Cherokee chief's motion to compare votes granted

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) – The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court granted a key motion by Principal Chief Chad Smith on Saturday, the second day of a hearing over the American Indian tribe's disputed election.

The court ordered a comparison of all voters in the tribal election commission's voter database to the tribe's current enrollment registry, the Tulsa World reported. Smith maintains that by comparing the two lists, it can be determined if unregistered voters cast ballots during the June 25 election for the principal chief's office.

There was no immediate indication when such a comparison might be done. About 15,000 votes were cast during the election.

Smith is appealing a hand recount conducted June 30 by the election commission after Smith and tribal councilman Bill John Baker were separated by only a handful of votes. The recount showed Baker ahead by 266 votes over Smith, who has asked the court to order a machine recount.

Unofficial returns gave Baker the lead by 11 votes the morning after the election, but the commission declared Smith the winner one day later by seven votes. The overall vote totals have been different in each count.

The justices haven't said when they might rule on Smith's request for a machine recount or if they might order a new election. The hearing was continuing into Saturday evening.

After Smith's attorneys rested their case Saturday, Baker's attorneys asked the court to dismiss the appeal, saying Smith has failed to prove fraud. Under Cherokee election law, the fee for a regular appeal is $500, but if fraud is alleged, that fee is $1,500. Smith paid the latter amount in filing his appeal.

The hearing Saturday began with testimony from Terry Rainey, who owns Automated Election Services, about whether the process of using machines to count absentee ballots could explain the difference between the initial vote count and the hand recount.

Baker's campaign has said Rainey has acknowledged in court and in a deposition that a double count of absentee votes could explain the difference. Rainey clarified those statements Saturday, saying he reached that conclusion only because he worked through the vote numbers in the matter offered by Baker's attorneys.

Two observers of the hand recount, Valerie Giebel and Melanie Knight, testified about watching tired ballot counters and seeing tabulation issues during the recount. Giebel was an observer for the Smith campaign. Under cross-examination by Baker's attorneys, she acknowledged that even though the counters were tired, each counter matched tallies on precincts before the total was agreed upon.

The Tahlequah-based Cherokee Nation is Oklahoma's largest tribe and one of the nation's biggest, with membership approaching 300,000. Smith or Baker will administer a $600 million annual budget after an inauguration set for Aug. 14.

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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com