Cheslatta Carrier Nation elections for Chief and council took place on June 2 and the results are out.
Incumbent Chief Corrina Leween was re-elected as the chief, while Hazel Burt and Janet Whitford were elected as councillors.
For the council, the candidates in the running were Hazel Burt, Ted Jack, Tara Quaw and Janet Whitford. For the chief, there were two candidates in the running, incumbent Chief Corrina Leween and Cathy Troy.
Leween won with 123 votes while Troy had 18 votes and one rejected vote.
On April 23, a final list of candidates running in the election this year was released.
The initial vote for councillors was close with Burt getting 89 votes, Jack 69, Quaw 53 and Whitford 65 after which there was a recount for the votes for the councillor positions.
Electoral Officer Loreen Suhr even said that she had never seen a race that close before.
The final tally of the votes after the recount for the councillor position was Burt at 89 votes, Whitford at 67, Jack at 65 and Quaw at 53.
Chief Leween and former councillors Burt and Jack were re-elected back in 2017 by acclamation after they turned out to be the only candidates to come forward at the nomination meeting. Burt has been re-elected this year as a councillor while Jack lost his lead during the recount.
The ballots were counted by Suhr and her team in the presence of an independent witness. In the middle of the vote however, a member called questioning a rejected ballot.
The controversial ballot had a heart drawn instead of an “x” mark.
“The one where they used a heart for their mark and we accepted that while the one with a heart or markings done outside the box we rejected,” Suhr said. Adding that when considering a mark inside the box, the intent of the voter was care. However, in case of any markings outside the box, it has to be rejected because it could give indication as to who is voting “but we do have some latitude so long as the intent of the voter is clear” she said.
“All we look for is a cross against your candidate in the box. As soon as there is some other markings on the ballot outside the box, you have lost that ballot and it will be rejected,” said Suhr during the vote count.
The vote counting took place live from Prince George on June 2 with Suhr and her team starting the vote count of mail-in ballots at 12:55 p.m. The event was live on Facebook and has also been recorded for members to view later at their convenience.
“We had about 58 per cent of the membership voting. It was quite a good number; sometimes it is only 30 per cent,” said Suhr.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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