BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ REPORT ABOUT 2008 ELECTION PROBLEMS

May 16, 2008

As with past elections, the 2008 election of national officers revealed some important lessons to replicate or avoid in the future.  The following is the Board of Trustees’ report on key election problems that it committed to review when it certified election results on March 3, 2008 (see http://votf.org/08results.html). 

Invalid Votes

In a standard post-election audit, the vendor who conducted the electronic voting on behalf of VOTF identified 26 invalid ballots.  Although these ballots did not change the election outcomes, the Board attempted to identify the source of these votes.  It decided to drop this effort, however, when it became clear that the Board would have to arrange for an expensive forensic search that had to be approved by a court in order to be certain of the source of the votes.

Interim Communication of Election Results

Midway through the election period, an email circulated among the leaders of the Long Island affiliate implied that a national VOTF leader relied on actual vote counts to urge leaders to get out the vote within the Long Island affiliate.  Board members identified Dan Bartley, a Presidential candidate, as the national leader referred to in the email.  They also confirmed that neither Dan nor the email’s author had knowledge of actual interim vote counts and were relying instead on rumors they both heard several times that the Presidential race was close.  The Board did not find any unauthorized knowledge of actual vote counts.

Candidates’ Access to Email Addresses of Members

During the campaign period, nearly three dozen VOTF members objected that some candidates (or their supporters) gained access to their email addresses despite the members’ belief that their addresses were restricted to their respective National Representative Council (NRC) representatives or to national staff.   Some further objected when they informed candidates to stop sending campaign messages to them but continued to receive them.  In response, the Board requested all candidates (and one a second time) to cease campaign emails to any member’s email address that they did not already have before becoming a candidate. 

Members’ contact information is maintained in a database in the national office, and it is accessible to NRC members for their respective geographic regions through unique IDs and passwords assigned to each representative.  Based on database user logs during November-December 2007, the Board concluded that one NRC member accessed 10 other NRC members’ geographic contact information— without the knowledge or consent of at least some of the ten.  When the Board contacted this NRC member, however, he would only state that he did nothing unauthorized during the election.  The NRC is addressing the matter further under its own internal procedures.

When the Board asked all the candidates to indicate the source and use of all members’ email addresses that they (or their supporters) did not have prior to their candidacies, the four who won election responded that they did not gain or use such members’ email addresses.  The four other candidates did not respond to this request.  Without an acknowledgment by the candidates about the source of members’ email addresses they used, or without a costly and court-ordered forensic search, the Board is unable to confirm how candidates or their supporters gained members’ email addresses outside of their respective regions. 

Conclusions

The Board recognizes that VOTF needs to strengthen its database security procedures as well as establish appropriate accountability for use of members’ contact information.  In addition, it needs to clarify access to members’ email addresses for internal purposes, especially during elections.  The Board also believes that it needs to ensure a more level playing field among candidates in the next election.

The Board acknowledges the limitations and advances in the 2008 election, and it will work with the Officers, the NRC and the Executive Director to incorporate the lessons learned to improve the next election in 2010.  In the meantime, the Board again congratulates all those who stood for election and those who are now leading VOTF into a new era of leadership.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees,

Bill Casey, Chair