The nomination period for the Pacifica Foundation elections has closed, and all candidates whose names will appear on the ballot have been certified. Their names have been publicized. This memo is to inform the Pacifica Community of what the Election Supervisors have been doing in order to ensure accurate compliance with the Pacifica bylaws for this election.

1. Final production of voter lists

It has been a huge undertaking on the part of the Local Election Supervisors, but we will have assembled member lists that we believe are substantially more complete and accurate than those which have been maintained by the Foundation in the past. In particular:

• We have created a standardized procedure for getting bylaws-delineated membership information out of the Memsys database. This is not a trivial process, since the Memsys system was developed for fundraising purposes, using categories that differ substantially from the member categories in the bylaws.
• We have done an audit of information in Memsys in order to learn its level of accuracy, and to insist on adjustments from the membership coordinators as needed.
• We have assembled volunteer lists from various sources at each station. Because of the inconsistency of recordkeeping, we cannot be certain that we have succeeded in getting accurate information about all people who meet bylaws criteria as volunteers, but we have widely publicized the assembly of these lists on air and off, and as a result we have better lists than the Foundation has had previously. Our detailed audits indicated that the Volunteer Lists are missing some qualified individuals, but substantially fewer than were missed last election.
• We have assembled unpaid staff lists from various sources at each station. We cannot be certain that we have succeeded in getting accurate information about all people who meet bylaws criteria as unpaid staff, but we have widely publicized the assembly of these lists on air and off, and as a result we have better lists than the Foundation has had previously.
• We have attained the lists of paid staff members.

The audit reports of the various Local Elections Supervisors are available for public examination from members of the Pacifica Community. A complete overview of these reports will be presented in my Final Report and Certification of the Election, which will appear one to two weeks after the results of the election are tabulated.

In total, our lists contain the names and addresses of 95,555 member of the Foundation, as "members" is defined by the Foundation By-Laws.

2. Ballots and Candidate Statement Booklets Are Now in Production

The ballots, doubled-blind envelopes, and candidate statement booklets are all currently in production at a union printer in Washington, DC. This printer was chosen by TrueBallot, Inc. TrueBallot was chosen to produce the ballots because

• They use optical scanning technology to count ballots, thus allowing us to avoid the hundreds of hours of paid and volunteer labor required to count ballots by hand;
• They have a standard double-blind envelope security system that conforms to the requirements laid out by the Pacifica National Board in its June resolution on this topic;
• They will provide the Foundation, and any members who requests it, with a CD-ROM containing the ballot image of all scanned ballots, thus making the ballots auditable publicly. These images will be put on the websites of all stations.

TrueBallot has ten years experience conducting elections, and specializes in high contested union elections. They have also worked for a wide variety of nonprofits. Further information about TrueBallot can be found on their website, www.trueballot.com.

Once produced, the ballots will be mailed from Washington, DC on October 15. Any Foundation member who has not received their ballot by October 29 should call toll-free (877) 217-6928 x205 and ask for a replacement ballot. It will be sent first class within 24 hours.

Candidate statements will be mailed out with all ballots as part of the ballot package.

As in the past, the ballots will be counted in all five cities, in a manner that is open to the public. The election closes on November 15, and the dates of the ballot counting will be:

  Washington, DC November 16
  New York City November 17
  Houston November 19
  Los Angeles November 20
  Berkeley November 22

Exact times and locations are not yet settled, but will be widely publicized as soon as we know them.