Mohegan — The Mohegan Council of Elders is reviewing the special tribal council election last month in which Mark Brown won — by a single vote — the seat vacated by his brother, former tribal Chairman Kevin Brown.

Ken Davison, the candidate who came within a vote of Mark Brown, claimed in a suit filed in tribal court and in a petition to the elders' council that the tribal Election Committee failed to properly notify tribal members about a change in the hours in which ballots could be submitted Dec. 8, resulting in two members’ votes for Davison not being accepted.

Had the two votes been counted, the claims allege, Davison would have been elected, not Brown.

The elders' council, a seven-member body that serves as the Mohegan Tribe’s ultimate judicial authority, has issued a “writ of superintending control” in the matter, removing it from any further involvement by the Election Committee, which denied Davison’s petition for a recount of votes, or the tribal court.

“Our position is that every vote counts, and every vote should be counted,” Davison’s attorney, M. John Strafaci of New London, said Wednesday. “When a mistake by the Election Committee leads to at least two people not being allowed to vote, the tribe needs to take action to correct it. It’s too important to allow a mistake like this to alter an election.”

Amid the dispute, Brown was sworn in Dec. 18. He previously had served 24 consecutive years on the nine-member council before losing a re-election bid last August.

Kevin Brown resigned from the council following an independent investigation into allegations that he violated the tribe’s code of ethics. He had stepped down as council chairman in February.

“We believe the election was handled properly by the Election Committee and that any votes that were cast after the deadline for the closing of the polls should not be considered,” said attorney Robert Reardon Jr., whose New London firm is representing Mark Brown. “There was an effort in the tribal court to enjoin the swearing-in and that was unsuccessful. Mr. Brown has been an official member of the (tribal) council, and he’s been attending meetings and voting as a member of the council.”

Both Brown and Davison referred requests for comment to their attorneys.

Filings in the matter reveal that Brown received 229 votes in the special election. Davison received 228 votes and a third candidate, Jay Ihloff, received 165 votes.

Ballot instructions provided to tribal members in November said ballots could be mailed or left in a ballot box inside the employee entrance to the tribe’s government building. Hand-delivered ballots would be accepted from 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, Dec. 8.

At some point, the Election Committee discovered the hours were wrong and that it meant to limit voting to 8:30 to 9 a.m., a 30-minute period. The committee sought to notify tribal members of the change via notices published in tribal newsletters and on tribal websites.

Such notifications are supposed to be made by U.S. mail, Davison’s petition asserts.

Shortly before noon on Dec. 8, tribal member Mark Sperry arrived at the government building to drop off his ballot and that of his son, Marc Sperry, but found the building locked. By then, the petition says, the election results already had been certified and a winner announced. Both Sperry ballots were votes for Davison. 

Strafaci said the tribe has been asked to preserve Dec. 8 security-camera recordings of the entrances to the government building. In his own petition, Mark Sperry writes the recordings will show that he — and perhaps others — showed up at the building before noon and were prevented from entering and dropping off ballots. He says he was never made aware of the change in the Dec. 8 voting hours.

“The Tribe’s public image will suffer irreparable harm should it become widely known that a manual recount was denied where the margin of victory was one vote and 100 percent of the ballots that were attempted to be hand delivered on election day were rejected,” Sperry writes.

Joann Regan, a tribal member who served on the Election Committee for more than 15 years, filed complaints with the Election Committee and the tribal court in which she said the committee violated a tribal ordinance when it failed to mail notice of the change in voting hours to every tribal member.

Laurence Roberge, chairman of the elders' council and chief justice, has directed the parties to file briefs this month, after which the council "expects to decide this matter expeditiously."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com