Sho-Ban Tribes General Election winners: Marshall, Tyler, Edmo & Small
From left, Roland Marshall, Lee Juan Tyler, Ladd Edmo & Nathan Small.
By JOSEPH WADSWORTH
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — Roland Marshall was the top vote getter with 390 votes in the Shoshone-Bannock General Election May 28. Lee Juan Tyler received 375 votes, Ladd Edmo 354 votes and Nathan Small got 298 votes.
They will be sworn into office June 8 when new officers will be selected.
Incumbent Donna Thompson and Claudia Washakie both received 279 votes each, Darrell Shay 238 votes and Adam Boyd Hill got 209 votes. The election returns were conducted at the Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High school.
The elections opened with a prayer by Marlene Duran, then right after election workers, along with tribal administration staff started opening the first part of the envelopes. There was a total of 1,294 registered voter ballots mailed out to Shoshone-Bannock tribal registered voters for the election and out of that number 42 was newly registered after the 2021 primary election. Total ballots received was 712 and there was 6 ballots that were undeliverable.
Roland Marshall said he wanted to thank the tribal members that voted for him, “pretty humbling to be here and I can’t say how grateful I am and very appreciate of all the hard work these people put in and making sure that this election took place. I look forward to the opportunity to working with the council”.
Ladd Edmo said it was good to be there at the tribal elections and said there are many more tribal members out there that can get registered to make the elections highly competitive. “I like to thank the team for their effort to be sure that everything was secret and to all the candidates that ran congratulations, maybe another time, another place just glad to represent our Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.”
Nathan Small said, “I to would like to thank everybody that came out and voted — made this an interesting election, also to like to thank the staff and people that helped put this together. I know it’s a lot different.” He said it’s the first time he’s seen something the way this is being held, “but we had to make those changes to accommodate for everybody to vote.”
Ballots being counted during the SBT General Election on May 28.
Challenger Claudia Washakie thanked the membership that voted in the election and said “It’s very important that you exercise your right to vote, because that’s what’s given to us as each and every tribal member has that opportunity to cast their ballot for candidates who they think deserve to be on the council making the decisions what’s in the best interest in general.”
Donna Thompson, incumbent, thanked the voters for voting the candidates of their choice. “The last six years have been very interesting, I have learned a lot and so I want to wish the new coming in council a lot of luck and the incumbents as well, best of luck to everybody.”
Incumbent Lee Juan Tyler spoke in the Shoshone language thanking the voters who came out to vote for everyone including him, “heart felt, humbled as well and appreciate continuing on for our past leaders and ancestors.”
Adam Hill also thanked the voters and staff noting there are a lot of issues with the Tribes, “I know that with the changing of leadership hopefully we can look at these issues and get a different point of view and a better understanding of what’s going on. Hopefully we can lead our Tribes into a betterment of the future and definitely look out for the protection of our reservation and homelands here.”
