Preview the APA Ballot

APA has renewed its contract with Intelliscan Inc., a professional election management firm, to conduct the vote count in the 2003 election by optical scan equipment. As in the past two elections, eligible voting members will have the opportunity to cast their votes online by visiting APA’s Web site at www.psych.org, where they will find instructions for voting online. The eligible voting members are members-in-training, general members, fellows, life members, and life fellows. Important note: Members must have received a paper ballot in order to vote online. The online ballot will be available on the Web site a few days after the paper ballots are mailed on January 6, 2003.

The ballot will be sent in an envelope along with a booklet containing the photographs and biographies of and brief statements by the candidates for national, member-in-training, and Area offices, and an amendment to the Bylaws. The ballot for marking votes for candidates and the amendment is a separate insert, as is the courtesy return envelope.

The booklet contains information on all candidates, including those for member-in-training trustee-elect (MITTE) and Area trustees. However, since a Bylaws change approved in the 2000 election mandates that only members-in-training may elect the MITTE, only members-in-training (as determined by their official APA member class) will receive a ballot for marking votes for the MITTE candidates. Similarly, only those members in Area 1 will receive a ballot for voting for the Area 1 trustee, only those members in Area 4 will receive a ballot for voting for the Area 4 trustee, and only those members in Area 7 will receive a ballot for voting for the Area 7 trustee. Area membership is determined by district branch membership, not by address; that is, members (including members-in-training) of district branches in Areas 1, 4, and 7 will receive ballots to vote for their respective Area trustees. Members of district branches in all other Areas are not voting for their Area trustee this year.

A paper ballot and its online replica will be produced for every member who is eligible to vote. As noted above, members must have a paper ballot in order to vote online. Members should contact Carol Lewis no later than January 29, 2003, by phone at (888) 357-7924 or by e-mail at [email protected], if they believe they are eligible to vote but did not receive a ballot or they received a ballot and misplaced it. In the event of duplicate voting (paper and online), only the paper ballot will be counted.

The paper ballot will include instructions for voting online and for marking the paper ballot. The instructions for marking the paper ballot appear below:

Members who have further questions, complaints, or suggestions for improving the ballot packet are encouraged to write or call Carol Lewis, staff liaison to both the Elections and Tellers committees, at (888) 357-7924; e-mail: [email protected].