25 C.F.R. § 81.4
What terms do I need to know?
Cite as 25 C.F.R. § 81.4 (2025)
For purposes of this part:
Absentee ballot
means a ballot the Secretarial Election Board provides to a registered voter, upon request, to allow him or her to vote by mail even though polling sites are used.
Amendment
means any modification or change to one or more provisions of an existing governing document or charter.
Applicable law
means any treaty, statute, Executive Order, regulation, or final decision of a Federal court, which is applicable to the tribe.
Authorizing Official
means the Bureau official with delegated Federal authority to authorize a Secretarial election.
Bureau
means the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.
Business day
means a weekday (Monday through Friday), excluding Federal holidays.
Cast
means the action of a registered voter, when the ballot is received through the mail by the Secretarial Election Board, or placed in the ballot box at the polling site.
Charter
means a charter of incorporation issued under a Federal statute and ratified by the governing body in accordance with tribal law or, if adopted before May 24, 1990, by a majority vote in an election conducted by the Secretary.
Day
means a calendar day. A Secretarial election may be held on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday.
Department
means the Department of the Interior.
Director
means the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs or his or her authorized representative.
Electioneering
means campaigning for or against the adoption, ratification, revocation or amendment of a proposed governing document or a charter.
Eligible voter
means a tribal member who will be 18 years of age or older on the date of the Secretarial election (and, if the tribe's governing document imposes additional requirements for voting in a Secretarial election, also meets those requirements).
Eligible Voters List
means a list of eligible voters, including their birthdates and their last known mailing addresses. The Eligible Voters List is compiled and certified by the tribe's governing body or the Bureau if the Bureau maintains the current membership roll for the tribe.
Federal statute
means the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 25 U.S.C. 476, 477, as amended, the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (OIWA), 25 U.S.C. 503, and any tribe-specific Federal statute that requires a Secretarial election for the adoption of a governing document.
Final agency action
means the Authorizing Official's approval or disapproval of a Secretarial election or acknowledgment of the tribe's or petitioners' withdrawal of a request for Secretarial election, and is final for the Department.
Governing document
means any written document that prescribes the extent, limitations, and manner in which the tribe exercises its sovereign powers.
Local Bureau office
means the local administrative office of the Bureau that is the primary point of contact between the Bureau and the tribe.
Local Bureau Official
means the Superintendent, Field Representative, or other official having delegated Federal administrative responsibility under this part.
Mailout ballot
means a ballot the Secretarial Election Board provides to a registered voter to allow him or her to vote by mail in an election conducted entirely by mail.
Member of a tribe
or
tribal member
means any person who meets the criteria for membership in a tribe and, if required by the tribe, is formally enrolled.
Petition
means the official document submitted by the petitioners to the Secretary to call a Secretarial election for the purpose of adopting or ratifying a new governing document, amending the tribe's existing governing document, or revoking the tribe's existing governing document.
Petitioner
means a tribal member who is 18 years of age or older (and, if the tribe's governing document imposes additional requirements for petitioning, also meets those requirements), and signs a petition.
Polling site ballot
means the ballot the Secretarial Election Board provides to a registered voter, allowing him or her to vote when polling sites are required by the amendment and adoption article of the tribe's governing document.
Recognized governing body
means the tribe's governing body recognized by the Bureau for the purposes of government-to-government relations.
Registered Voter
means an eligible voter who has registered to vote in the Secretarial election.
Registered Voters List
means the list of all Registered Voters showing only names and, where applicable, voting districts.
Registration
means the process by which an eligible voter signs up to vote in the Secretarial election.
Revocation
means that act whereby the registered voters of a tribe vote to revoke their current governing document.
Secretarial election
means a Federal election conducted by the Secretary under a Federal statute or tribal governing document under this part.
Secretarial Election Board
means the body of officials appointed by the Bureau and the tribe (and the spokesperson for petitioners, as applicable) to conduct the Secretarial election.
Secretary
means the Secretary of the Interior or his or her authorized representative.
Spoiled ballot
means the ballot is mismarked, mutilated, rendered impossible to determine the voter's intent, or marked so as to violate the secrecy of the ballot.
Spokesperson for the petitioners
or
spokesperson
means a tribal member who provides a document signed by other tribal members that provides him or her authority to speak or submit a petition on their behalf.
Tribal request
means a request that includes all of the components set out in 81.6.
Tribe
means any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village or community that is listed in the
Federal Register
under 25 U.S.C. 479a—1(a), as recognized and receiving services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Voting district
means a geographic area established to facilitate the voting process, if required, by the amendment and adoption articles of the tribe's governing document.
- Cross-references to the US Code
- 25:47625:479a25:503