Some of you were interested in a release of statistics about the Election, especially regarding the number of votes each candidate has received. While we understand this request, due to election policies, we are unable to release specific vote counts for candidates. Our process is designed to elect an equal cohort of Board Members, to enable them to work together well. Therefore, we normally will not reveal which of the elected candidates received the most votes, and will simply announce who was elected. As a general rule, we also won't disclose which of our unsuccessful candidates received the fewest votes, since we don't want to discourage them from running again in the future when circumstances and member interest might be different. In addition to that, we're not allowed to disclose most of the information we acquire about our voters.
Due to recent events, we released the ranking information about this year's candidates with permission from 5 of the 6 candidates (we did not ask Andrea Horbinski). However, as our goal is to promote an equal and harmonious Board of Directors, we do not intend to reveal this information in future elections unless a situation like the one we witnessed last weekend happens again.
For the 2015 Election, we had 7997 total eligible voters. 621 voters cast a ballot, which represents 7.8% of the potential voters.
Comparatively, the highest turnout rate was in 2011, when about 25% of members voted; we're aware that this sharp rise was mostly due to widespread recognition of one of the candidates. We don't have voter turnout information for 2010, only anecdotal statements that it was significantly lower than that.
We will continue to work on ways to better reach out to our eligible members to encourage them to vote in elections, since whoever is elected to the Board of Directors can have an important influence on the long-term health of the OTW's projects.
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