Week of March 8, 2021

NTU General Election Update

Tomorrow, I will propose a plan for the 2020 and 2021 NTU General Elections. As you know, the 2020 General Election was postponed due to COVID-19 and restrictions in place at the time. Now, almost a year later, things are improving and moving in the right direction.  With that said, we still have a little less than half of our students and staff working remotely. Conducting an election in our traditional manner is not possible at this time. Our current process also requires a significant amount of support from members of the Executive Board and Board of Directors not running in the election. In order to get back on track, I will propose doing both the 2020 and 2021 General Elections at one time, making it nearly impossible to use our current system. Therefore, I will propose using an online election platform, BallotPoint. BallotPoint is an online platform that is on a list of approved companies and vetted by AFT. Using an online platform will streamline the process, allow for us to do both the 2020 and 2021 elections at one time, and allow members in good standing to vote from wherever they are - at school, at home, in the car, as long as they have their link and an internet connection. 

In the past, if you weren't at school on the day of the election, we did not have a process for you to vote. This will correct this problem. Voting will continue to be by secret ballot, just online. The Executive Board met with representatives from two companies to ask questions about security and secrecy and we were satisfied with their answers. 

We will continue to announce our election, how to become a candidate for office, and the process by sending our standard postcard, as required by the Labor-Management Reporting Disclosure Act of 1959, as well as through the Monday Morning Message, NTU website, and emails from me.  Terry and I have been working on a timeline and preparing to gather the information needed for the election. As soon as I have approval from the Board of Directors to proceed, I will begin disseminating specific information about the election process. 

I would like to take a minute to thank Terry Freeman for all the leg work she has done around this process. She has spent a lot of time on the phone with vendors, getting information, and arranging meetings for the Executive Board with them. 

If anyone as any questions about this new process once I send out the information, please feel free to contact me.