 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Returning Officer's Report George Skarbek |
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At the December 1991 AGM there were about 400 members present and one proxy. This year there were about 400 members present and over 750 proxies.
The total number of proxies that I received was about 775 of which 755 were accepted as valid. The rejection rate was just over 2%, mainly due to members not being financial.
Of the 149 valid postal votes sent nearly one quarter had also filled out the proxy form, which was printed on the same page in the magazine. As Returning Officer I took your postal vote and destroyed the proxy. Your vote takes precedence over a proxy, as in the postal vote you are expressing your own opinion.
Checking Procedures Prior To Election
As postal votes or proxies arrived I checked every one against the membership database to ensure the member who sent in the proxy/vote was financial and recorded that vote/proxy in my database. This was to ensure that a member could not vote at the meeting if he sent in a postal vote, and also could not give a proxy. Every proxy/vote was then stamped in red with a stamp that no-one had ever seen. This was to ensure that there was no chance of some unvalidated forms being accepted on the night of the election.
Further checking measures were undertaken by me to ensure that no irregularities could occur. I scanned, by eye, signatures on large groups of proxies to see if there was a group with similar writing or with same colour, or thickness of pens used. I found nothing unusual after a thorough search.
The membership list is the property of Melb PC User Group and any unauthorised use of that would be regarded as theft. To verify this I phoned a statistically significant sample of all members who had a dozen or more proxies. I wanted to ensure that the proxies were obtained at SIG meetings, or were given by personal friends or were sent in without direct canvassing. I did not find one case of any irregularity.
One member purchased a considerable number of gummed labels, at the full commercial rate available to any advertiser. It was mainly of country and interstate members. Only the names of members who were not opposed to receiving advertising material were given. (On all joining forms there is a box that, if ticked, ensures this name will not be made available for advertising reasons.)
That member used a Melb PC User Group logo on the letters sent out. This logo is the Group's intellectual property and cannot be used by members. The Interim Committee decided that he must write to every member who had sent in a proxy, within 48 hours, giving his unreserved apology, stating that this may have unduly influenced the member's decision and giving directions how that proxy may be cancelled. As Returning Officer I was shown a Post Office receipt that the several hundred letters were posted. To ensure that this was the apology letter, I phoned a statistically significant number of members across Victoria, starting with the Mallee and working over to far Gippsland. I also phoned several members from the Metropolitan area and two country towns I had never heard of. Every person whom I phoned had received the apology letter. Incidentally not one person changed his proxy, but four letters arrived re-stating support for that candidate.
Checking Procedures At The Election
I was very fortunate that Roy McLean approached me two months ago, after the regular monthly meeting, offering me his assistance, to help run the election. I did not know Roy before that evening but he appeared knowledgeable and I accepted his offer. It was one of my better decisions in a long time. Roy adopted a very professional approach and was largely responsible for the smooth running during the evening. He made ballot boxes, signs, measured tables to create a scale drawing in order to determine how many will fit in the confined space allowed to us and gathered the required number of volunteers and much more.
On the night, ballot boxes were checked to ensure that they were empty, then sealed and placed in prominent positions. I prepared lists of financial members as on the day prior to election (and closing day for postal returns) and who have not voted or sent in proxies. These lists were used to register everyone who was given a signed ballot paper. The signature was in green ink, with identical pens used by all scrutineers. Every proxy had to have one ballot paper to enable a count of papers printed, returned and left over.
At the close of the ballot, all counting was done in a locked room where only the scrutineers were allowed and one representative from each of the two main groups. The representatives were forbidden to touch any bit of paper, they could only observe and ensure the all counting was fair.
With agreement from both observers, counting for all but the presidential candidates stopped after a candidate polled more the 50% of all possible votes, to enable a result to be announced before the close of the meeting. That is the sum of all proxies, postal votes plus all the ballot papers handed out. Incidentally a moderate number of members did not return the ballot paper either because they were new and did not know the candidates or they could not get into the very crowded hall. As a result, only the numbers for the presidential candidates are published.
In concluding I would like to thank Roy McLean for the assistance he provided with the election and to thank on your behalf the ten volunteers who worked hard in issuing ballot papers and then counting the results in a small locked store room They gave up over four hours of their time and missed out on the IBM presentation and on the chance to win a copy of OS/2. Thank you all.
The 1992 AGM results are as follows:
|
President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Assistant Secretary Committee |
Peter Smith 1145
votes, Spen Ingamells 96 Charles Wright Viv Martin Sam Brown Bill Westhead Bill McLeod Leon Cohen Barry McMenomy John Dent Major Keary Rod Thompson Doug Brooke Chris Cullinan Gary Taig Stephen Davey |
Reprinted from the September 1992 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
