The Ute Mountain Ute tribe will hold an election on Friday, Oct. 11, to choose a tribal chairman, two Towaoc council members and a White Mesa, Utah, council representative.
The deadline to register as a candidate was August 27.
The Ute Mountain elections board is in the process of conducting background checks on the slate of potential candidates, said Corrina May, election board member.
“A candidate cannot have a felony in order to run for office, so we are waiting on the background checks, which is taking longer than we thought,” she said.
The list of approved candidates is expected to be released by late this week or early next week. Once the ballot has been finalized, the campaigning can begin.
Tribal Chairman Gary Hayes’ three-year term is up, and three-year terms for councilmen Bradley Hight and Davis Wing are also ending. White Mesa representative Elayne Atcitty’s three-year term is up as well.
“We will be posting the election notices with all the information,” May said.
Absentee ballots will be sent out to tribal members who live off of the reservations.
On Oct. 11, the polls in Towaoc will be open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The voting poll in the White Mesa will probably be at the Education Department.
Winning candidates will be sworn in on Nov. 1.
“The process has been going along well,” May said. “We usually have quite a turnout out for the tribal council positions.”
