The election board has been locked out of its office at the tribal complex since a June 2011 recall election.


CARNEGIE, Okla. – The Kiowa Business Committee is challenging the constitutionality of a previously announced special election.

The Kiowa Business Committee declared Monday that the Dec. 22 election scheduled by the tribe’s election board illegal and invalid, claiming the board acted beyond the scope of its authority.

According to the Kiowa Constitution, the five-member election board must have a quorum of three to conduct business. The board was already operating with a vacancy at the time of the election announcement, then lost another member with the Oct. 30 death of Walter Quetone.            

In a statement, the current Kiowa Business Committee announced that it only recognizes two seated election board members: Karen Purley and chairman Dwayne Davis, whose term expired Dec. 31, 2011.

Announced in October, the special election is for all eight seats on the Kiowa Business Council and four seats on the tribe’s housing authority, as well as several referenda brought before the Kiowa Indian Council in 2011 and 2012.

The election board has been locked out of its office at the tribal complex since a June 2011 recall election and conducted its pre-election business at the Anadarko Public Library.

Calls to Davis and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Southern Plains regional office in Anadarko, Okla., and were not returned.