Hoopa Valley election board chair and member “unofficially” step down

The Hoopa Valley election board chair and a member have stepped down shortly after an investigation is launched after results in the Hoopa Valley Tribal election are found to be incorrect.

Jeffery Lindsey, who works on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation says something isn’t adding up.

“So there is something very fishy going on about the vote counting, now everything I heard is second hand, just before they did the recount the chairman of the voting committee and the one person both quit,” said Lindsey. “It’s kind of just surmising that voter fraud is going on, because the person counting the votes is the same last name is potentially related to the  one that was declared the winner, but turned out to be the loser, so it’s very suspicious.”

Redwood News reached out to Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Byron Nelson Jr., he confirmed two election board members recently stepped down “unofficially” but did not confirm their names.

We were directed to Hoopa Valley Tribal Council’s attorney, which whom we have not heard back in time for publication.  

The saga began when photos circulating online with both unofficial and official results, indicate an 83 vote swing in favor of Arnold “Deacon” Ferris over Ryan Jackson.

According to a press release from the Tribal Chairman Byron Nelson, on June 18th — 2 days after the election — a petition contesting the results was filed.

Then on June 23rd, a recount discovered that the unofficial results for the Norton Field District were incorrect, and that Ferris had actually won by 80 votes, rather than lost by 3 votes.

Ferris has been declared the official winner.

The following day, the election board met to verify the results for the Mesket and Campbell field districts, both of which were calculated correctly.

The board’s findings suggest individuals or groups have engaged in efforts to manipulate the election results.

According to Chairman Byron Nelson, all information is being referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for further investigation and action.