The following story was written and reported by Kate Saltzstein. All content © Native Sun News.

WINDOW ROCK, AZRIZONA — Lynda Lovejoy, who sought to become the first female president of the Navajo Nation, has given up her bid for a recount of votes from the November election.

After a commanding lead in the tribe’s primary election in August, Lovejoy lost to the tribe’s vice president Ben Shelly by about 3,000 votes in the November general election. Lovejoy, a New Mexico state senator, said that during the election, people called her from across the reservation complaining that polling places ran out of ballots preventing them from voting. She also charged that there was fraud in the election.

However, the director of Office of Election Administration responded that there was no fraud in the election and that representatives from his office visited people who could not vote on Election Day to record their votes.

It would have cost Lovejoy more than $5,000 to pay for a recount.

Lovejoy appeared before the tribe’s Hearing and Appeals Office in Window Rock to discuss the election.

“I filed a complaint , not specifying a re-count, but about polling places running out of ballots during the day which necessitates some attention. That’s not a good way to run an election,” Lovejoy said in a phone interview from her Crownpoint home. “I represented myself. I didn’t bring a lawyer. I expressed my concern about the Election Commission running out of ballots. They plan to make improvements. Hopefully they will. I didn’t ask for a re-count.”

She had been told to bring witnesses or statements from witnesses, but no one was willing to go with her.

“They are afraid to come forward. The opposition is now in power ; they are afraid of retaliation, or repercussions,” she said.

Lovejoy won the primary election with about 17,000 votes to Shelly’s 7,000. But with twelve primary candidates, many voters later switched to Shelly.

Lovejoy said there are many reasons for her loss.

Many Navajos did not vote for a woman because of traditional beliefs that a woman would bring problems to the tribe, she and others have said. Also, opponents accused her of being a drunk, a claim denied by Lovejoy. And, there were other “dirty tactics” she said.

“It’s very hard to know. It (her loss) shocked everybody,” Lovejoy said.”There’s the woman factor. And, I wanted to go back to running good government; that threatened a lot of people. They could not challenge my record (as a state senator) of bringing back money to the reservation for infrastructure. They could not challenge that. The only thing they could do was dirty tactics. They saw women leaders as an omen of a natural disaster. They had to resort to that. It’s very, very complicated.”

Some have suggested that Lovejoy’s choice for vice president Earl Tulley, who is considered strong on environmental issues, was another factor in her defeat because people feared losing their jobs in mines and the lumber industry.

“His stance on environmental issues scared some people,” she said. “He said we should be careful how we use minerals. People turned that around. They said he would fire people from their jobs. But he was about (maintaining) a good environment.” Lovejoy was shocked at the tactics used by her opponents.

“In the last seven days of the election my opponents did everything to make me look bad. That was their strategy. I can’t compromise my integrity. If I lose I always felt I’m losing but my conscience is clear. These personal attacks, they went as low as they could. I stuck to the issues. (But) My platform didn’t matter in the last seven days. People were threatened about losing their paychecks. The strategy worked.”

These days, Lovejoy is back to doing her work with the state Senate.

“I’m very busy doing things I love working on behalf of the people funding important programs and activities.”

And, she may write a book about her life and the election.

(Contact Kate Saltzstein at: salty223@aol.com)