiming a lack of authority to call a tribal election, Daugomah filed the suit on Sept. 8, naming Roberts, former BIA Southern Plains regional director Dan Deerinwater, BIA deputy director Mike Smith and the five members of the BIA election board as defendants.

In his ruling, DeGuisti took issue with the timing of Daugomah’s legal challenge. The election was initially announced in June and ballots were mailed out in late August.

“Plaintiff’s choice to file this action on the eve of the completion of the election when plaintiff has been aware of the pending election process for several months militates against the notion that emergency relief based on emergency proceedings to prevent imminent and irreparable harm is called for here,” he wrote. “Indeed, the procedure established for this election also includes a period in which the results may be challenged, which period does not begin to run until the election is completed on Sept. 17, 2016.

“The effect of granting temporary injunctive relief here would be to undo a months-long process at the 11th hour upon an insufficient showing of irreparable harm.”

With no walk-in voting allowed, Daugomah’s request came as ballots were already rolling in at the election board’s Anadarko post office box.

The federal government has not universally recognized a Kiowa election since December 2010. Since then, three of the eight business committee members have either resigned or simply quit showing up to meetings.

Citing a carryover clause in the tribe’s constitution, the five remaining members, led by Amber Toppah, have claimed that they are a legitimate business committee and have been working out of the Kiowa Tribe’s complex.

None of the five members of the Toppah-led business committee are among the candidates on the ballot.

Under the current Kiowa constitution, the tribe has a hearing board as its final arbiter, but it has not been fully staffed for an extended period, thus making it unable to intervene. Attempts were made to conduct elections in 2011, 2012, and 2013, however, the tribe’s election board does not have enough members to constitute a quorum and its office at the complex has been locked for several years.

For more than four years, the BIA’s Southern Plains Regional Office recognized the Toppah-led business committee as the tribe’s official government for purposes of contract renewals.

However, in February, the Board of Indian Appeals vacated the decision to recognize the Toppah administration on the grounds that Deerinwater overstepped his authority in doing so while an IBIA appeal was pending.

Download and read the ruling HERE.