KATHERYN ALLEN, as a Choctaw )
citizen of District #8, )
)
Proponent, )
)
vs ) Case Number: SP-R-82-1
)
EDNA BELVIN, Councilwoman, )
District #8, )
)
Protestant. )

The Proponent, Katheryn Allen, of Hugo, Oklahoma, filed with the Court Clerk, a petition for the recall of Edna Belvin, Councilwoman, District #8, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, on the 29th day of October, 1982. This petition consisted of twenty-four (24) legal size pages which the Court Clerk numbered and initialed at the top left corner of each page. He then placed consecutive numbers to the left of each signature beginning with one (1) and ending with two hundred seventy-six (276).

There being no rules or procedures provided by the Tribal Council to authenticate the signature on the petition as registered voters of the Choctaw Nation, and the Office of Voter Registration having no director or employees, the Court Clerk, in conjunction with two previous employees of the Voter Registration Office, Frances Farrell, and Lorene Blaine, searched the voter registration files for District #8, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. This search established that there were a total of seven hundred thirty-eight (738) registered voters in District #8 on October 29, 1982. They determined the number of registered voters of District #8 on the recall petition to be two hundred twenty-three (223).

Information was presented to the Court by Mr. Jimmy Sam, Attorney for Edna Belvin, Protestant, that several individuals had contacted his client and indicated that they were not adequately informed as to the true purpose of the petition and desired to have their names removed. Mr. Sam made a motion for dismissal on the grounds that the petition failed to contain forty percent (40%) of the registered voters.

Article XV, Section 2(a), Proposed Constitution of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, requires that at least forty percent (40%) of the registered voters of the district or area in which the officer was elected sign the recall petition.

The Court finds that there are seven hundred thirty-eight (738) registered voters in District #8, and of the signatures on the recall petition, two hundred twenty-three (223) are valid. This represents 30.2% of the registered voters on the recall petition.

The Court hereby declares that the petition as filed with this Court on the 29th day of October, 1982, does not contain sufficient signatures needed to constitute forty percent (40%) of the registered voters required by the Proposed Constitution of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and therefore requires no further action by the Court.

This Court further declares that this case file shall remain open for thirty days and anyone who previously signed the petition and objects to their name being thereon because they were not properly informed of the true nature of the petition, may file with the Court Clerk a signed statement explaining the circumstances of their objection, and this statement shall be made a part of the case file.

Ordered this 4th day of December, 1982.

JOE C. TAYLOR, Presiding Judge, ED CURTIS, Judge, CHARLEY G. JONES, Judge