By AP
Tahlequah, OK – Cherokee chief election recount to resume Sunday
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A Cherokee tribal official says a second manual recount of the votes cast in the June 25 election for tribal chief has ended for the night and will resume Sunday morning.
Mike Miller, a tribal spokesman, says about 4,000 of the roughly 15,000 votes cast were re-counted on Saturday. It will resume at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
Three-term incumbent Chief Chad Smith and longtime tribal councilman Bill John Baker were present during the recount at the tribe's election commission headquarters in Tahlequah.
Unofficial returns on June 26 showed Baker ahead by 11 votes, but the next day the election commission certified Smith as the winner by seven votes. The first recount showed Baker ahead by 266 votes. Smith requested a second recount.