Cheers to the White Earth Election Board for the classy way it handled an unusual primary election and even more unusual recount.
The primary election earlier this month was unusual in that, for the first time, the rule of "50 percent plus one vote" was invoked to declare incumbent committeewoman Irene "Rene" Auginaush to be reelected.
Had the preliminary vote tally held, there would have been no need for a general election in District 1 in the northern part of the reservation.
Because one vote could make the difference in this case, it wasn't surprising that the second place winner, Don Herchell Goodwin, asked for a recount.
That's when the second surprise turned up: Election officials discovered an uncounted "emergency" ballot for Goodwin that had been tucked inside a precinct envelope and forgotten.
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"We had to be truthful when we found that ballot and reveal it to the public," Head Election Judge Earl Hoagland told this newspaper.
It's hard to imagine that kind of honesty in tribal election officials 10 or 12 years ago, when corruption and election fraud were a big problem on the reservation.
And speaking of classy, cheers to Auginaush for accepting the recount results graciously and declining to challenge the results, even though it will require her to campaign for the June 13 vote.
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Jeers to the Detroit Township Board for trying to throw a wrench into the locomotive "whistle free zone" being planned by Detroit Lakes as part of the Highway 10 realignment project.
The township declined to endorse the idea because it said that car-train accidents might increase.
But the Wine Lake Road crossing is already equipped to be a whistle-free crossing, and the board wasn't so concerned about accidents a few years ago when it adamantly refused to put up crossing gates on Wine Lake Road because it didn't want to pay for them.
Looks like township officials just couldn't resist the chance to take a jab at the city by refusing to play along.
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And speaking of the Highway 10 project, jeers to whoever came up with the idea of closing the Lake Avenue railroad crossing.
It would be almost as easy -- and a lot more convenient for those who cross the tracks a lot -- to put up four-quad crossing gates or high medians there. Either change would prevent motorists from driving around the crossing arms, while still qualifying the crossing for whistle-free status.
Closing the crossing in 2008 is obviously a bone thrown to the railroad, which wants to close as many crossings as possible to cut down on litigation costs. But we're afraid it's going to cause a real jam up at the Washington Avenue crossing.
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On the other hand, we also have a cheer for the realignment project: Folks who live on the west side of Highway 34 are delighted at the prospect of traffic lights at the junction of highways 59 and 34.
It can take a long time to cross Highway 59 during busy periods, and the traffic lights, to be installed later this year, will be a great help.
