Liard First Nation Election Online Voting Dispute Sparks Cease and Desist Legal Threat
A voting methods dispute has disrupted the upcoming June 29, 2026 election at the Liard First Nation. The election committeeβs attempt to introduce electronic balloting was quickly declared illegitimate by the sitting chief and council, triggering formal legal notices and deep community divisions.
Key Highlights
- Voting Friction: The Liard First Nation election committee’s proposal to add digital voting options has fractured the political landscape right before the ballot.
- Legal Cease and Desist: Incumbent Chief Stephen Charlie retained legal counsel to officially halt the election committee’s unauthorized procedural changes.
- Diaspora Franchise: Challengers argue that banning digital ballots suppresses the votes of hundreds of citizens living globally outside Yukon borders.
- Pandemic Precedent: Leadership clarified that prior electronic voting was a restricted, non-binding emergency measure during public health lockdowns.
An election later this month at the Liard First Nation has already become contentious, because of a dispute over how citizens should be able to vote.
Last week, the First Nation’s election committee hosted a meeting where citizens were asked to decide whether to allow online voting for the next chief and council. A majority of those who attended were in favour.
But Stephen Charlie, the incumbent chief who’s running for re-election alongside six other candidates, says that meeting, and the vote, were invalid. He says there won’t be any online voting in the June 29 election.
“We had the election committee basically trying to push online voting,” Charlie told CBC News.
“And chief and council brought to their attention numerous times that it’s not part of our 2007 election guidelines.”
According to Charlie, any proposed change to the election guidelines must be brought to a special general assembly. That hasn’t happened, he said.
Charlie also said he’s not opposed to online voting but it’s too late to change the rules for this month’s election.
“The election cycle’s started. So you can’t be interfering with the election cycle once it’s underway,” he said.
Last week, a lawyer representing the current chief and council sent a letter to the committee, outlining those arguments and warning the committee to “immediately cease and desist from taking any further steps” toward amending the election rules around online voting.
Nobody from the election committee was available for an interview.
Harlan Schilling, who’s also running for chief, says the First Nation should “absolutely” allow for online voting.
“It’s 2026. Everybody should have an … ability to voice who is governing their nation,” he said.
“With a nation as large as Liard First Nation, online voting is what is actually needed. We have members all over the world.”
Schilling called Charlie’s arguments, and those laid out in the letter to the election committee, “absolutely bogus,” citing the fact that the First Nation has used online voting in the past.
Past online vote a pandemic exception, LFN says
A Facebook post by the First Nation last month acknowledged the use of online voting earlier, but called it “an exceptional measure,” used during the COVID-19 pandemic, and “a special vote on approval of a proposed Liard First Nation Constitution.”
“Without exceptional circumstances, the addition of online voting is a significant change that would have been implemented in LFNβs election rules through appropriate amending procedures including approval of the members,” the post reads.
Nikita Sawrenko-Bailey is running for council this month. She’s also in favour of online voting and feels that the incumbent chief and council are out of line.
“Preventing and halting online voting is just shameful,” she said.
“Putting a cease-and-desist to your own Liard First National election committee is just horrific. You’re retaining a lawyer and then using that lawyer against the community. It just looks so horrible and bad on leadership’s part.”
Sawrenko-Bailey said allowing for online voting makes it easier for all citizens to participate in the election, especially people who live down south or overseas, or Elders, or people who are incarcerated.
“This isn’t about restricting people. This isn’t about taking away their vote. It’s about making things easier and not harder,” she said.
Charlie said people who can’t get to a polling station in Watson Lake, Lower Post, Upper Liard or Whitehorse on June 29 already have another option β mail-in ballots. However, the deadline to apply for those has already passed.
Historical Context
The governing protocols of the Liard First Nation are anchored in custom election policies formally ratified in 2007. These foundational guidelines specify that all systemic structural modifications to voting parameters must undergo strict general assembly authorization. The current dispute highlights long-standing governance tensions between traditional custom rules and modern, digital-era reforms sought by expanding citizen demographics.
FAQs
When is the Liard First Nation election taking place?
The election for the next chief and council is scheduled to take place on June 29, 2026.
Why was online voting disallowed for this election cycle?
Incumbent Chief Stephen Charlie stated that online voting violates the 2007 election guidelines. Any amendments to these rules require approval at a special general assembly, which did not occur prior to the start of the current election cycle.
What alternative voting options exist for off-reserve members?
Members who cannot access polling stations in Watson Lake, Lower Post, Upper Liard, or Whitehorse have the option to use mail-in ballots, though the official application deadline for the 2026 cycle has already closed.
Has the Liard First Nation ever utilized electronic ballots previously?
Yes, online voting was previously implemented as an exceptional emergency variance during the pandemic lockdown for a specific referendum regarding the proposed Liard First Nation Constitution.
