2017 Impartial (Tally) Committee Report
William Hall (Head Teller)
January 11, 2017
PREPARATION
In the first letter of elections sent to all owners, it had encouraged owners to make sure their voter’s certificate was on file in the office and that they know who the designated voters is for their unit. Before the date of the election, the voting certificates book was checked to make sure all current voting certificates are present. The voting certificate is a crucial tool used by the impartial committee to validate the outer envelopes as it designates the owner who is entitled to cast the vote on behalf that particular unit.
As in previous years and this year arrangements were made to obtain a post office box large enough to accommodate all of the Tower’s ballots with instructions to the post office to hold the key until the day of the election. Arrangements were made with the treasurer, myself and two other members of the impartial committee to retrieve the ballots on Election Day from the post office. At the post office the ballots were sealed in a container and brought to the office where it remained until 7PM when the impartial committee met to start the validation process. It was decided to validate the outer envelopes 60 minutes before the annual meeting and in order to ensure owners were aware of that event; a notice was posted on all bulletin boards and on the Tower's website four days before the election.
Care was taken to make sure all calculators were in good working order, envelope openers and enough pencils were sharpened ready to use. No pens were allowed by any committee member in the clubhouse section where we were counting the ballots.
Election Day
On election day, the impartial committee met at 7:00 PM in the clubhouse to begin the validation process. First the committee arranged the envelopes in numerical order as the roster and the voting certificates are in numerical order. The committee members validated the outer envelopes using the voting certificates for those applicable units and are checked off from the owner’s roster thus indicating those units had voted.
The next process was to tally the ballots. This was accomplished by the committee members who were seated at three separate tables with approximately one third of the ballots given to each table to count. Care was taken that the members at each table were not from the same unit and did not count ballots on the same floor of their unit thus did not count their own ballots. The outer envelopes were opened using a letter opener from the bottom of the envelope to preserve the integrity of the top of the envelope that contained the unit number, name, signature of the owners and the post mark. After all the inner envelopes were extracted from the outer envelopes, the head teller was informed and he collected them to a receptacle. At that point the inner envelopes were then opened and the ballots were removed putting them into a pile facing down.
After all ballots were removed, the committee counted ten ballots at a time as this would save time in case there was a miscount. Each member was given a tally sheet for every 10 ballots. After all the tally sheets have been completed, the total votes from each tally sheet were transferred to the table’s final tally sheet and then totalled. After completion, their final tally sheet was given to another table to verify the totals.
After all three tables final tally sheets totals were verified by other tables, the last step was to transfer those results to the master sheet at the head table. With all committee member’s present, the votes were transferred from each table's final tally sheet to the master sheet. By using calculators operated by one member from each table the votes were totaled on the master sheet. At that time the head teller asked all committee members if they agreed with the total votes on the master sheet and if anyone had any complaints or concerns about the procedures used. With no complaints or concerns and as a testament that all members agreed with the election results, the master sheet was signed by all committee members.
Conclusion
The impartial committee was once more successful this year by conducting the election in an acceptable and timely manner as we had completed the election process by 9:36 pm. The total units that voted were 148 with no disregarded outer envelopes due to its exterior information. However, there was one inner envelope had a bank statement instead of a ballot. The committee was able to conduct the election in a productive manner by having a full complement of impartial committee members. Thanks to all those on the impartial (tally) committee who helped with this year’s annual election.
By alphabetically order, the Impartial Committee Members were;
Mark Bigelow, Paula Blais, William Hall, Carol Hall, Sid Hansen, Joan McGuire, Carol Nelson, Gus Nelson, Joy Newby, Pierre Roy. Alternates Dave Somerville and Bernie Swenson.
In alphabetical order the 2017 BOD election (Votes) were;
David Aull (93), Charles Blake (64), Joseph Capano (58), Michael DeHaven (77), Michael French (83), Christina Honeycutt (83), Allen Lampman (111), Don Lowe (70), Charles Mohler (79), Thomas Roam (54) and Peter Stavros (56)
The seven candidates who had the highest votes were; David Aull, Michael DeHaven, Michael French, Christina Honeycutt, Allen Lampman, Don Lowe and Charles Mohler.
