Navajo elections board: Deschene will be on ballot; elections will go forth as planned

The Navajo Nation election will go forth as planned and Chris Deschene will be on the ballot, despite objections to his candidacy, according to Edison Wauneka, the Executive Director of the Navajo Election Administration.

Deschene will run against Joe Shirley, Jr. in the election, which is scheduled to be held Nov. 4.

Wauneka said there had been no court order to remove Deschene from the ballot, and the Navajo Elections Board of Supervisors voted 7-1 Monday to proceed with the ballot as planned.

The Office of Hearings and Appeals previously urged the Election Board to take his name off. The Navajo Supreme Court could still decide to take Deschene’s name off the ballot, according to Wauneka, but since there has yet to be any court action, the ballot will remain unchanged.

Wauneka said the elections board did not want to change the ballot, and said “the people have spoken” when it came to Deschene’s legitimacy as a candidate.

He said that should a court make a decision to remove Deschene between now and the election, the Navajo Nation would likely put Russell Begay on the ballot as his replacement. The Navajo Nation is scheduled to print ballots between Oct. 20 and 24, but Wauneka said the printing could take longer.

The Navajo Board of Election supervisors voted 4-2 Oct. 1 to move forward with the election, despite the challenges to Deschene’s candidacy because he does not speak Navajo fluently,

Wauneka said at the time that board members cited N.N.C. § 24 (A) when making the decision. The amendment says the election administration should hold all candidate applications it has certified as eligible for 10 days, during which other applicants for the same position may file sworn challenges with the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Former presidential candidates Dale E. Tsosie and Hank Whitethorne previously filed grievances about Deschene’s potential candidacy, which were originally struck down by the Office of Hearings and Appeals.