2014 NALC election results update

2014 NALC election results update

The National Election Committee met at NALC National Headquarters in Washington, DC, during the week of Jan. 6 to review the election-result appeals that the committee received in December from four unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 election of NALC national officers. The results of the national election were published in the December 2014 Postal Record. 3-NALC News Small

Following a thorough review, the committee’s decision was to deny the appeals submitted by candidate for national president David Noble, candidate for national trustee Eryca Bloom, candidate for vice president Deidre Beal and candidate for assistant secretary-treasurer Sharella Spikes. Letters from the committee have notified the appellants of this decision.

Before the book containing the official summary of election results was mailed out to branches, NALC’s election contractor, Peake-DeLancey, discovered that the report, which had been posted on the NALC website in December, had listed the branch vote totals from a different branch for the following branches:

  • La Crosse, WI Branch 59
  • Paragould, AR Branch 1293
  • Panama City, FL Branch 3367
  • Windham, OH Branch 4804
  • Milton, WV Branch 5599
  • Churubusco, IN Branch 6318

These errors resulted from mistakes in formatting when the printers were laying out the summary book for final print. The errors appeared only in the summary PDF that was posted on the website. The PDF was deleted from the website and the errors were corrected before the hard-copy book was printed and mailed.

(Note: Peake-DeLancey initially reported to the National Election Committee that five branches had been listed with a different branch’s totals; further investigation confirmed that actually six branches had been listed with a different branch’s totals.)

Unfortunately, after the election book was mailed, Peake-DeLancey discovered that the book contained computational errors. Specifically, while each branch’s total vote count was correct, there were errors in adding the branch vote totals together, resulting in errors in some regional (2, 5, 9 and 15) and national totals. These errors occurred because a number of “cells” in the Microsoft Excel computer spreadsheet where regional totals were tallied contained a mistake in the formula used for adding up the votes. Peake-DeLancey has corrected the affected cells and has verified all of the counts in the spreadsheet.

The vote totals reported for each individual branch in the printed election book mailed to branches were accurate. None of the spreadsheet corrections since made by Peake-DeLancey changed the specific vote counts in any branch or affected the outcome of the election for any office. The corrections simply change the total regional votes for some candidates in regions 2, 5, 9, and 15 and the national totals. The corrected national vote totals for each candidate were actually higher than the totals reflected in the book. The corrections affected only the national office races. The regional office races were not affected.

Errata sheets containing corrected totals for specific pages in the NALC 2014 election summary booklet have been mailed to all NALC branches, along with a cover letter of explanation from Peake-DeLancey. Branch presidents should keep these new pages with their copies of the election results book.

Click here to review the corrected official summary book, click here to review the list of discrepancies, and click here to view Peake-DeLancey’s cover letter and errata sheets that are being mailed to branches.

Peake-DeLancey deeply regrets these errors and apologizes for any confusion that may have been caused.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.