Community heads to polls in Kanesatake

Tomorrow (Saturday) is election day in Kanesatake, with polls for the 2025 Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) general elections open for the last time as the community chooses its next band council leaders.

There are two polls open on Saturday, August 2, both from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. They are located at the United Church Hall and Ratihén:te High School, the same locations advance voting was hosted one week earlier.

The candidates for MCK grand chief are Victor Bonspille, Brant Etienne, and Serge Otsi Simon.

Running for MCK chief are Amy Beauvais, Shirley Bonspille, Valerie Bonspille, Lynn Cataford Gabriel, Denise David, Kahionhate Riley Denis, Cindy Gabriel, Mary Nicholas, Amanda Simon, and Serge Otsi Simon. Derek Denis, Francis Phillips, and Todd Simon are also running for Council chief; these candidacies are conditional, the subject of a separate article in this week’s issue of The Eastern Door.

Election process

Barring a tie, which would trigger a recount, it won’t take much time after polls close to discover the makeup of the next Council, with results coming late on August 2 or early on August 3. The counting is expected to take three to four hours, chief electoral officer Graeme Drew estimated based on previous elections he has administered.

Besides a tie, Serge Otsi Simon winning on both ballots could also slightly delay an announcement since the code doesn’t outline how this would be handled. “I’ll deal with that situation if and when it arises,” said Drew.

Each candidate is able to scrutinize the count, either themselves or through a designate.

“The electoral code has a fairly restrictive definition in terms of who can attend the count, which in my view is a bit unfortunate because I like transparency, especially at the count, because that’s the time when people are most concerned about things being done properly and no funny business,” said Drew.

“That said, we’re following the code, and that means a candidate or a designate like a scrutineer can attend on their behalf, so that’s who will be in the room.”

There could be two counting teams to speed things up, which has not yet been decided at the time of writing.

“If I did that, I would allow the candidate to have themself and one other, or two scrutineers, so they each could observe the counting tables,” he said.

The count may even be streamed, he said, but this has not yet been determined either.

Some community members have expressed concerns about the ballots not being numbered, something that was noticed at the advance poll.

This is nothing to be worried about, according to Drew.

“It’s important that ballots not be numbered,” he said, since this aids anonymity.

While people may have noticed that there is a numbered portion of the ballot that is torn off at an event like a federal election, Drew said this is because the nature of keeping track of millions of votes necessitates such a system, and it is not necessary at this scale.

“I have an inventory control system I use for all my ballots,” he said.

Each ballot is initialled by him personally, and he only provides his initials shortly before the poll opens, and then these ballots are recounted, and at the end the initialed ballots are reconciled like a till with the number of voters who cast a ballot.

“Basically, they treat it like money,” said Drew of the election staff. “They treat it like gold.”

Meanwhile, an encrypted spreadsheet is used when a voter casts their ballot to ensure a community member does not attempt to vote more than once or at multiple polling locations.

The ballots cast at the advance poll are in sealed ballot boxes in a secure location. The seals are signed, and photos were taken that can be compared to the ballot boxes to demonstrate that everything is as it was when the boxes were sealed.

All the ballots will be tabulated following the close of polls on Saturday.

Drew said some asked about the presence of members of Kanesatake Perimeter Security at the polling locations last weekend. These members have taken leave from Perimeter Security and are paid through Drew’s operational budget.

“These people are not double dipping on pay. This money is not coming through the security department,” said Drew.

The group, led by coordinator Kane Montour, also received training from Drew prior to the advance poll, he said. He sought to commission them following some tensions that arose during the nomination period, he said.

“I’ve been very impressed with the professionalism, the integrity, the reliability, the commitment of (Montour’s) whole team and himself,” said Drew.

Those who are dissatisfied with the election process will have the opportunity to file an appeal.

An appeal board was named last night, Thursday, at a special public meeting after The Eastern Door’s publishing deadline.

“It’s an important meeting, and it’s important that people know that if they’re not happy with things, they have time to submit that. They can put their information together and then the appeal board would go to work in early September to review all that,” said Drew.

Appeals can be submitted within 30 days after the election.

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter