Few Election Violations Cited in Recent Voting

The Elections Committee encountered only minor violations of campaign guidelines. There were numerous instances in which candidates/supporters sent campaign e-mails that did not include “APA Campaigning” in the subject line. The committee notified the senders that failure to include those words is a violation of the guidelines and requested that the words be included in any future e-mails. The offenders appreciated the correction and complied immediately.

The Elections Committee encountered numerous instances in which candidates/supporters used APA list serves other than M2M (Member to Member) for campaigning purposes. The committee notified the supporters that utilizing APA list serves other than M2M for campaigning purposes is a violation of the guidelines and requested that future campaigning on APA list serves be restricted to the M2M list serve only. The offenders appreciated the correction and complied immediately.

A candidate Web site contained the APA logo, which could be interpreted as implying APA endorsement of one candidate over another. The committee viewed that as a violation of the guidelines governing candidate Web sites. The committee notified the candidate of the infraction and requested that the APA logo be removed. The link to the candidate's Web site was disabled on APA's Web site until it was in compliance with the guidelines. The offender appreciated the correction and complied immediately.

The Elections Committee reviewed a complaint by a candidate that reported two colleagues not receiving their paper ballots or any of the voting e-mail blasts. Instructions were sent to APA's election management firm (Intelliscan) to send e-mails to the two APA members with ballot control numbers and instructions for voting online. It was discovered that the final ballot address files sent to Intelliscan for ballot generation did not contain the two members in question. These incidents were found to be largely isolated and attributed to incorrect data entry of information into the membership database. Election ballots were created and transmitted to these members.

A candidate invited to the Assembly who could not attend asked the committee's opinion about having a statement read by proxy. The committee discussed the issue and found that current guidelines implied the prohibition of proxy statements. The committee recommended that the guidelines add explicit language regarding the prohibition of proxy statements in APA's election guidelines under “Presentations”: “All candidates must attend to present. Presentations made via proxy statements or modes other than physical attendance are prohibited.”

At its March meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the addition and sent it back to the Elections Committee for implementation.

The election guidelines appear in Appendix F-2 of APA's Operations Manual, and the addition is being be made to Section A.4.

Also at its March meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation of the Elections Committee to shift the mail data of ballots from January 5 as currently stipulated in APA's Operations Manual to December 22 for the 2008 election. On that date, paper ballots will be mailed to eligible voting members who have chosen to continue receiving them and e-mail blasts will be sent to members who have opted for or prefer online voting.