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RE: [RC] Handling ballots - Robert J. MorrisNow the Elections Committee Chair will butt in and offer other reasons: In alternating years we elect Regional Directors and Directors at Large. When the opportunity comes to elect the Regional Directors, the number of ballots being sent out is very often minimal, some regions not having a contest for the Regional Director positions. The cost of doing it electronically would, in these cases, be prohibitive. In all actuality the cost of an election such as this year's for DaL is not really that expensive. In checking on it a few years back all costs, including Office time and out side ballot tabulation was, I believe well under 5k dollars. An undisputable electronic system would be many times that amount. Bob Morris Chair AERC Elections Committee Bob Morris Boise, ID -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Maul Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 6:13 PM To: ridecamp Subject: [RC] Handling ballots In response to:" It would seem to me that the AERC mailing each family member's ballots separately is a terrible waste of money and resources. Wouldn't it be better to stuff the number of ballots needed in one envelope? Or better, yet, let those of us who are tech savvy, do all of our voting online? " I'll take on the second part of this and let the office respond on the first. Voting online might be easy but here's my view of why we don't. The ballots have to be secret. That really means it can't be done with the AERC member's pages or the AERC site because they are maintained by Russ and me - with both of us being AERC members - and in my case one of the candidates. This means that it would have to go to an outside online company that we would have to pay to handle it. There would have to be a verification scheme to make sure only those who are voters would be able to vote. We would have to supply info from the AERC database to make this happen. That's significant extra work on the part of the office, Russ, and me. AERC is already paying a company to handle the paper ballots with respect to counting, validating, and reporting. This is done so that it's clear that all members of ARC including the office are not involved in any aspects of the balloting other than sending them out. So while it might be nice to have voting online - and might actually increase the number voting - it's not feasible in my view. What we might save in postage and paper ballots would go to the online company. Mike =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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