New election to be called for Teslin Tlingit Council in Yukon after last one deemed invalid

The Teslin Tlingit Council in the Yukon is planning a re-do of last September's election, after the earlier vote was deemed invalid.

The First Nation's electoral adjudicator last month ordered a new election, based on an appeal and subsequent investigation into the Sept. 5 vote. The adjudicator found that some electors did not get an opportunity to vote because of problems with mail-in ballots.

Eric Morris, the current Naa Sháade Háni, or chief, did not run in the last election and he's still in office until the next leader is sworn in. He said the problem was that some mailed ballots were not sent out to the right addresses.

"Part of it is the challenges we had around having up-to-date addresses for our citizens in our registry," Morris said.

"Some of our citizens that don't live in Teslin, that don't live in Whitehorse either, that live outside of the territory, were actually getting their mail out ballots quite late in the process. And so by the time they would have actually decided to fill it out and put it back in the mail and [the] election would have actually been over."

The election adjudicator did not find any evidence of intentional misconduct of bad faith in how the September vote was handled. 

The adjudicator also ruled that the nomination process for the election was valid, so any candidates who were on the ballot last time will be eligible to run again.

A date has not yet been set for the new election, but it's expected to be called in January. In the meantime, the First Nation intends to update its address list for electors.

The ongoing Canada Post strike could also have an impact on when the new election can go ahead, according to Morris. 

Elizabeth Bosely, who won the vote for Naa Sháade Háni in September, said it was stressful to learn that an appeal had been launched into the vote after the excitement she felt at winning. Bosely would have been the first woman to hold the job

However, Bosely accepts the call for a re-vote.

"It is what it is," she said. "All of the candidates had an opportunity to meet with the chief and with the executive, and we were able to talk a bit about, you know, our frustrations with having to do a re-vote, and what can you do?" 

Bosely said she's planning to do some campaigning in the new year and hopes that everybody who voted for her supports her again.

Morris said he's happy that he had decided not to run again, and so he's able to just stay in office until the next election happens.

"In hindsight, I think that's probably was a good decision because I'm not sure what kind of a dilemma that would have created for us if I had decided to run again as the chief," he said.