Voting procedure

1. The general membership is voting for seven positions on the board.

2. Nominations will be requested by the election judge form the general membership and seconds to those nominations will be required.

3. Anyone nominated must be present the night of the election and agree to run for a board position.

4. Vote for no more then seven people – you may vote for less.

5. Must be present to vote. One ballot per person and each person must handle their own voting and turn in their own ballot.

6. No proxies or absentee balloting.

7. Stamp each voters hand when they turn in the ballot.

Ballot Counting procedure

1. Ballots counted using pairs of people to count. One person keeping the tally on the notepad another reading votes on each ballot and watching that tally is correct. Multiple pairs of ballot counters can be used. The ballots will be split amongst the pairs in roughly equal sized stacks fo ballots.

2. If the tally is close and the election judge determines there is a need to verify the tally then the split sets of ballots will be exchanged between the pairs of ballot counters and each set counted again to verify the same results. If a discrepancy still exists that effects the outcome of the election then a third exchange of ballot sets maybe done and a third count taken and hopefully at this point an agreement of results will exist.

3. An election judge will be present to verify tally of the votes and to determine if any ballots will be disqualified. The ballot counters will present any ballots they have questions about to the election judge to determine how the votes will be counted and if a ballot or votes on a ballot are to be disqualified. The election judge’s decision about any questioned ballots will be recorded on that ballot and that ballot set aside in case any future audit that night of the ballots is needed.

4. The election judge will total the tallies of each pair of counters to determine the final total of votes for each candidate under the witness and review of the ballot counters.

5. Rules for counting votes, valid ballots and disqualification guidelines:

a. Each ballot will be numbered and have blanks for seven votes. Ballots will be checked to ensure they are official numbered ballots and that there is not a numbered ballot higher then the last ballot passed out.

b. As each ballot is tallied the person reading the ballots out to the counter will place their initial or unique personal mark on the ballot after it has been counted to ensure there are no multiple counts.

c. If a ballot has the same person voted for more then once count a single vote for that person.

d. If more then seven people are voted for and it can be determined which seven votes are the first seven on the list of votes then those first seven votes shall be counted and any others disqualified. If there is confusion whom the first seven voted for are then the ballot is disqualified. A rule of thumb is that if there are more then seven names listed in a top to bottom list then the first seven at the top of the list are taken; however if there are names to the left and right of each other and no order can be discerned then the whole ballot is disqualified.

e. Misspellings or bad handwriting of candidate’s names will be considered valid as long as it is obvious whom they are voting for. If there is any confusion as to who that single vote is for, then only that vote is disqualified. Any other votes on that ballot that are legible and it is obvious who they are voting for will be counted.

6. Announcements of the candidates to the general membership will not include any results. The newly elected board will be given the final tally of the vote results to aid them in their selection for the chairman of the board.

7. All the ballots considered valid and all the disqualified ballots and tally sheets will be turned over to the newly elected board. The newly elected board should hold them until their first official board meeting where the election results can be recorded and declared official in the board meeting minutes and the board agrees to their disposal.