Cherokee Nation Election Commission chairman Roger Johnson filed a resignation letter early Tuesday morning. No action has been taken yet on the filed letter.
“My honor, character and integrity have been unreasonably damaged,” he wrote, citing inaccurate media reports in the election’s aftermath.
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court has set a hearing for 8:30 a.m. Friday on all pending applications and motions.
Just before 5 p.m. July 1, Chadwick “Corntassel” Smith demanded that the election commission finish June 30’s recount using a machine. The results of June 30’s hand recount were certified as official, but the Smith campaign maintains the recount is incomplete because there is a 251-vote discrepancy between the sum of the votes counted June 30 and those in the original certified results announced June 27.
According to a sworn affidavit from Melanie Knight, the Cherokee Nation’s secretary of state and Smith’s representative during the first few hours of the recount, Election Commission attorney Lloyd Cole of Stilwell told Smith, challenger Bill John Baker, both of their attorneys and herself prior to the recount that the number of ballots counted Thursday afternoon and evening would be the same as the total from the results certified June 27.
The recount named Baker the winner by a 266-vote margin, overturning the certified results posted June 27 that listed Smith as the victor by seven votes. Those results reversed the unofficial count announced early June 26 that named Baker the winner by 11 votes after the election commission spent all night reviewing about 250 challenge votes.
Full Article: Cherokee Nation election chairman turns in resignation letter | Tulsa World.