The Osage Nation Election Office received 18 provisional ballots mailed for the June 4 General Election, but those ballots will not be counted toward the final results because that number is not high enough to impact the unofficial results.
Election Office workers collected the provisional ballots kept at the Pawhuska post office Wednesday morning, which is 48 hours after the absentee ballots were collected for the June 4 election. Those considered to be provisional ballots are postmarked at least one day prior to the election and received by the Pawhuska post office within 48 hours after the election.
The provisional ballots could impact the number of votes cast depending on which candidate the absentee voters voted for. But provisional ballots are only counted if the number of ballots match or exceed the number necessary to affect the outcome of any race/ issue, according to the Election Code.
In this year’s general election, 18 provisional ballots “are not enough to affect the outcome of the election,” said Election Supervisor Alexis Rencountre. For that to happen, Rencountre said 50 provisional ballots would’ve been needed because that’s the number of votes between John Jech, who placed sixth with 487 votes and Amanda Proctor, who finished seventh with 437 votes.
“If we had more than 50 then we could (count them), there is a possibility that would make a difference,” Rencountre said.
The ON Election Board is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Friday to consider certifying the election results at its Pawhuska office.
In other election news, the Election Office has released a breakdown of the election results which detail how many votes a candidate received from in-person voters and those who cast absentee ballots. The same breakdown for the seven proposed Constitutional amendments was not immediately available. All seven amendment questions failed to receive 65 percent of the “yes” vote in the election.
According to the unofficial results breakdown, Shannon Edwards received the highest number of absentee votes out of all the 34 candidates who ran this year. Edwards (who placed fourth) received 416 absentee votes and 168 in-person votes, which equal 584 votes.
John Maker, who finished second with 601 votes, received the highest number of in-person votes out of all the candidates. He received 387 in-person votes and 214 absentee votes.
The breakdown for the remaining top four candidates who finished with the most June 4 votes is:
RJ Walker, who finished first with 607 votes, received 357 in-person votes and 250 absentee votes.
Archie Mason, third with 587 votes, received 243 in-person votes and 344 absentee votes.
Maria Whitehorn, fifth with 506 votes, received 244 in-person votes and 262 absentee votes.
John Jech, sixth with 487 votes, received 263 in-person votes and 224 absentee votes.
By
Benny Polacca
Original Publish Date: 2012-06-06 00:00:00
