At its May 10 meeting, the Sault Tribe Board of Directors unanimously declared the referendum petition regarding Res. 2022-90 invalid.

The Sault Election Committee reviewed the referendum petition forms and noted probable non-compliance with Section 12.106(2)of the Referendum Ordinance. This ordinance states: “…The petition shall bear the name and address of each signatory in legible form. The name and address of the person circulating the petition shall also be included.”

This is the same legal requirement for nomination petitions, in which each petition must state “the name of the person circulating the petition on all nomination petitions.” As an example, petitions with signatures from different states all signed on the same day could not have been witnessed by the petition’s circulator, making those signatures invalid.

As a result of these findings, the Election Committee recommends to the board the petitions be considered invalid.

Please see the attached opinion for further details.

Referendum Opinion Letter