You've all seen the results from the Southeaster Division election. Here's a bit of background. A total of 4,485 electronic and paper ballots were processed. For the Director position, there were 25 under votes and 2 over votes. For the Vice Director position, there were 57 under votes and 3 over votes. An under vote is where no candidate is checked. An over vote is where more than one candidate is checked. About 100 (I think that's the right number) members voted both via paper and electronically. In this case, the electronic ballot was used and the paper ballot ignored. Of the 4,485 ballots, 3,396 or 75.72% were electronic. The remaining 1,089 or 24.28% were on paper. There were 14,151 ballots distributed. So 31.69% of the ARRL members in the Southwestern Division voted. During the Southeastern Division election three years ago, about 4,000 ballots (all paper, of course) were received. The tabulation of electronic ballots was continuous throughout the election period. It took about 2 hours to count and validate the paper ballots starting at noon today, the end of the election period. Election Services Company pulled about 100 of the paper ballots and compared the results of the electronic scan of the ballot to one determined by a human looking at the ballot. Through out the process if there was an ambiguity in the scanning of the paper ballots -- over or under voting, those ballots were examined by a human operator to determine, for example, whether a correct but faint mark had been made or if a check mark happened to extend into a neighboring check box. I was impressed by the quality of the work and the efficiency of the process. 73, Art K0AIZ -- Arthur I. Zygielbaum, K0AIZ ARRL Midwest Division Director Chair, Ethics and Elections Committee Member, Programs and Services Committee ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio®