Back in 2017, members of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma ratified a new Constitution, ushering in an era of a new government. At the same time, the Kiowa Election Commission partnered with New Mexico-based election services vendor Automated Election Services (AES) to assist with tribal elections. AES has a track record for mishaps, including the creation of false names and other discrepancies with tribal clients, including the Cherokee. Terry Rainey of AES has even issued public apologies for actions pertaining to these very same items.
A couple of years ago, I began to look into the numbers and immediately knew that there was much more than what was being said. Tribal enrollment is self-reported with no oversight, so it would make total sense to report higher numbers to receive more funding. At the time of the new Constitution, Jason Aamodt, who is currently still representing the tribe's legislative branch, stated in court documents that the tribe's adult member population is approximately 9,000 based on "information and belief."
It is my belief that AES has been tasked with "justifying" these numbers which, to most people, wouldn't give it a second glance. However, after amassing several key data points over time, it is not hard to see that diving a little deeper reveals some eyebrow-raising inconsistencies.
Tribes compete for funding, so of course it is in their best interest to report higher numbers. What this means is that being honest could actually hurt when grant funds are released. Everything is tied to tribal enrollment, but if our tribe is inflating our numbers, we really don't even know who we are as a population. If our baseline metrics are off, then there is no way that we can measure any sort of ROI, which in essence, makes more sense that there is zero reporting to show any.
More concerning is that AES has stated that they work with more than 100 tribes. This means that if they are doing this to the Kiowa tribe, it could be much more widespread than this.