Robert Satiacum Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | 1959or1960(age 63–64) |
Nationality | American Puyallup tribe |
Occupation(s) | Political and environmental activist, radio host for KLAY |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Elizabeth Satiacum |
Children | 4 |
Parent |
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Robert Satiacum Jr. (born February 5, 1960) is an American political and environmental activist and member of the Puyallup tribe of Washington. He served as a Democratic presidential elector for the 2016 election. By voting for Faith Spotted Eagle, the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for president, Satiacum did not vote as pledged, and as such is regarded as a faithless elector. [1]
Satiacum is the son of the late Robert Satiacum Sr., an advocate for Native fishing rights whose arrest resulted in the landmark Boldt Decision. His wife, Elizabeth, served as an elector for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. In 2010, he served as an officer for the Democratic Party for Pierce County. [2] Satiacum was a delegate for Bernie Sanders to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and was nominated as an elector by Patsy Whitefoot. Prior to the election, he publicly stated he might not vote for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine. He argued that Clinton's stance on the environment was no different than Donald Trump's. [3] [4] [5]
When the Electoral College voted on December 19, 2016, Satiacum voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American activist from South Dakota for president, and Winona LaDuke, an environmentalist and former Green Party vice presidential candidate from Minnesota, for vice president. Spotted Eagle and LaDuke became only the second and third Native Americans to receive electoral votes in American history, after Charles Curtis who was elected vice president in 1928, and made Spotted Eagle the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for president [1] and LaDuke the first Native American woman to receive an electoral college vote for vice president. [6] After the Electoral College vote, Satiacum explained that he was prepared to vote for Sanders, but at the last moment was inspired to vote for Spotted Eagle when a fellow elector and Native American, Dan Carpita, started playing a ceremonial song on the flute. [6]
Satiacum was one of four 2016 faithless electors from Washington, and one of seven total. [7] He was fined $1,000 after the election.
Robert and Elizabeth Satiacum have six children and ten grandchildren. [5] He hosts a radio show, Tribal Talk, which airs on KLAY in the Tacoma, Washington area, [3] [8] and founded the cultural activist coalition Full Circle. [9] He also co-starred in the 2007 film Rain in the Mountains, in which he portrayed a tribal police officer. [10] Starting in 2010, he has led an effort to officially re-name Mount Rainier to Ti’Swaq, the name of a band of Indian people who lived high on the mountain’s slopes. [9] [11] [12]
Satiacum advocates for the sweat lodge ritual and mentors others on the red road, a moral path based on traditional native values. [9]
Satiacum, along with other Native American activists, advocated for tribal fishing rights by holding "fish-ins" on the Puyallup River. [13]
The 1792 United States presidential election was the second quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 2, to Wednesday, December 5, 1792. Incumbent President George Washington was elected to a second term by a unanimous vote in the electoral college, while John Adams was re-elected as vice president. Washington was essentially unopposed, but Adams faced a competitive re-election against Governor George Clinton of New York.
Winona LaDuke is an American economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.
In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is generally a party representative who does not have faith in the election result within their region and instead votes for another person for one or both offices, or abstains from voting. As part of United States presidential elections, each state legislates the method by which its electors are to be selected. Many states require electors to have pledged to vote for the candidates of their party if appointed. The consequences of an elector voting in a way inconsistent with their pledge vary from state to state.
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket, businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former secretary of state and First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton and the junior senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, in what was considered one of the biggest political upsets in American history. It was the fifth and most recent presidential election in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote. It was also the sixth and most recent presidential election in U.S. history in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1860, 1904, 1920, 1940, and 1944.
The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the Electoral College. These electors then cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for president, and for vice president. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for president, the House of Representatives elects the president; likewise if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for vice president, then the Senate elects the vice president.
Robert "Bob" Satiacum was a Puyallup tribal leader and an advocate of native treaty fishing rights in the United States. He was convicted in 1982 of attempted murder, embezzlement of tribal funds, and other charges but fled to Canada to avoid a prison term. He was convicted of child molestation in Canada in 1989.
The 2016 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election. Primary elections were held on March 1, 2016.
The 2016 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election. Washington was won by Hillary Clinton, who won the state with 52.54% of the vote over Donald Trump's 36.83%, a margin of 15.71%. All of the state's 12 electoral votes were assigned to Clinton, though four defected. Trump prevailed in the presidential election nationally.
Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Since its admission to the Union in 1889, the state has participated in 33 United States presidential elections.
In the 2016 United States presidential election, ten members of the Electoral College voted or attempted to vote for a candidate different from the ones to whom they were pledged. Three of these votes were invalidated under the faithless elector laws of their respective states, and the elector either subsequently voted for the pledged candidate or was replaced by someone who did. Although there had been a combined total of 155 instances of individual electors voting faithlessly prior to 2016 in over two centuries of previous US presidential elections, 2016 was the first election in over a hundred years in which multiple electors worked to alter the result of the election.
Faith Spotted Eagle is an American activist and politician. She is a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation who attempted to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. 578 (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case on the issue of "faithless electors" in the Electoral College stemming from the 2016 United States presidential election. The Court ruled unanimously, by a vote of 9–0, that states have the ability to enforce an elector's pledge in presidential elections. Chiafalo deals with electors who received US$1,000 fines for not voting for the nominees of their party in the state of Washington. The case was originally consolidated with Colorado Department of State v. Baca, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), a similar case based on a challenge to a Colorado law providing for the removal and replacement of an elector who does not vote for the presidential candidate who received the most votes in the state, with the electors claiming they have discretion to vote as they choose under the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. On March 10, 2020, Justice Sonia Sotomayor recused herself in the Colorado case due to a prior relationship to a respondent, and the cases were decided separately on July 6, 2020. Baca was a per curiam decision that followed from the unanimous ruling in Chiafalo against the faithless electors and in favor of the state.