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Guest george b

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A nomination committee is chosen and ballots are prepared and sent to financial member to vote on two candidates that have approved being on the ballot for the position of Vice President.  Candidate A  submits his bio to sent with the ballot.  Should the committee contact the other candidate as to his option to submit a bio?  If committee doesn't contact candidate B to request his bio be included; is this improper?       

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Thanks for your responce

It is up to organization to decide to include, however, normally information about candidates are not included with ballots (federal, state or local elections).  The question here is if a candidates is not given equal opportunity to be include, how should this be handled.  Ballots have been sent out with a candidates information.

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I don't know if I would say that the officials who sent candidate A's bio out with the ballots exceeded their authority. What rule prohibited it? Did candidate B have the same opportunity to submit a bio? What has been the custom within the organization in previous elections? Have other candidates submitted bios?  If so, were they sent out with the ballots? 

It may just be that candidate A was a bit more resourceful. Or it may be that there was some collusion with some of the committee members trying to give their preferred candidate a little boost.  That is one of the problems with having a nominating committee propose two names for each office rather than just one name. They might propose one person who they really want to be elected as one nominee and then for the second person nominate someone who they know doesn't have a chance of being elected.

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Thanks for your replies.  A.  No rule prohibits sending out bios with ballots.  B. Candidates were told that bios would be available to financial members at the Club prior to the elections and they had option to include their bio with that literature, no mention was made about mailing out.  C. There has never been literature sent with ballots in the past.  D. Collusion is hard to prove, but suspected.  What  responsibility does the Committee have? At this point (literature sent) is there any suggestions that may level the playing field?  Should the committee be disciplined, what signal would this send to the membership.  The election is scheduled in two weeks.

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The committee members can be disciplined only if the membership is willing to discipline them. Are they? Is the membership really up in arms over this? Even though I know nothing about this organization, I have my doubts. 

I think setting a policy for the future is a better idea, but that's just me. And maybe appoint  different members to the committee next year. ?

You might stick around and see what others have to say about this tomorrow.

Edited by Richard Brown
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9 hours ago, Guest george b said:

A.  No rule prohibits sending out bios with ballots. 

B. Candidates were told that bios would be available to financial members at the Club prior to the elections and they had option to include their bio with that literature, no mention was made about mailing out. 

C. There has never been literature sent with ballots in the past. 

D. Collusion is hard to prove, but suspected.  

What  responsibility does the Committee have?

At this point (literature sent) is there any suggestions that may level the playing field? 

Should the committee be disciplined, what signal would this send to the membership. 

The election is scheduled in two weeks.

>> C. There has never been literature sent with ballots in the past. 

Since there has never been literature sent with ballots in the past, then the committee should not break a long-standing tradition (without authority).

***

>> B. Candidates were told that bios would be available to financial members at the Club prior to the elections; and they had option to include their bio with that literature, no mention was made about mailing out. 

Since the "financial members" (?) have been told, ". . . biographies would be available at the Club . . .", then the committee should obey that instruction, and keep bios at the Club, for voluntary inspection by financial members. The committee should not be re-inventing election rules, at the last moment, and risk biasing the election.

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