[UUA-L] UUA Election Update

[Unitarian Universalist Association]

Under the UUA bylaws, candidates for UUA President and Moderator must
submit petitions to run for these offices.  For the office of President,
Rev. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales submitted petitions and their
petitions both met the bylaw requirements.  And for the office of
Moderator, Gini Courter submitted petitions that met the bylaw
requirements.  Therefore, the UUA election ballot will contain the names
of Peter Morales and Laurel Hallman for President and Gini Courter for
Moderator.  For further information on the candidates, please visit
these websites:

Peter Morales - http://www.moralesforuuapresident.org/

Laurel Hallman - http://www.hallmanforuuapresident.com/

Gini Courter -
http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/officers/moderator/courtergini/ind
ex.shtml


For all other offices (Financial Advisor, Trustee At Large, Youth
Trustee At Large, General Assembly Planning Committee, Nominating
Committee, Commission on Appraisal, Commission on Social Witness, and
Board of Review), a slate of candidates is put forward by the Nominating
Committee.  Anyone wishing to run for one of these offices who was not
nominated by the Nominating Committee can run by petition.  However, no
one submitted petitions to run for any of these offices.  Therefore, the
UUA election ballot will contain the names of the individuals put
forward by the Nominating Committee:
http://www.uua.org/documents/nc/09_slate.pdf .

The UUA bylaws do not allow write-in voting, so voting will be limited
to the candidates listed on the ballot.

Important Information about Absentee Voting

Under the UUA bylaws, congregations that have met the certification
requirements for sending voting delegates to General Assembly can vote
in the election in two ways:

*	By submitting completed absentee ballots.  Absentee ballots with
instructions and biographical information about the candidates will be
mailed to congregations in early May and must be returned by June 17. 
*	By sending delegates to vote on site at General Assembly on
Saturday, June 27.  All GA delegates who have voting credentials that
were not used to vote absentee will be eligible to vote on site.

A congregation can use a mix of both of these methods if it wishes.  For
example, if a congregation will be sending some but not all of its
delegates to General Assembly, the congregation can vote absentee for
any of the delegate slots that won't be used to send delegates to
General Assembly.  However, the system prevents double-voting, so if a
congregation is eligible for three delegate slots and submits two
completed absentee ballots, only one General Assembly delegate from that
congregation will be allowed to vote on site.

When discerning how to vote in the election (absentee or on site),
congregations have wide discretion in determining whether and how to
instruct their delegates.  For example, a congregation could hold a
congregational meeting to discuss the election and then could direct its
delegates to vote for particular candidates.  Or the congregation could
appoint delegates and allow those delegates to vote their consciences.
More detailed instructions for voting will be included with the ballot
mailing in early May.

Please let me know if you have questions about the election.  For more
information on UUA Elections, see
http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/elections/index.shtml .

---Paul Rickter, UUA Secretary