And the legal battle over the results of last year's election in Thebacha only make that case easier to argue, according to the MLA for the riding.
"Recent history has shown us that their are problems," Michael Miltenberger said Wednesday during a meeting of the legislative assembly's government operations committee. "The system we have right now is extremely vulnerable."
Miltenberger and his fellow committee members are studying recommendations from Canada's chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, to reform the way votes are held in the NWT.
Among Kingsley's suggestions is a transfer of the responsibility for running territorial elections from his office in Ottawa to a fully Northern operation.
Along with that power is the possibility of setting up an independent elections commissioner to handle enforcement of elections violations.
Both Miltenberger, who narrowly won the 1995 election -- the results of which are being challenged in the NWT Supreme Court next week -- and Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien say Kingsley is right.
Northerners should be running their own votes and they should have confidence that those who interfere in a vote will be punished.
There is nothing new in the idea, however. Kingsley made the suggestion in 1991, but it was ignored by MLAs.
In fact, Kingsley, in an uncharacteristically insistent manner, repeatedly asked the committee members to follow his advice this time.
It costs about $1 million to run at territorial election, however, and MLAs in the past have balked at the price. The federal government now foots the bill.
"It's why you did not act on my 1991 recommendations and it's why you will have difficulty acting on my 1995 recommendations," Kingsley said.
Kingsley did say that it may be possible to negotiate election funding through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
"In the overall scheme of things, I do not see that as being a stumbling block," he told the committee.
The committee is expected to come up with a package of reforms to NWT elections this fall.