Pacifica Election 2010 Report

by Renée Asteria Peñaloza,
(Renee Asteria Penaloza)
National Election Supervisor 2010
renee( )asteriarecords.com


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Recommendations p2
New Methods p3
Introduction p4
Preliminary Phase p5-6
Nomination Phase p7-10
Campaign Phase p11
Ballot Reissuing & Receipt Phase p11
Ballot Count Phase p11
Finalizing the Election (Results) p12-24
Obstacles p25-31
Conclusion p32
Appendices 1-18
KPFA Final Report
KPFK Final Report
KPFT Final Report
WBAI Final Report
WPFW Final Report

Recommendations: Each LES has recommendations at the top of their report so please read theirs also.


--Hire the NES earlier or create a part-time, year-round position so that he/she can do all the work that has to be done

--Have an obligatory election orientation managed by the National Election Supervisor for management and staff supported by the ED

--Create incentive/disincentive system in order to foster cooperation amongst management and staff

--Create a dynamic staff database by requiring staff to log hours worked (on-air and preparation)

--Maintain an election discussion board (to be moderated by LSB Election Committee Members) accessible via all station websites so that there is a minimum of election material up at all times

--Maintain a library of CARTs and tutorials for each phase of the election produced by station staff and community volunteers. These would be general (no station specific information or dates) and then modified by adding station and electionspecific information.

--Require station workshops/training sessions be completed by all LSB candidates so that they have an idea of what goes on at the station

--Require that all LSB and PNB members undergo a training on ethical conduct in the workplace to reduce abusive behaviors when it comes to treatment of the election supervisors

--Create areas of specialty for the LSB based on the stations' need in order to focus the working relationship between the LSB and the station

--Limit campaign funding in order to make it possible for everyone to run regardless of their financial backing or political affiliation (being part of a slate gives the individual a financial advantage)

--Allow for the use of station email lists by candidates in order to lower the costs of campaigning.

--Use a paper-electronic ballot combination

--Integrate a opting out of a paper ballot and candidate packet onto membership pledge forms in order to transition smoothly from paper ballots to paper & electronic ballots & materials

--Use one POBOX in Berkeley for the receipt of all paper ballots

--Do all ballot counts at the National Office in order to reduce cost and work load

New Methods:

--Pacificaelections2010.org Webpage
--Comprehensive election timeline
--LES hiring procedure
--Skype Line-in Phone Numbers
--Nomination Package Revised
--Nomination Package in Spanish (with the help of Oriana Saportas, KPFA LES)
--Fair Campaign Provisions
--Online form for Violation Report
--Green Election Survey
--Electronic & Paper Ballot Proposal
--Online library of CARTs and Tutorials
--Candidate CART Production Guidelines
--On-air Forum Production Guidelines
--In-Person Forum Production Guidelines
--Ballot Reissuing Protocol
--Ballot-Pick-up Protocol
--Ballot Count Protocol
--Final Report Outline Template
--Post-election Voter Survey
--Searchable database with all ballots indexed by unique PIN number so that each individual can verify that their ballot was counted


Introduction

Greetings, thank you for taking the time to read this report. Before I delve into the complexity of the Pacifica Foundation election process here is a bit of background about me. I was born in NJ to a Bolivian father and Dutch mother and moved to France as a child where I completed secondary school. I then moved on to study (B.Sc., McGill University, Canada; M.P.H., UC Berkeley) and work all over the Americas (Argentina, Bolivia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela). As a result of these experiences I have been able to develop the capacity to work with a diversity of people under stressful conditions. My background in community development has helped me appreciate the need for alternative governance mechanisms. My dedication to the election process, this unique experiment in media democracy, is parallel to my dedication to grass-roots development work. The idea is to create a mechanism of inclusion whereby community needs are addressed by providing direct access to the airwaves. This potential horizontal delegation of power is unlike anything that exists. In spite of all the obstacles I will outline in this report I believe that the election process should continue, but it needs a lot of improvement.

The following report is organized by phase of the election (preliminary, nomination, campaign, ballot and final) and each phase is broken down into sections. Local Election Supervisor Reports from KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, WBAI and WPFW are attached at the end.


Election Timeline:

Election Timeline Illustration

|Nomination phase |Campaign Phase |Ballot Phase
Election Material to be Aired by Phase

June 1st July 1st July 27th August 16th September 30th
-NOMINATION
CARTS
TUTORIALS
-COMMUNITY
FORUM PSA
-GREEN ELECTION
CART
-1 OFFICIAL
REPORT
- CAMPAIGN CARTS
TUTORIALS
-GREEN ELECTION
CART
-1 OFFICIAL REPORT
CANDIDATE CARTS -BALLOT CARTS, TUTORIALS
-ONAIR CANDIDATE FORUMS
-IN PERSON CANDIDATE FORUM PSAs
-1 OFFICIAL REPORT
-CANDIDATE CARTS
-GREEN ELECTION CART

PACIFICA LOCAL STATION BOARD ELECTIONS 2010
Election material to be Aired by Phase
Preliminary Phase (May 2010)
National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

I applied twice before being accepted for an interview with Arlene Engelhardt, Pacifica's Executive Director (ED). I was hired as National Election Supervisor (NES) the second week of May, 2010.

Hiring Local Election Supervisors:
My primary responsibility was to find and train local election supervisors (LES) for all five radio stations in order to open the nomination phase on June 1st, 2010. I began by improving the LES job description based on my experience as KPFA LES in 2009 (LES JOB DESCRIPTION, Appendix 1). I posted the job description on a variety of websites (job specific, blogs etc.), sent out email blasts and built a website using word press (http://pacificaelections2010.org).

There was a lot of interest in the position and I began immediately screening applicants (Total applicants: KPFA = 40, KPFK = 60, KPFT = 40, WBAI = 40 and WPFW = 25).

Those who had sent me a resume, cover letter and met the qualifications outlined in the job description were invited to sign up for a first interview using Doodle (http:// doodle.com), an online scheduling tool. I asked applicants a series of relevant questions and selected 3 to 6 finalists per station. The latter were invited to sign up for a second interview, this time in person (KPFA, WBAI, WPFW) or via phone (KPFK, KPFT) and were asked to send an outline of the work the planned to perform their first week as LES. I provided them with an election timeline in addition to their job description to use. I appointed one LES per station and the ED hired him or her. All LES were hired by the last week of May.

Training Local Election Supervisors:

Once LES were hired we began biweekly conference calls which were reduced to weekly conference calls mid way through the first month. The first goals were to make sure they had a proper workspace and made contact with the GM, PD, traffic coordinator and other key personnel in order to begin the nomination phase. I gave them reports from prior years to read (including KPFA 2009 LES report, Appendix 2 which served as a draft LES manual) and provided them samples of 2009 CARTs/tutorials).

Creation of election protocol and infrastructure:
I familiarized myself with Word press and began to develop the Pacificaelections2010.org website, complete with an FAQ section, Timeline and station specific election pages, useful links and graphics. I contacted each webmaster and had them add an Election Banner to their homepage in order to centralize all information regarding the election. The creation of a comprehensive website had not been done in the past. I set up Skype Line-in numbers for all supervisors complete with unlimited calling plans and had uniform ( )pacifica.org emails created. The Skype Line-in numbers can function as a land-line, unlimited voicemail and even a cell-phone (via call forwarding) and cost a fraction of the cost (about $7.00 per month per number for unlimited phone access).

I revised the nomination package materials (Nomination Package, Appendix 3) based on the 2009 package. Primary changes that were made were:

1) the addition of a 50 word statement (the candidate's soundbyte) which had multiple functions: to help develop the 60 second recorded statement, summary of the candidate's position to be used by the election supervisor if he/she was absent from a forum and to be translated into Spanish in order to have a bare minimum of information available in both English and Spanish (translation was not possible due to the lack of time and resources).

2) Revision of the Fair Campaign Provisions, Appendix 4

3) Addition of an election committee member referral. The idea was to help LES develop their election committee based on references made by the candidates themselves. This idea did not fly but has potential. The election committee referral form was complemented by an election committee membership procedure which required anyone engaging in committee work to agree to serve in a neutral manner and to disclose and candidate preferences to the LES.

NES Experience given station and foundation realities

Working with the National Office:

I was welcomed into the office and was given a desk, supplies shelf space, computer and printer/scanner/fax to work with. All National office staff were extremely supportive with regard to any material or technical support I required throughout the election process.

Working with stations' management and staff:

The first contact I made with station staff was with the membership database staff. In order to begin the process of obtaining accurate membership lists I requested a preliminary listener member list be issued the beginning of June and then updated at the record date for the election (June 30th, 2010). LaVarn Williams put out the memo in support of this request. All stations got preliminary and final membership lists to me with relative ease. However these lists were lacking volunteers and local station board committee lists.

I have ranked the stations from most to least difficult to work with: KPFA, WBAI, KPFK, WPFW and KPFT. The lack of a permanent GM at 4 of 5 of the stations (iGMs in place) and the absence of a PD at KPFA made it all the more complex to begin and carry out the election. Before the LESs were in place I met with the iGM (or GM) and the PD (or iPD) either in person (KPFA, WBAI and WPFW) or via phone (KPFK, KPFT) to touch base regarding the June 1st start date, the minimal requirements in order to make this happen (LES contract and work space, CART production and rotation, tutorial and election programming requirements) and discuss how I could help adapt the election process to each stations' reality.

Nomination Phase (June-July 19th)

National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

LES Guidance:

The primary tasks of the LESs were: to get on-air election coverage in order to begin recruiting candidates (create CARTs/tutorials and engage programmers), do community outreach in order to find candidates, begin vetting staff and listener membership lists.

I gave the LESs as much information and guidance as possible. As I had asked for the preliminary listener membership lists ahead of time the LESs were equipped with enough information to begin vetting the candidate nomination package petition. I also provided the LESs with the 2009 staff lists and a staff list modification procedure so that they could begin vetting the staff lists in the event that an accurate staff list was lacking (Staff list modification form). I created Programming Guidelines (Appendix 5) to facilitate the full compliance with the April 2009 PNB resolution on Election Policy (Programming Guidelines 2010). I created a library of basic CARTs with various voices specific to each station so that the LESs had something to put immediately into rotation (see CART library online at pacificaelections2010.org). I also designed and printed a full color, double-sided 4 by 6 inch election flyer for all stations to be used as an outreach tool. Each station got 1000 flyers. This was very cost effective as it only cost $150 (5000 units, no design cost) and was used throughout the election cycle (copyworldinc.com).

Overseeing the Nomination Phase:
I extended the close of the nomination period from June 30th, 2010 till July 19th, 2010 based on 3 objective criteria: 1) Minimum of 18 listener candidates, 2) 6 staff candidates and 3) Having aired at least 1/6 of the election material airtime requirement based on the April 2009 resolution. All stations nomination period was extended. Come July 19th, WPFW was the only station to have not met these criteria. The nomination phase was further extended till July 31st for WPFW but it still failed to meet the criteria. As WPFW had enough candidates to have an election (11 listener and 4 staff) and the nomination phase could not be prolonged any further without causing problems (logistical and cost), we moved into the campaign phase.

Station by Station Outcome:

Membership Lists:

By the close of the nomination phase staff lists had been posted online together with the staff list modification form in order to vet the list in the most transparent way possible. Alas at WBAI where we had the most problems with the staff list, no 2010 list was available at the close of the nomination phase. KPFA 197 (2010 list), KPFK 244 (2010 list), KPFT 173 (2010 list), WBAI 208 (2009 list, no 2010 list), WPFW 183 (2010 list).

All stations had provided donor lists and the volunteer lists were incomplete at all stations. KPFA 21 882 (No Volunteer List or LSB Committee List), KPFK 17 561 (No LSB Committee List) KPFT 7 530 (Lists included, a few mailing addresses missing) WBAI 16 875 (Volunteer List Included, No LSB Committee List) WPFW 10 468 (All Lists Included, a few mailing addresses missing).

The membership date of record kept at June 30th except at KPFK where the date of record was extended to July 2nd to match the KPFK fund drive extension.

Station by Station Progress Report

Opening the PO BOXES:

I used USPS online POBOX reservation system to open a POBOX at each station (except KPFA whose box was already open). This was complex given the atypical business structure of the Pacifica Foundation and how it relates to each station. I suggest that we use a private POBOX service in the future. This cost between $100 and

Candidates
Station
Quantity of Election Material
CART & Tutorials
Outreach Efforts
Election Committee
Petition Signing
Some Issues
KPFA
27 Listener
7 Staff
Started June 8th
CARTS ~ 170 m
50% Nomination, 27% Green
23% Spanish
Started June 21st
Tutorials ~ 130 m
live coverage &
1, 3, 4, 5 m preproductions
25 programs - 5 minutes
Weekly Election Committee Meeting,
Thursdays 7pm
3 Petition Signing Events
Outreach: various nonprofits in person &
by email, 4 KPFA promoted events, SF
Bay View publication of election info,
facebook and twitter pages, Indy bay ,
East Bay Express publication, talk show
at BCM
Relatively Low Support
Low CART rotation
Low tutorial coverage
Lots of Syndicated programs
Staff List incomplete
Volunteer lists incomplete (missing
time & date info) LSB Committee
Roster?
KPFK
26 Listener
6 Staff
Started June 9th
CARTS ~ 350 m
Started July 2nd, 2010
Tutorials ~ 275 m
live coverage (8 to 10 m live
tutorials) & 3, 4, 5 minute
preproductions have been
integrated into the traffic log
preempting a few minutes of
each program
KPFK Screening San Pedro, emails,
outreach at several art openings
4 petition signing events
Artists for Mailing
Fund drive during the month of
June
Politics around LES selection
Staff List incomplete
Volunteer lists incomplete (LSB
Committee Roster?)
KPFT
24 Listener
8 Staff
Promo Started March, 2010
Estimates Since June 1st
CARTS ~ 780 m
Tutorials ~ 500 m
56 unique shows (=1 hr) covered
10-15 min live or preproduced
interview
Monthly Board Meeting
4 Petition Signing Events
Community Town Hall Forum, KPFT
Thursday Night Music, Frequent contact
with personnel and volunteers at the
station
None
WBAI
24 Listener
7 Staff
Started June 4th
CARTS ~ 270 m
Tutorials ~ 250 m
5 to 15 minute tutorial
requirement began to take effect
June 21st
Daily outreach (subway, public, stores
etc.)
LSB meeting, Union Square Farmers
Market Outreach, Seaside Park, African
American Family Day in Mt. Vernon,
PeaceSmiths in Amityville
5 Petition Signing events
Facebook & other social networking sites
Fund drive during the month of
June
Lack of Traffic logs
Lack of organizational
infrastructure and basic materials
State of MEMSYS records as no
database person
WPFW
11 Listener
4 Staff
Started June 4th
CARTS ~ 675 m
Tutorials ~ 25 m
Live interviews w LES
Press releases, blogs, emails, listservs,
flyer distribution, Community meetings
4 petition signing events
Too few candidates


$200 per station depending on the size and location of the POBOX. The minimum box size needed for the ballot count is size 3.

Preparing the ballots & ballot materials: About 80 to 90% of all election materials sent out are trashed, amounting to 10s of thousands of dollars, not to mention the sheer ecological waste. One of my main goals this year was to help reduce the cost of printing and mailing by creating a more efficient ballot design and minimizing the amount of printed materials that were to be sent.

Printing the ballot on legal size paper together with the instructions and with the opening letter on the reverse side was the most affordable (Ballot Cost Estimates, Appendix 6). With the help of Bing Sin, the balloting tech, we improved the design of the actual ballot itself by including rank scale rows so that voters could better keep track of how they were voting. He included markers (the heavy top and bottom black bars) which would enable the ballot image processing software (which translates the image into strings of numbers corresponding to each voter's ranked vote) to align the ballot for accurate processing (See KPFA Listener Ballot, Appendix 7).

Apart from the ballots themselves, the candidate statement booklets were costly.

As all candidate statements and questionnaires were posted online, I though it may be a good idea to send only a portion of the candidate booklets. But how do we know who to send it to? Will we disenfranchise voters? The fact of the matter is that we don't have a clue. In order to answer these questions, the election committee had suggested sending out a postcard to get voters to opt-out of the booklet. The cost of a postcard and postage is not negligible and this proposal would have would have more than likely increased the cost. As it was "opt-out", the default was still to send the candidate booklet and in order for this to work we would have needed close to a 100% response. As an alternative, I created a Green Election Survey which allowed people to opt out of the candidate booklets online and also assessed their position regarding electronic ballot system.

CARTs were put into rotation pointing people to the survey.

Green Survey: Between 1/4 and 1/2 of all surveys were lost due to the loss of 1 1/2 month of online election information. Those who responded were by enlarge open to reading statements online and switching to an electronic ballot system (Green Survey, Appendix 8).


Green Survey Question Response % (N)

Choose your member
station
KPFA
KPFK
KPFT
WBAI
WPFW
47.2% (120)
21% (59)
19.6% (55)
4.3% (12)
12.5% (35)

Green Survey Question Response % (N)
Do you need a candidate
package mailed to you?
No
89.3% (251)
Do you have regular
internet access?
Yes
98.6% (277)
Should we use electronic
ballots in 2012 election?
Yes
89.3% (251)


My main idea was to send booklets and ballots to all members who had voted in the 2009 election and were still valid members and only a ballot with instructions on how to obtain a booklet to the rest. This proposal was based on various assumptions: 1) the body of voting members does not change significantly from one year to the next (even though the membership list may change significantly), those who vote are more likely to need a booklet then those who do not vote and those who did not vote are less likely to vote again. This would have reduced the cost significantly.

However this was not what was done. I followed the ED's suggestion which was to send out only ballots and send out booklets to voters who requested one. The ED offered to hire an assistant to help me issue booklets when the time came. The PNB put pressure on the ED after the ballot printing and packaging was complete to send out the booklets.

As this would have been a waste of resources ($20 000) and would have delayed the election 1 month (incurring more material and labor costs etc) we decided the best solution was to send out the booklets in a second mailing. In retrospect, I would have followed by original idea. I got a couple hundred requests by phone for the booklet. This demonstrates a relatively low need for in print booklet which could have been dealt with on a case by case basis. See Ballot Cost Estimates, Appendix 6.

Another idea which was proposed and refuted was an electronic-paper ballot combination method. See Electronic & Paper Ballot Proposal, Appendix 9.

Campaign Phase (July 19th till Sept. 30th)

National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

LES Guidance:
I produced On air Forum Guidelines (Appendix 10), In Person Forum Guidelines (Appendix 11), Candidate CART Production Guidelines (Appendix 12) in order to facilitate the campaign phase. I also got in contact with Mumia Abu-Jamal and Lila Downs in order to produce a series of voter encouragement carts for each station. Please see the LES reports for specifics (number of on-air, in-person forums, CART rotation schedule). I filled in for the LES when they had too much on their plate.

Ballot & Booklets:
As described in the previous section, the ballots and booklets were mailed separately, August 18th and beginning of September, respectively.

All candidate statements and questionnaires were posted online.

Ballot Reissuing & Receipt Phase
National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

LES Guidance:
I produced a Ballot Reissuing Protocol (Appendix 13) and Ballot Pick-up Protocol (Appendix 14) for LES's to apply. I helped reissue ballots when needed. I maintained the master list of pins required to check that ballots are valid and keep track of all reissued ballots (See Master List Sample, Appendix 15). This was updated at the end of the election, before the ballot count. Please see the LES reports for specifics (# of ballots reissued, returned, ballot pick-up logs.) LESs secured storage units for incoming ballots either at the station or offsite.

Ballot Count Phase (October)

National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

LES Guidance:
I provided the Ballot Count Layout (Appendix 16) used in KPFA's 2009 Election. In order to save money and time, I organized the ballot counts back to back during the month of October. Bing Sin, the ballot tech, and I traveled from station to station and completed the counts within the time allotted. We had 1 computer, 2 barcode scanners and 1 flat-bed scanner.

Finalizing the Election

National Election Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities

LES Guidance:
I produced LES Final Report Outline for them to apply.

An Election Survey for Voters was posted online before results were certified and generated a lot of interest at KPFA where there had been on air campaign violations the last 2 days of the election. See Election Survey Comments (Appendix 17).


KPFA Election Survey
Survey Question % Response (N)

Membership status
Listener
Staff
96.1% (323)
3.9% (13)
Did you vote?
Yes 70.2% (236)
If you voted, when did you make you final decision?
I voted as soon as I got my ballot
I voted before the final week
I voted during the final week
(did not respond)
24.5% (58)
38.6% (91)
35.1% (83)
1.7% (4)


If you did not vote, why not?
I was poorly informed of the election procedure
I was confused by the Single Transferable Voting process
There were no candidates that I wanted to vote for
I do not support the election process
Other (see Appendix 17)
(did not respond)
9% (9)
7% (7)
4% (4)
8% (8)
73% (73)

Survey Question % Response (N)
If you voted how did you make your choice?
My choice was based on assessing candidates' qualifications by hearing
their statements on the radio, reading their statements, attending inperson
forums and tuning-in to on-air forums
I voted based on political affiliation as I agree with a political platform. In
other words I cast my vote in support of a slate rather then an individual
candidate
I voted at random
I don't know
(did not respond)
0
24.5% (58)
2.1% (5)
0
73.3% (173)
Did you tune into the Morning Show, Against the Grain and Letters to
Washington on the 29th and 30th of Sept.?
Yes 40.8% (137)
If you tuned in, did the content of these programs effect the way you
voted?
Yes, I would have voted differently if I had not heard these programs.

No, I would not have voted differently.

I decided not to vote because of what I heard.

I decided to vote because of what I heard.

I don't know.

(did not respond)
15.3% (21)
63.5% (87)
2.9% (4)
3.6% (5)
0
14.6% (20)
If you tuned in or heard these programs on the archives do you think that
they effected the way other people voted?
Yes, I think that the content had an impact on voter preferences.

No, I do not think that the content had an impact on voter preferences.

(did not respond or do not know)
38.6% (53)
19.7% (27)
41.6% (57)
In light of your answer above, do you think the staff election should be
redone?
Yes
21.2% (29)
In light of your answer above, do you think the listener election should be
redone?
Yes 17.5% (24)
Do you think that there should be an elected or appointed board?
Elected
Appointed
A mix of elected and appointed
(did not respond)
50.9% (171)
3.0% (10)
33.9% (114)
12.2% (41)

KPFK Election Survey
Survey Question % Response (N)
Membership status
Listener
Staff
96.9% (32)
3.1% (1)
Did you vote?
Yes 72.7% (24)
If you voted, when did you make you final decision?
I voted as soon as I got my ballot
I voted before the final week
I voted during the final week
20.8% (5)
37.5% (9)
41.7% (10)
If you did not vote, why not?
I was poorly informed of the election procedure
I was confused by the Single Transferable Voting process
There were no candidates that I wanted to vote for
I do not support the election process
Other (see Appendix 17)
0
11.1% (1)
11.1% (1)
11.1% (1)
66.7% (6)
Do you think that there should be an elected or appointed board?
Elected
Appointed
A mix of elected and appointed
(did not respond)
45.5% (15)
3.0% (1)
39.3% (13)
12.1% (4)

KPFT Election Survey
Survey Question % Response (N)
Membership status
Listener
Staff
88.9% (32)
11.1% (4)
Did you vote?
Yes 75% (27)
If you voted, when did you make you final decision?
I voted as soon as I got my ballot
I voted before the final week
I voted during the final week
25.9% (7)
55.6% (15)
18.5% (5)
If you did not vote, why not?
I was poorly informed of the election procedure
I was confused by the Single Transferable Voting process
There were no candidates that I wanted to vote for
I do not support the election process
Other (see Appendix 17)
11.1% (1)
11.1% (1)
0
0
77.8% (7)
Do you think that there should be an elected or appointed board?
Elected
Appointed
A mix of elected and appointed
(did not respond)
44.4% (16)
16.7% (6)
30.6% (11)
8.3% (3)

WBAI Election Survey
Survey Question % Response (N)
Membership status
Listener
Staff
71% (22)
29% (9)
Did you vote?
Yes 80.6% (25)
If you voted, when did you make you final decision?
I voted as soon as I got my ballot
I voted before the final week
I voted during the final week
(did not respond)
36% (9)
36% (9)
20% (5)
8% (2)
If you did not vote, why not?
I was poorly informed of the election procedure
I was confused by the Single Transferable Voting process
There were no candidates that I wanted to vote for
I do not support the election process
Other (see Appendix 17)
(did not respond)
16.7% (1)
50% (3)
16.7% (1)
0
16.7% (1)
Do you think that there should be an elected or appointed board?
Elected
Appointed
A mix of elected and appointed
(did not respond)
51.6% (16)
9.6% (3)
22.5% (7)
16.1% (5)

WPFW Election Survey
Survey Question % Response (N)
Membership status
Listener
Staff
95.5% (21)
4.5% (1)
Did you vote?
Yes 81.8% (18)
If you voted, when did you make you final decision?
I voted as soon as I got my ballot
I voted before the final week
I voted during the final week
55.5% (10)
27.7% (5)
16.7% (3)
If you did not vote, why not?
I was poorly informed of the election procedure
I was confused by the Single Transferable Voting process
There were no candidates that I wanted to vote for
I do not support the election process
Other (see Appendix 17)
(did not respond)
0
0
0
0
100% (4)
Do you think that there should be an elected or appointed board?
Elected
Appointed
A mix of elected and appointed
(did not respond)
54.5% (12)
4.5% (1)
36.3% (8)
4.5(1)



Election Certification: I certified the results at all stations except WPFW which failed to meet quorum. In order to remedy for the on air campaign violations which occurred at KPFA, I disqualified the votes of the 3 offending staff members.

At KPFA, on-air violations were committed on September 29th and September 30th by three staff members, the last 2 days of the election. Both the staff and listener election process was affected. While the impact cannot be measured exactly, a large amount of ballots, both staff and listener, were cast in those last few days. Three KPFA staff members went on air and promoted a website - kpfaworker.org. This website stated that certain board members running for re-election were a threat to KPFA. Management failed to control the behavior of staff.

The Fair Campaign Violations specifically prohibit pointing to webpages which make reference to candidates running in the election. While the latter is specific for listener election, the intent is to have a fair election for both staff and listeners. The Fair Campaign Provisions state the remedy for on-air violations by a staff member is to remove the offending programmer or programmers from the air for the duration of the election period. Penalizing the 3 staff members by disqualifying their vote is a way to compensate for their behavior which had an impact on both staff and listener elections.

In my opinion, the latter is the least which could have been done. Both management and a significant portion of the paid staff at KPFA were pretty much given "cart blanche" to disregard the election process throughout the election. I would not have certified the election if there was the possibility to redo the election and the eminent threat of lawsuits.

I felt forced to certify the results at KPFA as the Pacifica Foundation simply cannot afford to redo the election at this point in time. I believe the entire election process was compromised due to the lack of cooperation from KPFA management and the relationship between a significant portion of paid staff and 1 candidate slate (Concerned Listeners/Save KPFA).



Results: All results, STV output and ballot images are posted online at pacificaelections2010.org. You can search for you ballot image using your unique pin number.

KPFA Listener Election:

3,457 valid ballots. Electing 9 candidates. Winning threshold is 346 votes. There were 8 invalid ballots. 3,465 total ballots processed. About 16.5% of the total number of ballots sent out.



ELECTED (Round):
Mal Burnstein (3rd)
Tracy Rosenberg (16th)
Jack Kurzweil (19th)
Margy Wilkinson (20th)
Hyun-Mi Kim (22nd)
Cynthia Johnson (23rd)
Matthew Hallinan (24th)
Tanya Russell (26th)
David Saldana (26th)
DEFEATED (Round):
Suzi Goldmacher (25th)
Kate Tanaka (21st)
Terry Doran (18th)
Donald Goldmacher (17th)
Janet Kobren (15th)
Mark Hernandez (14th)
Monadel Herzallah (13th)
Steve Zeltzer (12th)
Stephan Astourian (11th)
Gina Szeto (10th)
Georgia Frazier (9th)
Sureya Sayadi (8th)
Aaron Aarons (7th)
Naeem Deskins (6th)
Ivar Diehl (5th)
Felipe Messina (4th)
Stuart Steinhardt (2nd)

Jaime Cader (2nd)
Write-In 1 and 2(1st)
KPFA Staff Election
163 valid ballots. Electing 3 candidates. Winning threshold is 41 votes.

There were 4 invalid ballots. 167 total ballots processed. About 67% of all ballots mailed.

ELECTED (Round)
Shahram Aghamir (1st)
David Gans (1st)
Frank Sterling (6th)
DEFEATED (Round)
Lewis Sawyer (5th)
Deverol Ross (4th)
Gabrielle Wilson (3rd)
Sabrina Jacobs (3rd)
Write-In 1 and 2 (3rd)

KPFK Listener Election:
1,740 valid ballots. Electing 9 candidates. Winning threshold is 175 votes.

There were 15 invalid ballots. 1,755 total ballots processed. About 10.1% of all ballots
sent out.

ELECTED (Round):
Margie Murray (1st)
Summer Reese (4th)
Lamont Yeakey (13th)
Lydia Brazon (15th)
Fred Blair (21st)
Michael Novick (23rd)
Leonard Isenberg (23rd)



Chuck Anderson (24th)
Brenda Medina (27th)
DEFEATED (Round):
Aryana Gladney (26th)
Lawrence Reyes (22nd)
John De Simio (20th)
Christopher B. Condon (19th)
Steven A. Brooks (18th)
Ron Spriestersbach (17th)
Nancy Kazar (16th)
Richard Vega (14th)
Chipasha Luchembe (12th)
Luis A. Garcia (11th)
Dennis McCoy (10th)
Lance Charles (9th)
Douglas Barnett (8th)
Seth Andrews (7th)
Richard Wittman (6th)
Jerry Van (5th)
Rob Macon (3rd)
Write-In 1 & 2 (2nd)

KPFK Staff Election:
78 valid ballots. Electing 3 candidates. Winning threshold is 20 votes. There were no
invalid ballots. 78 total ballots processed. About 32% of all ballots sent out.

ELECTED (Round):
Jim Lafferty (3rd)
Omar Burdet (4th)
Martina Steiner (6th)
DEFEATED (Round):
Ankine Aghassian (5th)
Tej Grewall (2nd)

Steve Pride (1st)
Write-In 1 & 2 (1st)
KPFT Listener Results
854 valid ballots. Electing 9 candidates. Winning threshold is 86 votes. There were 9 invalid ballots. 863 total ballots processed. About 11.7% of all ballots sent out.

ELECTED (Round):
Jomonica Phoenix (10th)
Teresa Allen (13th)
Ruth Nasrullah (15th)
Jim Krafka (18th)
Jim Boyd (18th)
Ted Weisgal (18th)
Charles (Doc) Dougherty (18th)
Kevin White (23rd)
Darelle Robbins (23rd)
DEFEATED (Round):
Joseph Kaye (22nd)
Angela Sanchez (17th)
Colleen O'Brien (16th)
Melinda Iley-Dohn (14th)
David Salerno (12th)
David Stall (11th)
Leland Dean (9th)
Tifani Pust (8th)
Gladys House (7th)
Joe McElligott (6th)
David Cedeno (5th)
Christopher Legier (4th)
Leslie Cline (3rd)
Adriana Casenave (2nd)
Herman Williams (1st)
Write-In 1 & 2 (1st)
Deborah Shafto - EXCLUDED
KPFT Staff Results
65 valid ballots. Electing 3 candidates. Winning threshold is 17 votes.

There was 1 invalid ballot. 66 total ballots processed. About 38.1% of all ballots sent out.

ELECTED (Round):

Eddie Garcia (4th)
Jessica Apolinar (5th)
Tony Cox (7th)
DEFEATED (Round):
George Reiter (6th)
Abisola Oluwafemi (3rd)
Luke Jones (3rd)
Maleeha Kamal (2nd)
Kate Zane (1st)
Write-In 1 & 2 (1st)
WBAI Listener Results
1,940 valid ballots. Electing 9 candidates. Winning threshold is 195 votes. There were 8 invalid ballots. 1,948 total ballots processed. About 12% of all ballots sent out.

ELECTED (Round):
Bernard White (1st)
Stephen M. Brown (1st)
Suzanne Adely (2nd)
James Ross (3rd)
John Brinkley (4th)
Carolyn Birden (5th)
Lawrence Lucas (6th)
Ray Laforest (24th)
Teresa Palmer (26th)
DEFEATED (round):
Seth Goldberg (25th)
Sharonne Salaam (23rd)
Andrea Katz (22nd)
Eugene Hamond (21st)
Arun Aguiar (20th)
Write-In Jennifer Jager (19th)
Kenneth Laufer (18th)
Wellington Echegaray (17th)
Myriam Decime (16th)
Jeff Peress (15th)
Carlos Canales (14th)
Sarah Klepner (13th)
Matthew Reiss (12th)
David Combs (11th)
Henry Hagins (10th)

Linda Bergnes (9th)
Write-In 1 & 2 (8th)
WBAI Staff Election
89 valid ballots. Electing 3 candidates. Winning threshold is 23 votes.

There were no invalid ballots. 89 total ballots processed. About 63.5% of all ballots mailed.

ELECTED (Round):
R. Paul Martin (4th)
Shawn Rhodes (4th)
Bob Lederer (7th)
DEFEATED (Round):
Louis Reyes Rivera (6th)
Delphine Blue (3rd)
Max Schmid (2nd)
Reggie Johnson (1st)
Write-In 1 & 2 (1st)


WPFW ELECTION UNCERTIFIED RESULTS
Quorum was not met in the WPFW 2010 election. The following is published for information purposes only. According to the Pacifica Bylaws, if quorum is not met the current local station board continues on until the next election. Delegate who are termed out or otherwise cannot serve on the board need seats need to be filled by appointment.

This information may be useful in appointing eligible local station board members to fill these vacant seats.

LISTENER RESULTS IN ORDER OF POPULARITY (MOST TO LEAST
VOTES OBTAINED)
Nia Turner, Bruce Wolf, Nzingha Tingling-Clemm, Marcus Jetter, Veronica Chin
Ingram, Michael Harris, Gregory Isaac Sr., Marcel Reid, Mark Baker, Luzette King, Alan
Barysh
614 total ballots processed. About 5.9% of all ballots sent out.

STAFF RESULTS IN ORDER OF POPULARITY (MOST TO LEAST VOTES
OBTAINED)
Michelle L. Smith-Maid, Pete Tucker, Jean Yves Point du Jour, Kimory Orendoff 41 total ballots processed. About 8.9% of all ballots sent out.

Obstacles

Lack of Time:
I lacked time to preparing LESs, orienting station staff and doing outreach with regard to getting the word out about the election on a national scale via in-print media, press releases, online blogs, social networking sites and doing grassroots community outreach. Also there was much confusion and apathy regarding the election amongst station staff and management overall, especially given that this was the 2nd of 2 elections within the 3 year election cycle.

Lack of Support:
Although my relationship with the ED was relatively healthy, I lacked full support regarding enforcing the implementation of election procedures. The ED is the only person who can enforce the consequences for lack of cooperation amongst station staff and management. This was her first election and that she was unfamiliar with election procedures and she was overwhelmed with other tasks (hiring of management, staff budget cuts and much more). She did not give me the support I needed, not for lack of willingness, but lack of time and energy. I also feel that she relied too heavily on the HR director (who was also KPFA's iGM) who was against the election process and lacked respect for the election supervisors.

My initial relationship the Otis Maclay, the Pacifica webmaster was good. He set me up with a web domain name and space on the Pacifica server to build a Word Press based election website. He also provided an interface to input candidate information which was a little buggy and cumbersome - but got the job done. However for reasons unknown to me this relationship dwindled. Otis became somewhat unresponsive to me, perhaps because he was busy, and ended up deleting the Pacifica Elections website which resulted in the lost of over a month of information. He did have an outdated backup for the site. I have still to understand how this could have happened and requested a written explanation which I have not gotten yet (it has now been almost 2 months). As a result I decided to upload information to my private server and a fileshare to make election results available.

Poor Quality of Membership Lists:
The listener membership lists were in relatively good shape for all stations. However there are a lot of duplicate membership entries, especially at WBAI. Volunteer lists (pledge drive volunteers and LSB committee members) are incomplete. Staff lists are incomplete in general, but adequate at all stations except WBAI.

Lack of financial and material resources:
In order to carry out an election there needs to be a budget for a publicity campaign to generate "hype" or interest in participating as a voter and as a candidate. If we switched to a paper-electronic ballot system, part the money we save could be invested in the latter to increase participation without having to overuse the airwaves. With respect to the logistics of the ballot count, we really needed a second flat bed scanner as this would have halved the time spent.

Both Bing Sin (the tech) and I got sick due to lack of sleep and too much work during the ballot count.


Problems at KPFA:

I expected there to be a bit of tension at KPFA given that I was the LES in 2009, however I was optimistic as there was a new ED and different iGM

in place. I hoped that the election process would be fully supported by management and staff. However this was not the case.

Lack of respect for the election by KPFA management:
I think one of the main reasons for the problems at KPFA was that the iGM, Ahmad Anderson, had been charged with helping to make necessary staff cuts. He was also the HR director and therefore had his hands full. I believe his closeness to KPFA's paid staff who historically opposed the election influenced him. It was hard to work with the iGM and other management and staff members at KPFA from the get go.

Ahmad Anderson (KPFA iGM) and Amelia Gonzalez (assistant GM) made it practically impossible to carry out the election process at KPFA in a fair, inclusive manner. Given that there was no PD, their cooperation was essential with respect to communicating the tutorial requirement to programmers. They refused to help organize a meeting and prohibited Oriana from doing so independently ("there will be no meeting with programmers, this is not an all inclusive process").

Given the lack of programmer engagement, all election promotion relied on the rotation of CARTs which was controlled by Vini Beachem, the traffic coordinator. Vini Beachem made significant mistakes regarding the proper scheduling of CARTs and refused to work with Oriana. They shared an office space and he went through episodes of giving her the silent treatment. Oriana felt she could not ask him for anything. This only got worse throughout the campaign phase when Oriana was prohibited to see the output logs. The output logs are the only way to monitor what goes on-air (except listening 24/7). The iGM, also the acting HR director, did nothing to help the situation.

I tried to offer alternative ways to generate interested in the election process but this was axed. Early on Ahmad took me into the ED's office (when she was out of town) and tried to intimidate me, telling me what I could and could not do, notably regarding trying to engage programmers into the process. I told him that the only person that I was accountable to is the ED and if she did not like the way I was doing things she could fire me and I got up to leave the room. He yelled at me and pressured me to sit back down. I should have left. He stated that it took more than the ED to fire me (insinuating he played a role). I told the ED about this but nothing was done to remedy this.

I could not work with Ahmad as GM or as HR director. Later on the iGM would go on to threaten not to sign the KPFA LES's paycheck. The lack of a PD at KPFA and the unworkable nature of the relationship with the traffic coordinator and iGM made it impossible to carry out a proper nomination or campaign phase. The lack of cooperation and respect for the election supervisors by KPFA management was so severe that it puts into question the validity of the entire election. The assistant GM Amelia Gonzalez was absent for most of the election.

On the other hand, we were given a lot of support from Chris Stehlik (database coordinator), Deverol Ross (chief engineer) and Miguel Guerrero (webmaster) without whom the election process would not have occurred.

The other main problem at KPFA is the political infighting. The battle between the Independents for Community Radio and the Concerned Listeners (who changed their name to Save KPFA) has prevented the local station board from being truly effective. I believe it also prevented me from carrying out my role as election supervisor as I had already been labeled as pro-Independent given that the Concerned Listeners lost the board majority in 2009 when I was acting at KPFA's local Election Supervisor.

They gained the majority back in this year's election.

Problems at KPFK:

Given the lack of time and spare financial resources, I did not visit KPFK prior to the election start date (June 1st, 2010). I live to regret this as I believe that a visit would have made a big difference with respect to LES hiring, developing good relationships with management, staff and the local station board.

The station and LSB wanted me to rehire the 2009 Local Election Supervisor, Michael Sanchez, but he was a KPFK unpaid staff member. Michael Sanchez actually became a KPFK producer while he was acting as KPFK LES even though this was prohibited by Les Radke, the 2009 National Election Supervisor. The reason that staff members should not be able to act as election supervisor is because they have a vested interest in the outcome of the election and could potentially bias the results. Michael Sanchez had been waiting for a paid staff position and had been promised on by the previous ED (Grace Aaron) that he would be employed. This promise was not kept.

"To be eligible for appointment to the position of the national elections supervisor, said person shall not be an employee of the Foundation or any Foundation radio station or a Delegate, Officer, or Director of the Foundation or any LSB, or a radio station staff member, paid or unpaid. (...) A local elections supervisor may not be an employee of the Foundation or any Foundation radio station or a Delegate, Officer, or Director of the Foundation or any LSB, or a radio station staff member, paid or unpaid." Pacifica Bylaws, Section 4.

I brought the situation up with Michael Sanchez and told him that I was going to find out if an exception could be made. I brought the matter to the attention of the ED who sought legal counsel and brought the matter to the PNB. PNB Delegate Tracy Rosenberg suggested that a waiver be made in order to be able to hire Michael Sanchez.

This was harshly refuted based on the legal counsel's advice which was that there was no such need for a waiver as Michael could simply resign as a staff member and therefore be eligible.

"The By-Laws speak of what it takes to qualify as an unpaid staff member.

While it takes at least 3 months of certain volunteer time to gain the status of an unpaid staff member (leaving aside the issue of belonging to an unpaid staff organization), the By-Laws are silent as to how this status is lost once a person qualifies as an unpaid staffer and then resigns his position.(...) If Michael Sanchez resigns his unpaid staff position at KPFK, and declares in writing that he is also waiving and giving up his status an unpaid staff member, he is eligible to serve as KPFK's ES." Ricardo DeAnda, email May 17th, 2010.

He later overturned his initial advice. I chose not to take his initial advice as I believe that although the Bylaws did not specify the eligibility of an ex-staff member to become an election supervisor, I believe that the intent of the Bylaws is to keep the governance structure as independent from the election process as possible. Without overt recognition by the PNB (via a waiver or some other form of written documentation) that in hiring Michael Sanchez we would be steering away from the Bylaws I did not feel that it was right to appoint him.

Rumors began to fly and KPFK LSB members began to harass me as I refused to appoint Michael given that he was staff and the PNB refused to recognize that an exception needed to be made. I appointed Louis Godbold who accepted the job and then quit immediately when I informed her that she would not have a proper working space on the first day after I had spoken to Bob Conger (KPFK iGM). I had informed him of the election start date and his initial response was not very supportive. He told me that a space would not be made available and that Louis would have to improvise a space the first week or so. He was probably overwhelmed with other tasks given that KPFK was beginning a fund-drive. I believe that he was also unhappy that Michael Sanchez was not going to be rehired as this meant more work with respect to providing support to the new LES. However he needed to prioritize the process and be as cooperative as possible.

I regret not having talked to Jennifer Kiser in a first stance as she may have given me different information and this may have prevented Louis Godbold from quitting.

As a second choice, I appointed Marc Herbst, who accepted the job offer made by the ED. He began a few days into the month of June in this atmosphere of conflict which had nothing to do with him. I believe this affected his ability to work and although he made it through the nomination phase, he quit as the end of August and Les Radke, 2009 National Election Supervisor, filled in for him as KPFK LES the last 2 months of the job. I believe that this situation could have been avoided if the PNB had respected my position and recognized that an exception needed to be made in order to hire Michael Sanchez. I have included a letter from Carol Spooner, PNB delegate 2002-2005, who supported my position. See Open Letter: Appointment of Local Election Supervisors, Appendix 18.

Due to the fact that Michael Sanchez was not hired, there was resistance to the election process by the KPFK local station board. The latter was composed in majority by one slate (Candidate Slate) and it is my belief that they boycotted the election as they believed that it would not be successful without their participation and result in perpetuating the current board if quorum was not met. The opposing slate (Grass Roots KPFK) took advantage of the opportunity and participated more (sent out a mailer, became part of the election committee to assist LES Les Radke, and participated in greater frequency in the on-air and in-person forums).

On the other hand KPFK staff and management were supportive in every way possible. The CART rotation and on-air forums were scheduled according to the PNB resolution without any debate. We were even given prime time slots (10-11 am, preempting Letters to Washington for one week).

Based on my observations and the observations of the KPFK LES, I believe that the boycott by one slate made it necessary to extend the election till the very last day of the ballot count (which occurred Oct. 15th-17th) as we had not yet met quorum. In spite of being in the middle of the fall fund drive, the KPFK staff and management helped us meet quorum in the final hour by putting us on-air during the fund-drive pitch at various times during the day on various programs. A secure fax machine was made available so that we could accept last minute ballots.


Problems at KPFT:

Election CARTs began running in March 2010. There were a very few problems at KPFT. Any issues were handled successfully by KPFT's LES Kathy Kidd. Please read her report.


Problems at WBAI:

I visited WBAI mid-May in order to meet the iGM, get a better understanding of the complex work environment which exists there, get preliminary membership lists myself from MEMSYS and interview local election supervisor applicants. After having confirmed my visit multiple times with the iGM (Muriel Tillinghast) I arrived direct from the Redeye out of Oakland to begin a full work day. When I arrived my name was not on the list at the reception and I was not allowed to enter. I pleaded with the receptionist who got a hold of the iGM and who reluctantly gave me permission to enter. The iGM then made me wait for 1 hour before meeting with me.

After getting over the initial bout of frustration we discussed what would be needed with respect to technical and material support in order to carry out the election.

The iGM was unfamiliar with election process and was surprised that WBAI would need to pay an LES to carry out the election.

Kathy Davis, the Public Affairs director talked briefly with me, but I was not invited to meet Tony Bates the program director. I brought of the situation with the staff list and was told that the most recent staff list was the one used for the 2009 election.

Kathy suggested that we post the current (the 2009 staff list) online. I eventually got permission from the ED in order to do this and set up a staff list modification procedure for those individuals wishing to remove or protest the inclusion of a certain staff member on the list. The lack of a complete staff list was a problem throughout the election.

I carried out back interviews and then spent the evening acquiring an accurate preliminary membership lists. As the listener member election had to be redone in 2009 due to the lack of staff trained to use MEMSYS, Chris Stehlik, KPFA's membership database manager had given me a thorough but brief orientation with respect to how to extract this list myself before my trip to WBAI. When I was there he gave me and Indra Hardat (WBAI's business manager) technical support via the phone and I was able to acquire this list. See "How Listener Membership Lists are created".

Starting the election at WBAI was very difficult due to the lack of organization, lack of material resources and difficulty in communicating with key staff not to mention the fact that the fund-drive overlapped with the first two weeks of the election. When the

LES began June 1st, she lacked a fully functional workspace and this was an issue throughout the election.

Under iGM Muriel Tillinghast, the election process was not prioritized. I believe this was due to the lack of understanding and motivation regarding the necessity of management taking a central role regarding facilitating communication with staff, especially programmers, about the election requirements. This was further complicated by the fact that WBAI was in fund drive for the first half of the nomination phase. With the appointment of the new iGM Berthold Reimers, the situation improved as he fully supported the election process.

In spite of there being clear Programming Guidelines in place starting June 1st, the nomination phase did not really get going until June 21st when the directives were made clear to the PD, Tony Bates. During those initial 3 weeks I believe a relationship of misunderstanding between the PD and LES developed and resulted in a vicious circle of lack of communication which effected the entire election. As I was not onsite and it was difficult to get in touch with the PD, I could only do so much to remedy this HR matter. I had no one to refer this problem to as I had an HR matter with the HR director (also the KPFA iGM) and therefor could not rely on anyone for advice or support.

As WBAI does not have a traffic log system in place, it is difficult to know if they were in full compliance with the PNB resolution on election procedure during the nomination phase. I believe that sufficient CARTs and tutorials were aired during the nomination phase. The PD and I came to an understanding regarding what needed to happen and there was a good working relationship between the LES, Shawn Rhodes and Reggie Johnson, who helped produce and schedule CARTs and tutorials.

The campaign phase was more challenging. The recording of candidate CARTs was a challenge. The scheduling of on-air forums was also a challenge. For one reason or another, the PD held off on confirming the on-air forums until the last minute. As a result we had little time to notify candidates of their slots. Candidates complained as we could not cater to their availability. We gave candidates the option of switching slots with other candidates, but this was discouraged as it ruins the randomization of groupings. The on-air forum outcome appeared bias because participation was dominated by one slate (Justice and Unity) even though each candidate was given the opportunity to appear 3 times.

I gave the WBAI LES the 2009 staff list to be posted at the station (an also online) together with a method in place for modifying the list. I only got a list from Berthold Reimers (via Kathy Davis) beginning of August and this complicated matters because it was totally different from the list we had been making modifications to and had no addresses. Recycled the addresses I had (116) from the 2009 staff list and Berthold Reimers put out a memo to all staff to get us their address. I believe there was resistance to giving us this information, either because they did not want to get involved, or did not want to share their personal information with WBAI management. We gave as much opportunity as possible for staff to get us their addresses and I extended the

staff election a further 2 weeks with objective in mind. This resulted in the issuing of only a handful of staff ballots and at present many addresses are still missing.

The mailing house had printed the wrong return zip-code on the WBAI PO-BOX return envelops due to a USPS database error which returned 2 different zip-codes for virtually the same address (see WBAI ZIP CODE ERROR). This ended up not being a big problem though initially it as very stressful. Ballots were forwarded from the incorrect post-office in Harlem to the correct post-office in Manhattan. This was resolved early in the ballot receipt process (early Sept.). Any ballots that did not get forwarded came back to the return address on the return envelops which was the KPFA PO-BOX and went through the same ballot securing procedure as the KPFA ballots and were brought to the WBAI ballot count by me. There were only about 20 ballots which were returned to the KPFA PO-BOX as a result of this error.

Problems at WPFW:

I took the early morning train from NY to DC and spent one day meeting with key staff, doing local election supervisor interviews and acquiring preliminary membership lists. I was not able to spend enough time at WPFW. After talking with various staff members, I feel that many were burnt out by previous elections and election supervisors. There was an overwhelming lack of motivation with respect to the election.

The WPFW LES Staci Gorden was supported by WPFW staff and management with respect to getting election material on air during the nomination and campaign phase. As WPFW lacks logs (like WBAI) it is impossible to know if WPFW was in compliance with the PNB resolution. Given my discussions with the iPD, Bob Daughty and the LES I believe that election material air-time, though minimal, was sufficient.

There was a lack of motivation amongst the candidates and the LES had a hard time getting enough participation for both the in-person and on-air forums.

WPFW was the only station to have not met quorum, despite having extended the election till Oct 15th. I was not willing to extend the WPFW election any further as I believe this wouldn't have helped given that we lacked about 40% of ballots (400 approximately) in order to meet listener quorum. The staff election on the other hand was only 5 short, but we did not know this until the day of the ballot count (Oct 21st) as a few staff ballots were mixed in with the listener ballots. In 2007, the WPFW election was extended for months and they still did not meet quorum.

I do not think it helped to have fired the iGM, and temporarily fired the iPD in the middle of the campaign phase. This caused a temporary hiatus of on-air election material during the campaign phase. The dire financial situation and bringing a new iGM on board mid-election were contributing factors in the failure of the WPFW election.


Conclusion

To conclude I want to thank all the local election supervisors for working under very stressful, resource limited conditions in order to get this election process complete.

I also want to thank the ED, CFO (LaVarn Williams), Lynn Magno and the other staff at the national office for giving me the moral and logistical support I needed to complete the job at hand. George Reiter (PNB Chair 2010) and Bill Croiser (Election Committee Chair) were very supportive and helpful in giving me feedback regarding various election processes. Chris Stehlik gave me a ton of support understanding MEMSYS and was there when ever I had a question regarding managing membership lists. I would have never been able to complete the ballot design and count without the tireless work of Bing Sin - who saved the 2009 election - and helped to make huge improvements to the 2010 election. Les Radke, 2009 National Election Supervisor, saved the day by filling in as KPFK 2010 Local Election Supervisor. THANK YOU! I would do this job again only if work conditions changed significantly and if a switch was made from paper to paper & electronic ballots. I do not think that any human being can live happily and work efficiently the way things are currently. This process took an irreversible toll on my body and mind. It was frustrating to invest myself fully only to have my work thrown in the trash time after time.

I believe that the election process should continue as it is the only example I know of media democracy. But things have to change in order for this beautiful idea to become a reality which helps, not hinders, the process of creating a sustainable and powerful community radio network.






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