Today the Sierra Club's Inspectors of Elections declined to overturn the January 20th election resolution passed by the majority of the current Sierra Club Board, despite complaints filed by four petition candidates for Board, and current Board members. We, the petition candidates, alleged that the resolution violated fair election rules and law by creating an uneven playing field that gives the Board majority an unfair advantage by promoting the Nominating Committee candidates, and urging members to vote for 5 of the 6 of them, in the ballot materials, and without giving any petition candidates an equal opportunity. Though the Inspectors allowed the Board majority's resolution, they expressed concern, noting that "This action by the Board was unusual, if not unprecedented", and they ruled that only a single short statement, in President Cruz's brief letter on the ballot, can be made, e.g.: "The Board of Directors hereby endorses the six candidates nominated by the Nominating Committee: Shruti Bhatnagar, Cheyenne Branscum, Allison Chin, Brian Gomez, Cynthia Hoyle and Herve Jean-Baptiste and urges Sierra Club members to vote for five of these six candidates when filling out their ballot." The Inspectors noted that this short statement, in President Cruz's brief ballot letter, would "not describe the qualifications of the [Nominating Committee] candidates or the reasons why voting for these candidates would be better than voting for the other four candidates." The Inspectors also ruled that the Board majority cannot include their electioneering sentence in two places, and can only include it in President Cruz's ballot letter, not also in an additional ballot memo that was proposed. Despite some restrictions imposed by the Inspectors, this unprecedented act by the Board majority gives one group of candidates, the Nominating Committee candidates, an unfair advantage over the four petition candidates, which creates an unfair election. We will comply with this ruling and move forward.
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News from the 2022 Petition CandidatesAaron Mair Archives
April 2022
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