While a majority of Muscogee Nation voters supported all four constitutional amendments on the ballot Saturday, only three reached the two-thirds margin required for passage under the tribe’s constitution.
Slightly under 3,000 of the roughly 18,000 registered Muscogee Nation voters turned out, or about 16 percent participation. Descendants of Muscogee Freedmen without “Indian blood,” who are entitled to tribal citizenship under a court ruling last year, have yet to be enrolled and were excluded from participating in the special election.
All three of the amendments that passed included substantive changes, with the more symbolic of the measures failing to secure the needed supermajority support. Amendments passed include:
- NCA 26-061, a constitutional amendment virtually identical to a special justice law previously passed by the National Council and struck down by the Muscogee Supreme Court. The amendment allows the principal chief to appoint temporary special justice when a justice recuses from the court. A special justice’s appointment must be approved by the National Council;
- NCA 26-062, which allows the principal chief to set a special election to coincide with a general election if an amendment’s ordinance is passed “at least 90 days prior to a general election”; and
- NCA 26-063, which creates term limits for National Council representatives. Starting in 2028, councilors will be term limited to three four-year terms, with partial terms not counting toward their limit.
The sole measure to fail, NCA 26-060, would have replaced all mentions of the word “Muscogee” in the nation’s constitution with the traditional spelling “Mvskoke” and delete the phrase “(Creek).”
Full results for the 2026 May Muscogee special election are unofficial until certified June 5. The results were:
- NCA 26-060 (spelling) fell about 250 votes shy of passage, with 1,624 voters in favor (57.4 percent) to 1,207 votes against (42.6 percent);
- NCA 26-061 (special justices) passed by a healthy margin, with 2,156 voters in favor (76.3 percent) to 670 votes against (23.71 percent);
- NCA 26-062 (special elections) also fared well, with 2,186 votes in favor (78.4 percent) to 604 votes against (21.6 percent); and
- NCA 26-063 (term limits) passed by a landslide, with 2,287 voters in favor (81.9 percent) to 506 votes against (18.1 percent).
