IN RE: WILLIAM MACDONALD, Protestor.
Protest Decision 2006 ESD 192
Issued: April 19, 2006
OES Case No. P-06-250-033106-NE
William MacDonald, member and former candidate for delegate of Local Union 82, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2005-2006 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). The protest alleged that votes were received from persons who had not paid full initiation fees, in violation of the Rules.
Election Supervisor representative David Reilly investigated this protest.
Findings of Fact
Local Union 82 conducted the tally of ballots in its delegate and alternate delegate election on March 22, 2006. The local union elected one delegate and one alternate delegate. The protestor challenges "all votes received from a person who is not yet a member because he/she has not paid a full initiation fee." The protest requested that such votes be set aside for individual investigation.
The ballot count was conducted by John Murphy, principal officer of Local Union 122 and an International Vice-President from the Eastern Region. Election Supervisor representative David Reilly monitored the count. Eligibility was determined before the ballots were opened and counted using both the Election Control Roster provided by the International Union and a roster run by Local Union 82 the night before the count. A member ineligible to vote may restore eligibility by paying dues owed through the month prior to the election, and may make such a payment up to the night before the ballot count. The Local Union 82 roster was used to identify any members who "paid in person" and restored eligibility up to the deadline.
Local Union 82 opened and counted only those ballots returned by members who had paid both their initiation fees and their monthly dues through the month prior to the election. As a result of the eligibility review, three voters were found ineligible, and their ballots were not counted. After that, 39 challenged ballots remained. MacDonald lost the election by a margin of 189 votes to 148, or by 41 votes, thus obviating the need to resolve the challenged ballots.
Analysis
The ballot count process was supervised and eligibility was determined in accord with the Rules. The challenged ballots were set aside for individual investigation and the ballots belonging to those found ineligible were not counted. In particular, no ballot was counted where the voter had not paid the initiation fee in full. Therefore, we find that no violation of the Rules.
Accordingly, we DENY this protest.
Any interested party not satisfied with this determination may request a hearing before the Election Appeals Master within two (2) working days of receipt of this decision. The parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Supervisor in any such appeal. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal and shall be served upon:
Kenneth Conboy
Election Appeals Master
Latham & Watkins
885 Third Avenue, Suite 1000
New York, New York 10022
Fax: (212) 751-4864
Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon the parties, as well as upon the Election Supervisor for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 1725 K Street, N.W., Suite 1400, Washington, D.C. 20007-5135, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2006 ESD 192
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Bradley T. Raymond, General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2198
braymond@teamster.org
Sarah Riger, Staff Attorney
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001-2198
sriger@teamster.org
David J. Hoffa, Esq.
Hoffa 2006
30300 Northwestern Highway, Suite 324
Farmington Hills, MI 48834
David@hoffapllc.com
Barbara Harvey
645 Griswold Street
Suite 3060
Detroit, MI 48226
barbaraharvey@comcast.net
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210
ken@tdu.org
Daniel Clifton
Lewis, Clifton & Nikolaidis, P.C.
275 Seventh Avenue, #2300
New York, NY 10001
dclifton@lcnlaw.com
Stephen Ostrach
1863 Pioneer Parkway East, #217
Springfield, OR 97477-3907
saostrach@gmail.com
William F. MacDonald
119 Bellevue Road
North Quincy, MA 02171
John J. Perry, Secretary-Treasurer
IBT Local Union 82
330 Dorchester Street
South Boston, MA 02127
David F. Reilly, Esq.
22 West Main Street
North Kingston, RI 02852
dreilly@rooltd.com
Jeffrey Ellison
510 Highland Avenue, #325
Milford, MI 48381
EllisonEsq@aol.com