[arrl-odv:33595] Electronic Balloting -- site visit to Election Services Company
As described in the Electronic Balloting Implementation Plan, CFO Diane Middleton, W2DLM, Director Ria Jairam, N2RJ, and I visited Election Service Company (ESC) in Melville, NY, on Tuesday. We found them very professional, easy to talk with, and very flexible in dealing with our concerns. Their technical systems and audit processes appear sound. We were impressed by their sensitivity to security and to accommodating their customer's needs. Based on the consensus of the three of us to move forward, the E&E has recommended that the ARRL execute a three-year contract with ESC to conduct our Division Director elections. This will cover both paper and electronic balloting. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 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®
Art, Although it seems that electronic balloting is a modern approach to voting, some of us remember that the League tried this before, and the result was a considerable drop in the percentage of members voting. Is there a reason for awarding a three year contract, rather than a one year trial that might give some input on how well this works? I assume the financial details of this will be discussed at the upcoming A&F Meeting, but other Board members might be interested in a few sentence summary. Thanks. 73, Dick, N6AA Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 11:37 AM, Art Zygielbaum<k0aiz@arrl.org> wrote: As described in the Electronic Balloting Implementation Plan, CFO Diane Middleton, W2DLM, Director Ria Jairam, N2RJ, and I visited Election Service Company (ESC) in Melville, NY, on Tuesday. We found them very professional, easy to talk with, and very flexible in dealing with our concerns. Their technical systems and audit processes appear sound. We were impressed by their sensitivity to security and to accommodating their customer's needs. Based on the consensus of the three of us to move forward, the E&E has recommended that the ARRL execute a three-year contract with ESC to conduct our Division Director elections. This will cover both paper and electronic balloting. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 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® _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv
Hello Dick, As I was at the meeting, I can tell you wholeheartedly that this is a vast improvement both over the current process and the previous process. This new process has paper ballots as an option. All ballots are scanned and OCRed. Ballot images are available for audit purposes. Electronic ballots with this company are extremely secure and they go well above and beyond industry standard practices for security. The company has a strong heritage with another prominent company (ADP) that many in the corporate world know and trust. There is an extensive audit trail, and analytics of voting available. As far as participation goes: This new system can send out reminders and track email bounces and delivery failures, something that is hard to do with postal mail. Participation is very likely to increase. The electronic ballots have a high degree of accessibility, and are extensively tested with common screen reader software (eg. JAWS). I have had complaints from blind members of ARRL that they feel neglected. This will absolutely go a long way to increasing participation from them. This is something we do not do now. Blind members have to find someone to read their mailed ballots and mark it for them. With electronic voting the member doesn't have to pay return postage or find stamps. All in all this seems like a win for us. Members have been asking, and I am glad that Dir. Zygielbaum and E&E have taken this on. 73 Ria, N2RJ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Richard Norton via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2022 5:16 PM To: Zygielbaum, Art, K0AIZ (D,MW) <k0aiz@arrl.org>; arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:33600] Re: Electronic Balloting -- site visit to Election Services Company Art, Although it seems that electronic balloting is a modern approach to voting, some of us remember that the League tried this before, and the result was a considerable drop in the percentage of members voting. Is there a reason for awarding a three year contract, rather than a one year trial that might give some input on how well this works? I assume the financial details of this will be discussed at the upcoming A&F Meeting, but other Board members might be interested in a few sentence summary. Thanks. 73, Dick, N6AA Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android<https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature> On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 11:37 AM, Art Zygielbaum <k0aiz@arrl.org> wrote: As described in the Electronic Balloting Implementation Plan, CFO Diane Middleton, W2DLM, Director Ria Jairam, N2RJ, and I visited Election Service Company (ESC) in Melville, NY, on Tuesday. We found them very professional, easy to talk with, and very flexible in dealing with our concerns. Their technical systems and audit processes appear sound. We were impressed by their sensitivity to security and to accommodating their customer's needs. Based on the consensus of the three of us to move forward, the E&E has recommended that the ARRL execute a three-year contract with ESC to conduct our Division Director elections. This will cover both paper and electronic balloting. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 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® _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv
Dick, Good questions. On the first, the company we've picked does electronic and paper balloting for many organizations -- professional organizations, credit unions, etc. They've had great success in motivating people to vote, sending reminders, etc. Virtually all of the other organizations I belong to use electronic balloting and it works. Another consideration is that the world has changed. One by-product of COVID is that people are much more comfortable with "online". So we expect that members will find online balloting more acceptable than before. The reason for a 3 year contract is a small savings in the service charges. And, I have to admit, we feel optimistic about the outcome. The finances were presented in the project plan. You should have received that -- it was sent out earlier. I am attaching the plan again for your use. I briefly discussed the finances when I presented the plan to the EC. Diane is probably the best one to talk about the numbers and I suspect she will be at A&F should it come up. You are correct in being cautious. But we've done our homework and I believe this is a sound plan which will ultimately save us tens of thousands of dollars in paper handling costs. Thank you. I appreciate your comments and knowing your concerns. 73, Art -- 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® On 3/31/2022 4:16 PM, Richard Norton via arrl-odv wrote:
Art,
Although it seems that electronic balloting is a modern approach to voting, some of us remember that the League tried this before, and the result was a considerable drop in the percentage of members voting.
Is there a reason for awarding a three year contract, rather than a one year trial that might give some input on how well this works?
I assume the financial details of this will be discussed at the upcoming A&F Meeting, but other Board members might be interested in a few sentence summary.
Thanks.
73,
Dick, N6AA
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>
On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 11:37 AM, Art Zygielbaum <k0aiz@arrl.org> wrote: As described in the Electronic Balloting Implementation Plan, CFO Diane Middleton, W2DLM, Director Ria Jairam, N2RJ, and I visited Election Service Company (ESC) in Melville, NY, on Tuesday.
We found them very professional, easy to talk with, and very flexible in dealing with our concerns. Their technical systems and audit processes appear sound. We were impressed by their sensitivity to security and to accommodating their customer's needs.
Based on the consensus of the three of us to move forward, the E&E has recommended that the ARRL execute a three-year contract with ESC to conduct our Division Director elections. This will cover both paper and electronic balloting.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
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®
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participants (3)
-
Art Zygielbaum -
Jairam, Ria, N2RJ (Dir, HD) -
Richard Norton