OCEAN PINES – Changes to election procedures in Ocean Pines mean residents will learn annual election results as soon as votes are tallied.
This week the Ocean Pines Association’ (OPA) board of directors voted 5-2 to approve amendments to Resolution M-06. The changes are designed to increase transparency and improve annual election procedures.
“The idea here is to have maximum transparency,” said board member Ted Moroney.
The changes to Resolution M-06 include announcing election results as soon as ballots are counted, giving the Ocean Pines Elections Committee freedom to adjust seating arrangements at candidate forums and changing the ballot deadline.
While no one objected to the latter two changes, the concept of announcing annual board election results prior to the annual meeting (held the second Saturday of August) has been a controversial one.
Board members Tom Herrick and Cheryl Jacobs have routinely spoken against the change.
“The board’s spent an inordinate amount of time on this,” Herrick said.
He said two years ago, the elections committee had been opposed to announcing the results prior to the annual meeting. When those committee members resigned, Herrick said a new committee was formed of like-minded individuals who all wanted the results announced immediately after the ballot count, which is generally the day before the annual meeting.
Herrick said he wasn’t against the change but believed it should not be done with a resolution.
“I’m not against doing it but do it properly,” he said. “Revise the bylaws.”
Though the proposed changes initially called for election results to be emailed to board members and candidates and posted online, at Moroney’s suggestion on Sunday it was agreed that the results would also be announced live on the OPA internet stream after the ballot count.
“I’ve run that by the elections committee and they’re 100 percent on board with that,” Moroney said.
The board voted 5-2, with Herrick and Jacobs opposed, to approve the changes.
