Last modified: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
IU trustee ballots mailed to 481,000 IU grads
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Ballots have been mailed to 481,000 Indiana University graduates eligible to participate in the annual election for a seat on the IU Board of Trustees.
Seven IU alumni, including incumbent Cora Smith Breckenridge, B.S. 1959, M.S. 1963, are seeking a three-year term on the Board of Trustees.
The votes will be tallied by the IU Bloomington Library on June 30. The person receiving the highest number of votes will win the seat.
Election Coordinator P. Douglas McKinney said the mailings began on May 5 and were expected to be completed by May 16.
The ballots are sent through the U.S. Postal Service by third-class mail, so they will not be forwarded to a new address if the recipient has recently moved. Any IU graduate who does not receive a ballot and wishes to participate in the election should contact Carol Hobbs at the IU Alumni Association for a replacement. Hobbs may be reached at cbhobbs@indiana.edu or 812-855-4664.
Ballots for May graduates from the current year will be mailed in June, once the Registrar's Office has verified that they have met all of the requirements for their diplomas.
McKinney said voters should be careful to observe all instructions in their ballot packet. By state law, the return envelope must carry the signature of the person voting. If it does not, the envelope and therefore the ballot it contains will be declared void.
Last year invalid envelopes were about 4.6 percent of the total. This was down significantly from 19.5 percent in 2004, due to a redesign of the ballot envelope.
All valid envelopes are checked against the database of living IU alumnae and alumni to make sure that the senders are eligible to vote. This step also ensures that no one submits more than one ballot.
The ballot envelopes will remain sealed and locked away until the day of the election, June 30, when they will be opened and counted.
The count begins at 9 a.m. and runs until all of the votes are counted, which is usually mid-afternoon. The count is open to the public, so any alumna or alumnus and members of the press may stop in to observe the process.
Last year 33,522 ballots were cast, including 31,961 valid and 1,561 invalid ballots.
Three of the nine members of the Board of Trustees are elected by alumni. The three-year terms are staggered so that one alumni trustee is chosen each year.
The seven candidates are:
Trina S. (Ringenberg) Miller, B.S. 1984
Granger, IN
County: Saint Joseph
Cora Smith Breckenridge, B.S. 1959, M.S. 1963
Elkhart, IN
County: Elkhart
Philip N. Eskew Jr., M.D. 1970
Carmel, IN
County: Hamilton
Steve Sanders, B.A. 1984
Chicago, IL
County: Cook
Carolyn Louise Jordan, B.A. 1976, M.P.A. 2003
Gary, IN
County: Lake
Steven Lloyd Kellam, B.S. 1972
Carmel, IN
County: Hamilton
Chris Sautter, B.A. 1972
Washington, D.C.
County: None (independent city)
