This year, we will be utilizing an outside, web-based election service to manage and conduct the election. We are currently working on that transition. We hope to have ballots sent out through that company in the next few weeks. Our goal is to insure that voters will have approximately 30 days to vote before the deadline. Because we are using the outside service, ballots will not be able to be hand-delivered at the AGM. All voters will have the opportunity to vote online. Voters may also mail in ballots, but they will need to be mailed with adequate time to be received by the outside service sufficiently ahead of the AGM to permit tabulation. We will set a deadline for receipt of those mailed ballots.
Each voter (club owner, RD, judge, BoD) will have the ability through the online service to cast votes for different candidates where the voter has more than one vote - meaning a voter will have the ability as specifically provided in the new bylaws to split their votes between candidates. For example, if a club owner who has earned 8 votes wishes to vote 4 votes for Dog A for MVP and 4 votes for Dog B for MVP, the club owner will have that option.
We are hoping to move even more fully towards an electronic voting process. This year to help transition in that direction, we'll be posting a link on the web page to allow voters to opt in to receive their ballot electronically, rather than through postal mail. The link will be active in the next few days. In future years, we will be moving towards having all ballots delivered electronically. It will be important for voters (club owners, regional directors, judges, and Board members) to keep their email addresses, as well as mailing addresses, up to date with NAFA.
We appreciate everyone's patience with this transition. More information will be released within the next few days. In the meantime, we wanted to provide this update so voters were aware of the election status and planning.
