A fundamental flaw in the Pacifica Foundation bylaws concerns the extremely short turnaround time afforded between the date that the nomination period closes (September 25) and the dates that ballots must be mailed (October 15). This affords a period of only three weeks for the elections supervisors to produce and mail the ballots. Every effort has been made by the elections supervisors to ensure that the present election conform to the dates required in the bylaws.

However, a series of delays have beset the production and mailing of the ballots over the last two weeks. In addition, as a result of the fall fund drive, election related carts and other materials have seen delays in being aired at several Foundation radio stations. Finally, competition between our election and the US Presidential election has lessened our ability to promote the significance of the Foundation elections. For all these reasons, it is my considered opinion that we can assume that the Foundation election will not meet quorum at least one, and perhaps all five, Foundation radio stations by November 15.

Foundation Bylaws Section 4.5, "Elections Time Frame," states:

It is not logistically feasible for us to wait until November 15 to confirm that we have failed to reach quorum. By that time spaces for ballot counting, travel arrangements for ballot counters, and the personal schedules of Election Supervisors will have long since been set. In anticipation of our failure to reach quorum by November 15, I am declaring the closing date of the election to be Monday, November 29, 2004.

In accordance with the availability of TrueBallot, Inc., who are providing the optical scanning equipment for reading our ballots, the revised schedule for vote counting will be

Tuesday, November 30: WPFW Washington

Wednesday, December 1: WBAI New York

Friday, December 3: KPFT Houston

Saturday, December 4: KPFK Los Angeles

Monday, December 6: KPFA Berkeley

1. What needs to be done in the given timeframe

The bylaws of the Pacifica Foundation (Section 3.5) leave a three week window between the date that the nomination period closes, September 25, and the date that the ballots are to be mailed, October 15. Since I accepted this job in late May, I have discussed with Pacifica staff, the Local Elections Supervisors upon their being hired, and a variety of Foundation Board members and activists my doubts that it was possible to do all of the following in the amount of time given:

• Verify the nomination papers
• Prepare the ballots for printing
• Design, prepare and proofread the Candidate statements, return envelopes, and other materials for printing
• Go through all proof and production stages with the printer
• Deliver printed materials to a mail house
• Have the materials stuffed and posted

As someone who has sent out large mailings on numerous occasions in the past, it was my opinion from the start that this process should take at least four and more likely five weeks.

Two additional factors, also built into the bylaws, make this schedule especially absurd.

• First, the entire election period following the mailing is exactly one month. Third class nonprofit mail takes, according to the post office, up to 15 days to deliver, and many suspect that last year’s mailing actually took longer than that. This means that the Foundation is essentially required, by its bylaws, to send the mailing first class, at an additional cost of $30,000 - $50,000. Otherwise the ballots will not be received by the voters with a reasonable time frame for learning about candidates and making intelligent decisions. Just as importantly, this also means that any inadvertent delay or difficulty in getting the mail out (as we have had this year) will make reaching quorum by the election close date much more difficult.
• Second, the election period is set in October and November, the same time as the United States elections. Leaving aside all questions about the attentiveness of the electorate to our election, the simple, practical problem we have faced in getting our materials printed and mailed this year is that with literally billions of dollars being spent on November elections (from the President down to local school boards) at this very moment, print houses and mail houses are running overtime, and getting space on printing and mailing machines right now is next to impossible. This has caused extra delays that would not be experienced at another time of the year.

1. My Solution and Its Rejection

In my attempt to meet the impossible schedule of the bylaws as National Election Supervisor, I made two decisions that might – alongside the entire staff working 70+ hours the last week in September, which of course we did anyway – have gotten the mailing out on time.

• First, I hired a company, TrueBallot, with a standard ballot design, format and instructions, to produce the ballot, so that all I had to do was certify the names and they would be able to produce the ballots for us. (TrueBallot was also selected because it has a standard double blind envelope system that conformed to the requirements set forth for the election by the Pacifica National Board, and because of its optical scanning technology, which combines fully auditable paper ballots with ease of counting.)
• Second, I decided that there was neither time, nor room, for the candidate statement booklets to be mailed, and that we would therefore distribute them by other means.

It is a fact that had we mailed only the ballots, without the additional printing, folding, stapling, and stuffing required by the candidate statements, our ballots would have gone out on time. However, my solution to this problem was rejected by the Pacifica National Board and by the active membership, who believed that by not including the candidate statements with the mailing, we would make it less likely that voters would make an effort to become educated about the issues and vote. Whatever my personal feelings on the matter, I have no intention at this point in challenging the clear consensus of the Pacifica community on this question.

As of today, the following have been printed and are at the mail house:

• All of the ballots
• All of the envelopes, surveys, and additional materials
• The candidate statements for three stations, but not all five, stations

The printer has promised the remaining candidate statements no later than Wednesday. The ballots are now scheduled to be stuffed and mailed by the mail house between Wednesday, October 20 and Monday, October 25. They will be sent third class, which means that they should be received by all Pacifica members between November 1 and November 10. With the election close having been delayed until November 29, this will give all voters sufficient opportunity to select their favored candidates and return their ballots.

While it is the delay in the ballot production that is the immediate cause of the election extension, there are two other issues that Pacifica election officials have been facing which are solved by this extension:

• First, all five stations are having fund drives during the election period, and management at several stations has been very reluctant to play election related carts during the fund drive. This reluctance is inappropriate and contrary to the bylaws of the Foundation, and, should there be legal concerns about the election process, would pose a very large problem for the Foundation. Nevertheless, the extension of the election period gives station management a new opportunity to properly publicize the elections and the candidates.
• Second, and more reasonably, it has been very difficult to convince anyone – including myself, and this is my job – that coverage of the Pacifica election is more important than coverage of the Presidential and other United States elections at this moment. By giving ourselves nearly four weeks after the end of the US election period to publicize the Foundation elections, we substantially increase the likelihood that our listener members will pay attention, and make intelligent choices, about our Foundation elections.

For the most part, I have been hesitant to suggest bylaws changes to the Election process while we are in the middle of that process. I had been planning to remain silent about my recommendations until my final report, at the close of the elections. However, the present memo cannot possibly be concluded without making the following comments:

Whatever else might be said about the writing of the present Pacifica bylaws, it is clear to me that they were not written by people who have experience with project management of print and mail jobs. For the second consecutive election, the National Election Supervisor has had tremendous difficulty producing the ballot mailing in the timeframe required. As such, the Pacifica National Board should give immediate consideration to the following bylaws changes:

1. In order to make the job of the election supervisors possible, the time period between the close of the nomination process and the mailing of the ballots should be extended from three to five weeks.
2. In order that the Foundation be able to, comfortably, mail the ballots by third class mail (thus saving tens of thousands of dollars) while still ensuring that individuals have enough time after receiving their ballots to vote, the election period should be increased to at least five weeks.
3. In order that Foundation elections not conflict with United States elections, the election period should be moved to another time of the year.
4. In spite of the above, I do not believe that the overall period of time during which the elections are conducted needs to be increased at all. That is, Bylaws section 3.4.a. currently states that "In May of each year in which there will be an election of Delegates by the Members, the Executive Director shall appoint a national elections supervisor whose role shall be to oversee and certify the fairness of the Delegates elections in each station area and to confirm said elections’ compliance with these Bylaws." I was actually appointed to begin work on June 1, 2004, which means that my timeframe of employment extends for six and a half months, until the due date for the final report on the election, December 15, 2004.

Taken as a whole, the above suggestions would result in an election period that has at its center three periods of exactly five weeks (35 days):

• The nomination period
• The ballot production period
• The election period

Using this pattern, the following schedule is one example of a workable schedule for the Pacifica National Elections, and should be considered as a bylaws amendment. It is offered as a possibility; other schedules could also be built.

January 1 National Election Supervisor starts work

February 15 Local Election Supervisors start work

March 1 Nomination period opens

April 4 Nomination period closes at 5PM

May 10 Ballots mailed by 5PM

June 14 Ballots must be received by 5PM

July 1 Date by which election must be counted and certified

July 15 Final reports of the election supervisors due

Please note that in this proposal, the period during which the election supervisors will be conducting their list audits is approximately March 15 to April 15, a period that overlaps between the nomination and ballot production periods.