Jesse J. Averhart Mary R. Walker
23 North Lenape Avenue 333 West State Street, Apt. 10-L
Trenton, NJ 08618 Trenton, NJ 08618
609.865.5431 609.433.3950
March , 2010
CWA Local 1033 Executive Board
321 West State St.
Trenton, N. J. 08618
Dear Board Members:
On behalf of the members of CWA Local 1033, we ask that you place on the agenda for vote an amendment to the
Local By-laws to outsource the election to a reputable third party election vendor.
Secret ballot voting ensures the fair and democratic process by securing the secrecy of members’ choice of
leadership. Members can vote without fear of possible retaliation.
The Federal Government obviously agrees that secret ballot voting is important. In 1959 Title IV of the Labor-
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) was established specifically to detect and prosecute union
corruption in the private work sector.
This union corruption provision, LMRDA, includes secret ballot voting standards for union office elections. As a result
of this federal law, a union member may file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor for violating election standards. If
an established standard is violated that may have affected the outcome of an election, the election is invalidated and
must be rerun.
However, this Local represents only public employees. Therefore, we are not protected by the LMRDA (or any
comparable state or other law) requiring secret ballot voting. The CWA Constitution “recommends” but does not
require Locals (such as 1033) to conduct elections in strict compliance with the LMRDA. Consequently, elections are
arbitrarily conducted and only narrowly reviewed by the CWA National on appeal of alleged improprieties.
Problems, including perceived improprieties, were present in recent Local 1033 elections, including but were not
limited to:
1. Duplicate ballots;
2. Requiring members to sign only one candidate’s petition to get on the ballot for a particular office as an
indication of their vote for that candidate,
3. Providing only one mail box at Post Office for all returning ballots, requiring daily access to returning ballots
and failure to provide proof that the returning ballots P.O. Box would only be accessed on the day ballots were to be
picked up counting.
4. Using Local resources to campaign.
These issues and other issues of contention may have affected the outcome of the election, and underscores the
need to guarantee members’ of this Local secrecy and accountability in casting their votes.
Although the current administration may feel exonerated by the CWA Union narrow review, the fact of the matter is
that under the more stringent LMRDA review, we are advised by the Federal Government that elections such as the
recent Local 1033 election would be invalid.
Therefore, the only way we as public employees can ensure secret ballot voting is to remove the ‘in-house’ election
procedure and outsource it to a neutral third party election vendor.
The advantages of a third party vendor are numerous, and indisputably provide strict standards of impartiality;
confidentiality; security; transparency; accountability and audit ability, resulting in:
1. A higher voter turnout 2. More transparency and fairness
3. Greater accuracy 4. Enhanced security
5. Higher efficiency 6. Improved cost effectiveness
7. More flexibility
The well-understood human factor is the inherent temptation to shift an election through in-house control, which lacks
any manner of oversight.
To that end, MFC again advocates to the Local 1033 Executive Board and National Union to amend Local 1033
Bylaws providing that Local Elections be conducted by a third party election vendor.
We look forward to your response and thank you in advance for your independent consideration.
Sincerely,
________________ ____________________
Jesse J. Averhart Mary R. Walker