AAUP Elections

Last Friday, January 27, 2012, you received an e-mail message from the Department of Labor (DOL) announcing that the AAUP’s 2011 Council and ASC Chair elections are going to be rerun concurrently with the 2012 Council and officer elections. The 2011 rerun is being conducted without prejudice to the nominees who were elected to Council in that election. Both elections will occur by mail ballot this year instead of by electronic ballot.

The DOL recommended a rerun of last year’s election because of several concerns, including its concern that not all AAUP members had received adequate notice of nomination and election information. Federal law requires election notices to be mailed by postal service to a member’s last-known home mailing address. To comply with this requirement, the AAUP’s national office will continue its efforts to obtain home addresses for all voter-eligible members. In the coming weeks, we will begin sending e-mail messages (to an e-mail address on file) to members who have not yet provided home addresses for our membership records.

In addition, the DOL is requiring that the 2011 rerun election and the concurrent 2012 election be conducted by postal mail, instead of electronically, to address its concerns about the secrecy of the ballots and the observability of the vote tally.

In response to the DOL’s concerns, the AAUP has agreed to the supervised rerun of the 2011 election and the concurrent 2012 election. In the coming weeks, additional information about the elections will be sent by e-mail and posted on the AAUP’s website. At this point, it is important to note that both elections will occur by mail ballot, not by electronic vote; and
1. the AAUP will be sending e-mail messages to individual members for whom we do not have home addresses asking them to provide that information. No mail ballot can or will be sent to an eligible member who has not provided us with a home address.
2. Thank you for your attention to this message. The DOL will soon be publishing final election rules which will be posted on the AAUP’s website in the election link: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/bus/dol.htm.

If you have any questions about the upcoming concurrent elections or the published rules for those elections, please do not hesitate to contact the DOL election supervisor at [email protected].