Tacan calls election ‘illegal,’ Bone defends result

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation’s electoral officer Burke Ratté and candidate for chief Vince Tacan say they reject the “unofficial” election results circulated online on Saturday that declare Jennifer Bone the new chief.

But the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs reposted those results and congratulated Bone as the “newly elected chief,” and Bone herself told the Sun on Sunday that she and council were sworn in after votes were counted.

“We don’t believe that those are unofficial results,” Bone said, countering Ratté’s and Tacan’s position.

Early Saturday, Bone had posted what she described as the election results on Facebook, stating she received 371 votes to incumbent Tacan’s 212. She also listed Jon Bell (235 votes), Darryl Hapa (255 votes), Melissa Hotain (283), Bill McKay (277) and Randall Wasicuna (336) as elected councillors.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs reposted the same tally, congratulating Bone and the council candidates as “the newly elected chief and councillors.”

However, Ratté — who has said he been appointed for the election by council and Tacan, who was chief at the time — said his authority was bypassed Friday afternoon, when community members entered the governance hall and began counting ballot boxes without him.

He claimed the vote count took place without his authority and may have excluded online and mail-in ballots, adding that the vote tallies posted online didn’t come from him.

“I have the legal responsibility as electoral officer to conduct the count and sign off on the results,” Ratté told the Brandon Sun in an interview on Saturday. “I cannot sign off now because the ballots may have been tampered with. I don’t know what was done.”

Ratté said that after feeling unsafe in the Sioux Valley governance building on Thursday night, having previously told the Sun he dealt with multiple threats throughout the day, and a group of people had forced open a locked door to the building during the election.

He said he and his staff left, then waited for the RCMP to return the next day to escort them back to the ballot boxes.

Instead, he said, the three ballot boxes, which had been locked, were opened and tallied during a community-driven count livestreamed on Sioux Valley’s YouTube channel Friday evening — a count he wasn’t present to supervise and cannot “validate.”

“This is unheard of,” Ratté said on Saturday. “Would it be acceptable for citizens in Brandon to enter a polling station, intimidate staff, take possession of ballot boxes and conduct their own count? That would never be allowed. Why should it be acceptable in our community?”

But Bone disputed Ratté’s account of feeling unsafe. She said significant security was present and that Ratté declined RCMP assistance.

“There was RCMP on site, First Nation safety officers, and a third-party security firm,” Bone said Sunday. “The RCMP … were willing to stay while he completed the count, but he refused, and he walked away from his duties.”

As a result, Bone said, community elders met and decided to relieve him, appointed another electoral officer and proceeded with a ballot count, in accordance with the First Nation’s laws and constitution as a self-governing nation.

She added that Ratté was sent a letter from elders via email on Friday before the votes were counted, notifying him of “breach of contract.” The letter — a copy of which was provided to the Sun by Bone — states that Ratte’s “abandonment” of the ballot boxes at the Veterans Hall had led elders to terminate his contract.

The ballot boxes had remained secure following Ratte’s departure, Bone said, locked in the building and monitored until the ballot count resumed.

As for Ratté’s concern that mail-in votes weren’t counted, Bone said they couldn’t be because they were in Ratté’s possession when he left and should be considered void. She maintains there was no option to vote by email.

Meanwhile, Tacan asserts the election process was “illegal” and Indigenous Service Canada should look into the matter and allow the nation to have another vote.

“I do not accept the results of Friday’s vote,” Tacan told the Sun. “To me, the count was illegal … it wasn’t the electoral officer that did the counting. There is a manner and way in which those are done.”

Tacan said residents have raised issues about spoiled ballots seen on the livestream and missing online votes.

Bone counters that the election was decisive and that she contacted Indigenous Services and was told it wouldn’t intervene: “They said it was between the community and the contractor.”

And, despite Tacan’s appeal for federal oversight, the department said its role is limited.

The federal department will not intervene unless the First Nation requests a leadership update or the matter is taken to court, Services Canada spokesperson Eric Head told the Sun.

“Sioux Valley Dakota Nation’s leadership is determined through a custom electoral system, rather than by the election rules contained in the Indian Act,” Head said in an email. “The department has no role in how the community’s leadership is selected or how governance disputes are resolved.”

He added that disputes under custom election codes “can be resolved through processes in their election selection process, or through the courts.”

» aodutola@brandonsun.com with files from Connor McDowell

» X: @AbiolaOdutola