Inaccurate Election Results May Have Been Intentionally Manipulated, Hoopa Valley Tribe Findings Suggest; Case to Be Referred to Sheriff’s Office for Further Investigation
Hoopa Valley Tribal Council press release:
The General Election of the Hoopa Valley Tribe June 16, 2020 unofficial results were calculated
wrong. As a result of recounting the Norton Field District election ballots, the Hoopa Valley
Tribe declared Arnold “Deacon” Ferris the official winner of his District.
A petition contesting the election results was filed on June 18, 2020 with the Hoopa Valley Tribe
Election Office alleging certain improprieties stemming from the tribal elections held on June 16,
2020. In response, the Election Board made the decision to recount the results of the Norton
Field District on June 23, 2020. The recount discovered that the uncertified and unofficial results
were not correct. The recount showed that Arnold “Deacon” Ferris won by 80 votes rather than
lost by 3 votes.
Since the recount of election results indicated a huge discrepancy in the number of calculated
votes, the Hoopa Valley Tribe is acting promptly and aggressively to protect the integrity of our
tribal election process. Due to the nature of the allegations that have been reported and the
discrepancy in ballots, the Election Board met on June 24, 2020 to verify the results of the
ballots for the Mesket and Campbell Field Districts. The Board found that the results were the
same and the winners of those two districts were declared correctly.
Further, our findings to date suggest that individuals and potentially groups of individuals have
engaged in efforts to manipulate election results through the election process. As such, the
Hoopa Valley Tribe will be referring all information to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Humboldt
County Sheriff’s Office for further investigation and action to hold the responsible parties
accountable.
Every tribal member must be able to vote without interference and to have that vote counted
without it being stolen because of fraud. As such, if you or someone you know has any
information regarding possible election fraud, I urge you to please contact my office
immediately.
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