There are three candidates for three races in APA's 2009 election: president-elect, vice president, and member-in-training trustee-elect (MITTE). The preferential voting system will be used for these races. The system avoids the cost and time of a runoff election by having members vote in a single ballot for all their choices in order of preference.
Please note that these instructions are for the printed ballot; members who choose to vote online will find instructions adapted for the computerized ballot once online. Also, only members-in-training will get ballots with the MITTE race included.
In the three-way races, next to each candidate's name are three boxes marked 1, 2, and 3 (see example below). To mark your ballot, decide which candidate you want to win. Make a solid mark in the box marked 1 next to that candidate's name. Then decide which one of the remaining candidates you would want to win if your first choice received the lowest number of first-choice votes and was eliminated from the race. Make a solid mark in the box marked 2 next to that candidate's name. Indicate your last choice by making a solid mark in the box marked 3 next to the remaining candidate's name.
In preferential voting, voters must decide which candidate they would want to vote for if the candidate of their first choice receives the lowest number of first-choice votes and is therefore eliminated from the contest. The only second-choice votes that are distributed are those on the ballots of the candidate with the lowest number of first-choice votes. You are not helping your first-choice candidate in any way by not rank-ordering the remaining candidates. Conversely, you are not hurting your first-choice candidate in any way by rank-ordering the remaining candidates.
The procedures for counting preferential votes are as follows: All first-choice votes for each candidate are counted. If no candidate receives a majority vote, the candidate with the lowest number of first-choice votes is eliminated. His or her ballots are then redistributed to the remaining candidates based on voters' second choices and added to each of the remaining candidates' first-choice votes to determine which one has now received a majority vote.
The three-candidate races will appear on ballots as shown below.
Rank order the candidates. (1, 2, 3 with 1 being your first choice.)
You need not rank order every candidate.
You may vote for a single candidate by marking only one box containing a“ 1.”
To be sure you get the most out of your APA voting privileges, rank-order all the candidates in the three-way races.
