Category: 2021

Now that the 2021 election is over, we’re happy to share with you our voter turnout statistics!

For the 2021 Election, we had 11231 total eligible voters. Of those, 2305 voters cast a ballot, which represents 20.5% of the potential voters.

Our voter turnout is lower than that of last year, which had a turnout of 21.4%.

We also saw a decrease in the number of ballots cast, from 2858 to 2305, which represents a 19.3% decrease.

Elections is committed to continuing to reach out to our eligible members to encourage them to vote in elections. Whoever is elected to the Board of Directors can have an important influence on the long-term health of the OTW’s projects, and we want our members to have a say in that.

For those who might be interested in the number of votes each candidate received, please note that our election process is designed to elect an equal cohort of Board members in order to allow them to work well together, so we do not release that information. 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. However, as there were only 4 candidates this year, with two elected and one appointed, revealing that information is unavoidable.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who participated at every stage of the election! We hope to see you at the virtual polls again next year.

The Elections Committee would like to thank all of our candidates for their hard work in this year’s election. With that, we are pleased to present the results of the 2021 Election.

The following candidates (in alphabetical order) have been officially elected to the Board of Directors:

E. Anna Szegedi
Kari Dayton

Additionally, the Board of Directors is sorry to announce that director Kati Eggert, who was elected last year, is stepping down from her position on the Board for personal reasons, effective immediately. We are grateful for Kati’s service and thank her for her work and dedication.

To fill the vacant seat, the Board is appointing the candidate who placed third in this election, Antonius Melisse, to join the Board of Directors and serve the remainder of Kati’s term (two years) starting on October 1. This will guarantee that we continue to have a full Board until the next election.

The new members of the Board will formally begin their term overlap on October 1. We wish them well with their terms.

With that, the election season comes to a close. Thank you to everyone who got involved by spreading the word, asking the candidates questions, and, of course, voting! We look forward to seeing all of you again next year.

The election has opened!

Every OTW member who joined between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 should have a ballot by now. If you didn’t get one, please check your spam folder first, then contact us via our contact form. Please note that your donation receipt will be dated in US Eastern Time, so if your donation is listed after 19:59 on June 30, 2021 on the receipt, you won’t be eligible to vote. If you are unsure whether your donation was made before the deadline, please contact our Development and Membership Committee by using the contact form on our website and selecting “Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?”.

The election will run through August 16, 2021, 23:59 UTC; check this time zone converter to find out what time that will be for you.

Once you’ve voted, you can head over to Twitter and use the hashtag #OTWE2021 to meet and chat with other voters! We’d love to hear from you!