Under the UUA bylaws, candidates for UUA President and Moderator must submit petitions to run for these offices.  For the office of President, Rev. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales submitted petitions and their petitions both met the bylaw requirements.  And for the office of Moderator, Gini Courter submitted petitions that met the bylaw requirements.  Therefore, the UUA election ballot will contain the names of Peter Morales and Laurel Hallman for President and Gini Courter for Moderator.  For further info rmation on the candidates, please visit these websites:

Peter Morales - http://www.moralesforuuapresident.org/

Laurel Hallman - http://www.hallmanforuuapresident.com/

Gini Courter - http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/officers/moderator/courtergini/index.shtml

For all other offices (Financial Advisor, Trustee At Large, Youth Trustee At Large, General Assembly Planning Committee, Nominating Committee, Commission on Appraisal, Commission on Social Witness, and Board of Review), a slate of candidates is put forward by the Nominating Committee.  Anyone wishing to run for one of these offices who was not nominated by the Nominating Committee can run by petition.  However, no one submitted petitions to run for any of these offices.  Therefore, the UUA election ballot will contain the names of the individuals put forward by the Nominating Committee:  http://www.uua.org/documents/nc/09_slate.pdf .

The UUA bylaws do not allow write-in voting, so voting will be limited to the candidates listed on the ballot.

Important Information about Absentee Voting

Under the UUA bylaws, congregations that have met the certification requirements for sending voting delegates to General Assembly can vote in the election in two ways:

• By submitting completed absentee ballots.  Absentee ballots with instructions and biographical info rmation about the candidates will be mailed to congregations in early May and must be returned by June 17.
• By sending delegates to vote on site at General Assembly on Saturday, June 27.  All GA delegates who have voting credentials that were not used to vote absentee will be eligible to vote on site.

A congregation can use a mix of both of these methods if it wishes.  For example, if a congregation will be sending some but not all of its delegates to General Assembly, the congregation can vote absentee for any of the delegate slots that won't be used to send delegates to General Assembly.  However, the system prevents double-voting, so if a congregation is eligible for three delegate slots and submits two completed absentee ballots, only one General Assembly delegate from that congregation will be allowed to vote on site.

When discerning how to vote in the election (absentee or on site), congregations have wide discretion in determining whether and how to instruct their delegates.  For example, a congregation could hold a congregational meeting to discuss the election and then could direct its delegates to vote for particular candidates.  Or the congregation could appoint delegates and allow those delegates to vote their consciences.  More detailed instructions for voting will be included with the ballot mailing in early May.

Please let me know if you have questions about the election.  For more info rmation on UUA Elections, see http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/elections/index.shtml .

---Paul Rickter, UUA Secretary