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Community Board Election Results

Friends of KOOP failed to win a majority of seats on the Community Board in the February 1999 election. We believe we have the overwhelming support of the community, and attribute our loss to irregularities in the election. Some of us even suspect voter fraud, but we can't prove that because the election records are being kept secret. (The board went so far as to say in court that they didn't have to produce them!) We're currently seeking a court order to have the records released.

Here are the election results, which were announced on 2/19/99. Note that at least four of the five Friends of KOOP members soon resigned in disgust. (We don't know whether Malfaro is still on the board.)

Community Organizations

Individual Financial Supporters

Paul Odekirk, rep. Grassroots News Network Tony Truong, rep. Grassroots Film and Video Festival Kathleen Card, rep. Comite en Solidaridad con Chiapas y Mexico Louis Malfaro, rep. Austin Federation of Teachers Michael Bluejay, rep. Inter-Cooperative Council Eduardo Vera, rep. Teatro Humanidad Joe Perez, rep. Stop Metro Scam Erica Moreno, rep. La Pena Yolanda Reyes, rep. ALLGO Barbara Timko, rep. Grassroots News Network

Linda Irizarry Crockett (tie) Paul Hernandez (tie) Lanetta Cooper Supporting Orgs. (businesses) Bob White, representing Vulcan Video Jerry Chamkis, representing Aerco Electronics Larry Beckham, representing Friends of KOOP Volunteers Lupe Cedillos Robert Donley Lupe Pacheco (tie) Pam Thompson (tie)

• Candidates listed in red were endorsed by the Grassroots News Network (supporters of the Board of Trustees).
  
  
• Candidates listed in dark red were endorsed by both the Grassroots News Network and Friends of KOOP.
  Friends endorsed Linda Irizzarry Crockett in the Community Organization category, while GNN endorsed her in the Individual Financial Supporter category (where she won).
  
  
• Candidates listed in green were endorsed by Friends of KOOP.
  
  
• Candidates listed in italics were not on the ballot (at least not in the category they won in); these candidates were write-ins.

1. Poor voter participation. Though we have had the overwhelming support of KOOP's membership, most of our supporters did not vote in this election. In fact, many more of our supporters mailed in petitions to us (and sent in proxy forms) when we were calling for a special membership meeting, than voted in this election. After all our hard work for many months, we are very disappointed by the lack of participation.

2. Supporters not receiving ballots. Over fifty KOOP members reported that they did not receive ballots. (And because not everyone who failed to get a ballot reported it, there is no telling how many people did not get ballots.) Since the NPC said the election was close, the missing ballots definitely could have affected the outcome of the election.

3. High rate of invalidation. The Non-Profit Center (NPC) invalidated 38 ballots for things like voters using a check mark instead of an "X" to mark candidates, as directed by the instructions. (No, we're not kidding about this.)

4. Holding an at-large election. KOOP's bylaws call for separate seats on the Community Board to be chosen by Hispanic groups, Women's groups, Youth/Student groups, Co-ops, individual members, business members, and volunteers. However, the NPC held an at-large election, in violation of KOOP's bylaws, diluting the power of the individual groups which the framers of the bylaws sought to protect. We feel we would have received a majority in several of those categories had the election been held in accordance with the bylaws.

5. Arbitrarily putting candidates into the Volunteer category. The NPC contacted candidates and asked them what kind of members they were (e.g., business member, volunteer member, etc.). The NPC did not make it clear that candidates' responses would determine what section of the ballot they were placed in! Many candidates would have chosen to represent Community Organizations and run in that section of the ballot, had they understood what the NPC was doing in categorizing the candidates. Further, besides not properly explaining what their question meant, the NPC gave candidates very little time to respond. (And still further, some candidates say they weren't contacted by the NPC at all to ask what category they wanted to run in.) Candidates who did not respond in time were unceremoniously lumped into the Volunteers section. So the bulk of our candidates were stuck in the Volunteer section, instead of being represented across the ballot in other categories. As a result, only two of the ten candidates we endorsed for the Community Organizations section were listed in that section of the ballot. Supporters couldn't vote for our candidates because they weren't listed -- unless they knew whom to write-in.

6. Unknown issues. Even with all of the above stacked against us, we should not have lost this election. Throughout this struggle, the board of trustees has had very few supporters compared to Friends, as evidenced at board meetings, station meetings, the special membership meeting, etc. It's a mystery to us how they amassed more than a tiny number of people to vote. Perhaps Paul Odekirk and Eduardo Vera were able to convince a significant number of people of their opinion that Friends is composed of racist, sexist homophobes. Or, as some suspect, we might have lost because the election was crooked. We are currently seeking a court order to make the records of the election public. (Neither the NPC nor the trustees will allow us to examine them.) It is impossible to investigate possible election fraud without access to the election records.

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