How Elections Can Help You

Introduction

In this blog we are going to explore what is in elections for you.  You have been told over and over again that people died so that you can have the right to vote.  Many people tell me that they are going to the polls to vote. I ask them why? The answer is always because it is the right thing to do. People died for that right. Then I ask, "What do you expect to get out of your vote?" Here is where I get nothing but silence or they mention something about Dr. Martin Luther King.

We are going to examine three types of elections that you may get involved in. You  may run for public office or vote for someone in office. You may belong to a home association, running for a board seat or supporting someone for the board. You may live in a town where most of the people work for corporation X. You may want to run for a board seat here or vote your stock for a friend wanting to be on the board. We will explore what is in it for you in all three situations.

 

Government Elections

So you want to run for office? You may want to start with running for something local to get some experience in running. Positions such as City Council, Judge of Elections, and ETC. You may want to consider running for a party office such as Committee member. People have different reasons for running or supporting people for office. The government wants you to vote because it gives you the voter the idea that you have a stake in the outcome. Candidates usually have large egos and want to be loved by the community. You the voter may feel that you will get something out of the candidate winning the election such as getting your road fixed, a better school for your children, or free health insurance.

 Before you run, think about supporting someone who is running and learning while working on the candidates campaign. Pay attention to what the candidate is doing when it is time to;

• Circulate petitions to run for office -- you or your candidate will have to get signatures on the petition to run for office. The petition must be filled out correctly or it will be thrown out.

• Filing petitions to run for office -- You or your candidate must file the petition in the proper office on time.

• Going through the petition challenge -- Others have the right to look at your petition and will file a challenge against you or your candidate, saying that your petition is not in order. You must be prepared to beat back the challenge.

• Running for office in the primary -- You or your candidate should have started raising money to run for office a year before you started circulating petitions. The election committee should have been put in place by that time. Your election organization should be out knocking on doors and getting the word out that you or your candidate is running.

What about your position on issues? Most people running for local office give the public generally a copy of their resume. That is because they do not take the time to figure out what the public wants to see in a candidate.  What does the public want to hear concerning the needs of the community?

It is easier to expose the opponent to the voters. The opponent may be in office and has mismanaged the City or  township. If you tell the public what is going on and how it is affecting them, you and your candidate would stop the opponent from getting votes and will give your organization more votes.

The objective of the race is to get one more vote than the other candidate.     

Association Elections

If you live in a community that is govern by an association, you or your friends may want to have a board seat. Most Government offices pay you something for serving such as a meal, $25, or a real salary. But when serving under an association, you get to do the work and pay for your own meals. Most don't get any pay.

Most people serve because they want to keep their community beautiful as well as keep their property values high.  They may want to serve to make sure that they are kept in the loop when it comes to Condominium income and expenses.

A group of women in my Association wanted to run a woman for a board seat. They said that no one on my street was represented on the board and they look upon the current board as a "click." But they had no idea how to conduct a campaign to put the lady on the board. They waited until the announcement came out about the annual meeting to write a letter to the association nominating the lady to run.

That was a good move to write a letter of nomination however let the woman know that she is being nominated. Make sure that the nominating letter has the candidates name spelled correctly. The candidates name must match exactly the name on the Association Registry. Send this letter before the Proxy letter to the residents are sent out. That way the candidates name is on the Proxy so that the residents and circle it and send it in.

Once the candidate is on the ballot, the Proxy is mailed out to every home in the Association. This is not a one vote one person style of election. This is a corporate election meaning that it is one vote per one home in the Association. In my Association we have 54 condominiums or 54 votes. Anyone that does not vote by the time of the closing of elections at the Annual meeting, the Association board votes these shares.

In my case, the lady nominated herself at the meeting after the proxy papers were in. Only 17 votes came to the meeting. So the board controlled at least 37 votes.  Needless to say, the woman did not have a chance.

What they should have done was;

1. Called the Association Manager to find out when the nominations should be in to place the candidates on the Proxy.

2. Before the deadline, find out who wants to run for a board seat and have them send a letter in to the Association Manager before the deadline.

3. Once the Proxy letter are sent out, go door to door asking for each condominium vote, have them sign their proxy and take it from them at that point.

4. Take the proxy letters to the Association Manager's office or give the manager the letters at the Annual Meeting before the "Call for Nominations."

Doing it this way, you and your candidate will have enough votes (if you received enough proxies) to when the election.  Then you and your friends can volunteer for all the work.  

 

Public Corporation Elections

 

Public Corporation Elections are run very much like Association Elections. The difference is that each share of common stock has one vote. So you can have 5,000 shares meaning that you have 5,000 votes.  This is where stock clubs comes into play. The more people that you have in your organization buying stock in the company , the more votes your organization will receive at Annual meetings.

Your organization may want to make sure that a group of people in the community is given jobs in the company. Your organization may want to make sure that the company stays in the community.  Then again, your organization may want to take over the company for the purpose of family control.

Make sure that;

1. Your organization continues to buy common stock in the company.

2. Know and honor all SEC laws.   

3. Make sure your organization goes to Stockholders Meetings.

4. Keep in contact with board members.

5. Let the company know that your organization intends to be active at Annual Meetings with the objective of having board seats.

6. Later once your organization is established run your candidate for a board seat. Remember that you must find out from stockholder relations or the SEC the rules for doing so.  One rule is that the organization must have the company Common Stock in members name, your name, Street Name, or the Stock Clubs name. Having stock in a mutual fund that your organization owns is not your voting stock. The first thing management will do is check the stock registry to see if the stock is in the names that you say that they are in.