Preview the APA Ballot
Taking time to fill out the ballot correctly will ensure that you have the fullest input possible in the 2003 election.
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.
Here are some important points that APA voting members need to know:
The votes on paper ballots will be counted using optical scanning equipment. Be sure to mark your votes correctly (see “Marking Instructions” below).
The ballot and the courtesy return envelope are separate from the booklet and may be lost easily. Voters are encouraged, but not required, to use the courtesy envelope to return their ballots. Members who misplace the courtesy return envelope may use their own envelopes to mail their ballots to American Psychiatric Association, c/o Intelliscan Inc., PO Box 783, Phoenixville, Pa. 19460-0783.
Do not send completed ballots to APA.
APA does not use a postmark deadline. The deadline is the date by which ballots must be RECEIVED at Intelliscan in order to be counted. That date is 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 6, 2003.
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:
Marking Instructions for Paper Ballot
Image (BALLOT) is missing or otherwise invalid.
Instructions for Voting Online
All members eligible to vote will be sent a paper ballot. Members may mark and return the paper ballot OR vote online, in which case the paper ballot should not be marked or returned.
The paper ballot will include instructions for voting online.
Each eligible voting member will be able to access his/her ballot (an online replica of his/her paper ballot) using his/her last name and the ballot control number that appears at the top of the paper ballot. (For security purposes, Intelliscan Inc. randomly assigns the ballot control number to each ballot. No one at APA knows or can access those numbers.)
Once the online ballot has been marked and submitted, votes cannot be changed.
If a member returns a paper ballot AND votes online, only the votes on the paper ballot will be counted.
The deadline for voting online is 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 6, 2003.
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].
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Published online: 6 December 2002
Published in print: December 6, 2002
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