Through all the news in the last week, I have seen no mention of cleaning up the Election process going forward. If the things that have taken place with the USAT had happened in a public organization there would be recalls and court cases…oh wait we had a court case and a resignation…I think the Exec director is a stand up guy for saying enough! What no one has addressed is cleaning up the Election process going forward, it shocks me to see people on this forum defend the lack of formality, starting with candidates and their supporters handling ballots…There should be an Election committee and a few neutral Election volunteers who should be the only ones who handle the ballots, other than the individual voter filling out their individual ballot…Folks(the board of directors) need to get there act together soon or this thing is likely to get worse…and worser… A few phone calls by disgruntled USAT members to their US Senators challenging Tax dollars going to the USAT via the USOC…and you’ll have less money for elite athletes training for the Olympics…less exposure for the sport, fewer entries to races, fewer races…and the death spiral will be in full spin…
Gopre,
“shocks me to see people on this forum defend the lack of formality, starting with candidates and their supporters handling ballots”
Actually, if you go back and look at all the previous threads I don’t think you will find one poster who defended the lack of formalities. I believe we were all in agreement that we did not like the fact that candidates were allowed to collect ballots. This issue was raised last year as well and I believe Slowman even wrote up an editorial about the 2002 election. I believe it will change next year due to all the comotion this year. From what I have heard they plan to have the election on-line for 2004.
Willy in Pacifica
Your right…I had seen a few posts defending the Election in past weeks but not since this thing has blown up. I guess if I might restate my concern, I see a whole bunch of focus on who and what is wrong, and very little posted about solutions going forward. Running fair and honest elections is not difficult in this day and age, I just have not seen any proposal by anyone representing the USAT to fix the problem, and now would be a good time…
Gopre:
I agree with you in part. Procedures do need to be changed and rules instituted. But if re-read most posts, whether they support affirmation or denouncement of the lection, they almost uniformly call for reform. Some have even volunteered to help with such a procedure.
Alan