International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

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SUBSTITUTE BYLAW PROVISIONS

ARTICLE III

VOTING BY MAIL BALLOT

Officers – Elections – Duties

Sec. 1. The officers shall perform such duties as are stated in Article XVII of the IBEW Constitution. In addition, they shall perform such duties as are outlined in these bylaws, and such duties as may be assigned to them by the Local Union and which are not in conflict with the IBEW Constitution and these bylaws.

Sec. 2. Failure of officers to perform their duties, the suspension or removal of any officer and the filling of any vacancies, shall be dealt with as stated in Article XVI of the IBEW Constitution.

Sec. 3. All officers and representatives and all employees shall be bonded to the extent required by the International or any applicable Federal or Provincial law whichever is greater. The bond shall be secured through the International and the premium shall be paid by the Local Union.

Sec. 4. (a) The officers shall be those provided for in Article XVI of the IBEW Constitution.

(b) The President shall have such authority as provided for the Business Manager in these bylaws and the IBEW Constitution.

Sec. 5. The Executive Board shall consist of (where officers are members of the Executive Board, they are to be listed in this space) and _______ elected members.

Choose:

Sec. 6. The Examining Board shall consist of ______ elected members.

Or:

Sec. 6. (alt) The Executive Board shall serve as the Examining Board. There shall be separate meetings held and separate records kept.

Sec.7. (a) Nominations for officers shall be held in April ______ and election of officers shall be held in June ______ and every three (3) years thereafter, as stated in Article XVI of the IBEW Constitution. Notice shall be mailed to all members at least twenty (20) days prior to the meeting for nominations in election years.

(b) Members of one Unit may nominate members of another Unit for Local Union office. It is not necessary that such nominees be confined to a particular Unit. A member placing the name of another member in nomination for office when the nominated member is not present, shall at the time the nomination is made, give to the Unit Recorder evidence, in writing, signed by the nominee, that the nominee agrees to be a candidate for a specific Local Union office. However, any member being nominated in this manner cannot signify his/her intentions to be a candidate for more than one (1) specific Local Union office. This provision shall not apply to offices that have been combined with the approval of the International President.

(c) Immediately after nominations, the Unit Recorder shall forward a list of the names of the candidates, signed by the Unit Recorder and the Unit Chairman, to the Recording Secretary of the Local Union.

(d) The Local Union shall comply with all reasonable requests of any bona fide candidate for Local Union Office to distribute his/her campaign literature to the membership at the candidate's expense. In handling all such requests, the Local Union shall comply with the IBEW Local Election Guide and with applicable Department of Labor Regulations under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

(e) Every candidate shall have the right, once within thirty (30) days prior to the mailing of the ballots, to inspect a list containing the names and last-known addresses of all members of the Local Union. Such list of members shall be maintained and kept by the Local Union. The membership list shall not be copied for the use of any candidate.

(f) No member shall be eligible for office unless he/she has been a member of Local Union ______ in continuous good standing for at least two (2) years immediately prior to nomination.

(g) No apprentice shall be eligible to hold office in the Local Union, except that a member who was previously eligible to hold office in the Local Union shall remain eligible if he/she entered an apprenticeship program for the purpose of upgrading his/her classification.

Sec.8. (a) The election of officers shall be conducted by mail ballot. The Executive Board shall decide the date for the mailing of the ballots, the last day on which ballots for the election will be received, the date, time and place the ballots will be counted, and similar information in the event a run-off election is necessary. This information shall be included in the notice of the nominations meeting and in the ballot package sent to the members.

(b) The Executive Board may appoint an individual to perform certain tasks, including but not limited to procuring restricted access post office boxes, mail permits, or an outside impartial balloting company, prior to the nominations meeting. All disbursements related to these tasks shall be processed in accordance with the IBEW Constitution and these bylaws. Once the Election Judge is appointed, such individual shall inform the Election Judge of all advanced tasks performed and shall immediately turn over to the Election Judge all records, receipts, post office boxes, etc. for further processing.

Choose:

(c) At the meeting of the Local Union when nominations are made, the President, after nominations have closed, shall appoint an Election Judge and as many Tellers as are required, who shall serve as the Election Board to conduct the election. No candidate for any office shall be eligible to serve on the Election Board.

Or:

alt. (c ) At the meeting of the Local Union, in the month preceding the month in which nominations are made, the President shall appoint an Election Judge and as many Tellers as are required, who shall serve as the Election Board to conduct the election. No candidate for any office shall be eligible to serve on the Election Board.

(d) After nominations have been made and those nominated are found by the Election Judge to be qualified, the Election Judge shall have the ballots prepared listing in alphabetical order the names of all candidates for each respective office, beginning with President and continuing in the order named in the IBEW Constitution. The ballots shall not contain any number or other marks identifying the voter. If the Local Union retains an impartial outside balloting company to assist and/or conduct the mail ballot election, the Election Judge may, with the approval of the Local Union, authorize the outside balloting company to perform the tasks of printing, mailing, receiving, tabulating and/or counting the ballots.

(e) Any candidate for office, or an IBEW member designated by the candidate as an observer, may be present at the preparation and mailing of ballot packages, the ballot pickup and the counting of the ballots.

(f) The Financial Secretary shall furnish the Election Judge, not less than ten (10) days before the date for the mailing of the ballots, an alphabetical list of the names and addresses of all members eligible to vote. All members in good standing and qualified shall be entitled to vote.

(g) If not already arranged, the Election Judge shall select a depository to which the envelopes containing the ballots shall be mailed. This shall not be the Local Union Post Office Box or the Local Union headquarters. (Cost of such depository shall be paid by the Local Union.) The Election Judge shall see that the address of such depository is placed on the preaddressed envelopes.

(h) The Election Judge shall mail or cause to be mailed to all eligible voters an official ballot and two (2) envelopes. One (1) envelope shall be smaller than the other and shall have the words OFFICIAL BALLOT stamped or printed on it. The larger envelope shall be preaddressed to the Election Board and shall contain a space in the upper left hand corner where the member shall place his/her name and address.

(i) Upon receiving the ballot, the member shall mark the ballot and enclose it in the smaller envelope marked OFFICIAL BALLOT. This envelope shall be placed in the larger preaddressed envelope and mailed to the Election Board.

(j) Write-in votes shall not be permitted.

(k) No envelope received later than the time and date set by the Executive Board in the notice of election shall be opened or counted by the Election Board. The Election Judge may extend the time for the receipt of ballots in the event of an extraordinary event beyond the control of the Local Union.

(l) Prior to the counting of the ballots, the Election Board shall verify voter eligibility by comparing the return ballot envelopes to the voter eligibility list. A ballot challenged by either the Election Board, a candidate, or a candidate’s observer shall be set aside. Before removing the official ballot envelopes from the return ballot envelopes, the Election Judge shall attempt to resolve the challenged ballots, recording all decisions in writing. Unresolved challenged ballots shall be set aside and not counted unless such ballots are deemed determinative of the outcome of the election.

(m) The Election Board shall count the ballots or have an outside impartial balloting company count the ballots in the presence of the Election Board. The Election Board shall remove or cause the removal of the smaller envelope marked OFFICIAL BALLOT from the larger envelope. The OFFICIAL BALLOT envelopes shall then be mixed together to preserve ballot secrecy. The ballots shall then be removed from the OFFICIAL BALLOT envelopes and tabulated. If the challenged ballots are not determinative, the Election Judge shall certify the results in writing to the Executive Board immediately after the ballots have been counted. If the challenged ballots are determinative, the Election Judge shall, as soon as possible but no later than five (5) days from the counting of the ballots, investigate and rule upon the challenges. All challenged ballots determined to be eligible shall then be counted, and the Election Judge shall certify the results in writing to the Executive Board.

(n) All election records including envelopes and ballots shall be preserved for one (1) year from the date of election, after which they shall be destroyed unless a question has arisen in connection with the election.

(o) The Election Judge shall have the authority to establish additional procedures and safeguards not inconsistent with the above rules and in conformance with the conduct of a fair election and applicable law. The Election Judge shall also have full authority to make rulings and decisions concerning disputes, controversies or unexpected occurrences that might arise in order to assure a fair and orderly election process. These rulings or decisions shall not conflict with any provisions in the IBEW Constitution or these bylaws.

Choose:

(p) The election shall be decided for the candidate receiving the most votes for a specific office.

OR (p) and (q)

(p) In the event a candidate does not receive a majority of the votes cast for a specific office, then a run-off election will be held between the two (2) candidates receiving the highest number of votes. This does not include the election for the Local Union Executive Board or Examining Board, which shall be decided for the candidates receiving the most votes.

(q) When a run-off election is necessary, such run-off election shall be held twenty-one (21) days after the regular election is held.

Article II, Article III, and Article XVI substitution language must be substituted in their entirety when the local union desires to fully implement the Unit concept. However, a number of local unions utilize the unit concept without involving these substitute provisions for meetings, elections, and for amendments to the bylaws. Generally, full implementation is preferred since it allows the members to more fully participate in the decisions of the local union.

If not implementing the full unit concept, local unions may choose instead “Article III, Pattern A” (voting at the polls) or “Article III, Pattern B” (voting by mail). After a pattern is selected, all sections and subsections of the pattern selected are required, unless otherwise specified. These patterns were developed to conform with the policies and Constitution of the IBEW.

Sec. 4(a). If any offices are to be combined, it should be stated in this section. Where the local union does not have a Business Manager, the duties of this office will be performed by the President of the Local. In such case, subsection (b) will be included in your bylaws.

Sec. 5. Any officer, except the Business Manager, may also be elected to the Board and may serve in conjunction with his/her other office when such combination is approved by the International President; or, the Executive Board may be composed entirely of elected members who do not hold any other office.

Where the President also acts as the Business Manager, he/she may not be a member of the Executive Board.

The Recording Secretary of the local union may not serve as Secretary to the Executive Board unless he/she is also a member of the Board under Section 5.

The Board may be composed of three (3), five (5), or seven (7) members. If more than seven (7) members are necessary, approval of the International President is required. In any case, the Board must be composed of an uneven number of members to prevent a tie vote.

Sec. 6. Local unions may or may not have an Examining Board as they decide. When the local union chooses to have a separate Examining Board, it must be composed of no less than three (3) nor more than five (5) members who must be elected. When the Executive Board serves as the Examining Board, Section 8(alt) language should be used.

NOTE: Local unions in the industrial branches of the IBEW generally do not require an Examining Board, making such provisions unnecessary.

Sec. 7(a). The months and year of nominations and elections are stated in Section 7(a). Local unions in the United States are limited to three (3) year terms of office, by virtue of federal law and the IBEW Constitution. The IBEW Constitution establishes a minimum of three (3) years, and the law a maximum of three (3) years.

Sec. 7(d). The months and year of nominations and elections are stated in Section 9(a). Local unions in the United States are limited to three (3) year terms of office, by virtue of federal law and the IBEW Constitution. The IBEW Constitution establishes a minimum of three (3) years, and the law a maximum of three (3) years.

Sec. 7(g). This provision is required by those local unions that have a bona fide apprenticeship program.

Sec. 8(c). Local unions may choose to elect the Judge and Tellers of the election rather than having them appointed by the President. Either way, Section 8(c) must include the method selected. Appointment of the Judge and Tellers is preferred. When they are elected, it is much more difficult to remove them for non-performance of their duties.

Sec. 8 (p) & (q). In the event the local union desires to use the majority vote procedure, (p) and (q) should be used in lieu of (p).