Election Information

Whenever the term “Voting Member” is used in relation to USA Working Equitation elections, it shall refer to individual U.S. adult members of USAWE who have met the deadline for membership established by the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors shall provide an online mechanism by which Voting Members can nominate people for open seats on the Board (e.g., Google Forms, online survey, etc.). A link to the online nomination mechanism shall be distributed via email, sent to all Voting Members. This link will not be posted on the website or on any Facebook pages to limit nominations to those actually eligible to nominate. Concurrent announcements shall be made announcing the nominations are open (to all members). These announcements may be shared via Social Media, provided the actual link to the nomination form is not shared.

To provide transparency in the process, a link to a list of all people nominated for office shall be provided on the USA Working Equitation website throughout the elections process. This list will be updated to indicate who has accepted the nominations once the nomination window has closed and shall remain posted and publicly viewable until the results of the election have been announced. The name of the member making a nomination shall be listed, along with the person they are nominating for office. Anonymous nominations shall not be permitted. Self-nominations are allowed. A permanent record of the nominations list will be maintained in the USAWE archives. Nominations for all positions may be made by any member of USAWE but voting for Regional Directors is limited to people residing in that region.

Once the nomination window has closed, the Elections Committee will provide each member who has been nominated with a list of the positions for which they were nominated and instructions for how they can indicate which position, if any, they would like to accept. A person can accept at most one nomination. Candidate acceptances and candidate statements will be collected electronically by the Elections Committee and organized for the preparation of ballots and for sharing with the membership in advance of ballots being distributed.

The Board of Directors shall contract with an independent elections firm (e.g., Simply Voting) to conduct the actual election (distribution of ballots and counting of votes).

Each Voting Member may cast one vote for the Regional Director position being voted on in their region and one vote for any Officer positions being voted on. Those receiving a plurality of votes cast in their respective election category shall be declared the winner.

Voting can be conducted through online or paper ballots. Voting shall be conducted anonymously. Complete results (including total number of ballots cast and number of votes received by each candidate) shall be shared on the USAWE website.

With the exception of the first year (in which all positions will be open for election), odd-numbered regions will have directors elected in odd-numbered years; even-numbered regions will have directors elected in even-numbered years.

Procedure to follow in the event of a tied vote for any Board of Director position in an election:

1. If paper ballots are used, there will be a recount of the ballots.
2. If there is still a tie, the Executive Committee shall vote between the tied candidates. A  two-thirds majority of the Executive Committee shall be required to break the tie.
3. If the Executive Committee fails to reach a two-thirds majority vote in favor of one of the candidates, then the Full Board of Directors shall vote between the tied candidates. If the vote goes to the Full Board of Directors, then a simple majority of those present will be required to break the tie.
4. If the tie involves a seated member of the board, that Director shall recuse himself/herself from participating in the tie breaker steps described above.
5. Some positions will be up for election every other year. Odd-numbered regions will have Regional Directors elected in odd-numbered years; even-numbered regions will have Regional Directors elected in even-numbered years. The Secretary will be elected in even-numbered years.

The offices of President and President Elect are each one-year terms. The President Elect will rotate into the office of President after one year, for a total of two consecutive years of service post-election. A one-year break from Executive Committee service is required after leaving the office of President (this applies even if the person has not served for four consecutive years on the Executive Board). 

The offices of At-Large Director 1 and At-Large Director 2 will each be two-year terms and will serve on the Executive Committee. The At-Large Director 1 will be elected in odd-numbered years, and the At-Large Director 2 will be elected in even-numbered years. 

Members of the Executive Committee may serve no more than four consecutive years on the Executive Committee. They may, however, run for a seat as a Regional Director after having served four years on the Executive Committee. Due to term limits delineated in the Bylaws, a person is not eligible to serve in the office of President Elect if doing so would cause them to serve a fifth consecutive year when they rotated into the office of President.

There is no limit on the number of terms a Regional Director may serve. 

The following timeline applies for elections conducted by online voting. All dates end at midnight, Pacific time.