Number 2 pencils will be needed to mark your ballot.These pencils will be provided by the United Methodist Credit Union and will be in your official packet.Bring this pencil with you to every session.If you prefer your own, make sure it is a number 2.Pencil sharpeners are useful and will make your neighbors your friends.
Laity have already received their list of lay nominees.Following the clergy nominating ballot, a list of clergy nominees will be distributed to the clergy and other interested parties.
For your convenience, voting results will be made public in the following ways: the bishop will read the results from the platform, and the results will be projected on the screens in a continuous loop through-out the balloting time – Lay results on the screen on the Laity side, and Clergy results on the screen on the Clergy side -- a paper copy of results will be posted outside the teller room, and an electronic copy of each report will be posted on the conference website.For those who wish to track results ballot to ballot, tracking grids will be available outside the teller room.
In the interest of being good stewards of our environment, paper copies of the reports will not be available.(This saves printing approximately 60,000 copies, as well as reducing the time for elections by several hours.)
The clergy nominating ballot will be taken following opening worship at the clergy session on Monday morning.
The first ballot for clergy and laity is scheduled for around 11:30 a.m. on Monday morning.
This year the clergy ballot (with the exception of the nominating ballot) will have the nominee names printed on the ballot.
Tellers may be identified by their blue teller badge.
Voting delegates must be seated within the bar of the conference (it will be marked and verbally explained) in order to receive a ballot.Laity and Clergy will be seated on separate sides of the CivicCenter -- Clergy on the right side facing the stage, Laity on the left side facing the stage.The only exceptions to this separation of Lay and Clergy for voting are the stage, the Cabinet and District Lay Leader tables, and the "special needs area" for those who need to see the interpreters or the screens with visually assisted note taking.
Ballots may not be removed from the Conference floor at any time for any reason, except by Tellers in the performance of their duties.
Write-ins are allowed on Lay ballots, but not on Clergy ballots.To write in a Lay person, fill in the last box (number 200) that is marked for write-ins, and put on the back of the ballot the name, church, and district of the person you are nominating, or else the name and address of the person.Make sure you still count your votes correctly including the write-in.If you do not properly identify your write in, that write-in will not be valid, and this will invalidate your ballot.
Instructions for every ballot will be clearly printed at the top of the ballot.If you read and follow them, the end result will be a valid ballot.Almost all ballots will require you to vote for an exact number of valid nominees.Please carefully check that you are only voting where there are numbers next to the boxes, and please carefully count the votes.
Who may serve as a CLERGY delegate to General or Jurisdictional Conference? Who may vote to elect CLERGY delegates?
Paragraph 35, Article IV of the Constitution of The United Methodist Church states that: "The ordained ministerial delegates to General Conference and to the Jurisdictional or Central Conferences shall be elected by and from the ordained ministerial members in full connection with the annual Conference." The implications of this constitutional statement are as follows: 1. In order to vote for clergy delegates to general and jurisdictional conference, persons must be both received into full membership and ordained as either Elder or Deacon in full connection before they can vote. 2. Ordained Elders and Deacons in “full connection” comprise the clergy vote 3. The following specific restrictions apply to clergy members in full connection: • Clergy on leaves of absence may vote but may not be elected as delegates (¶ 354). • Clergy on sabbatical, family, paternity/maternity, and disability leaves may vote and be elected (Judicial Council Decision # 473). • Clergy on honorable location are no longer members of the annual conference (¶ 360.2) and therefore cannot vote or be elected as clergy delegates. • Retired clergy can vote and be elected as clergy delegates (See Judicial Council Decision # 531). • Clergy under suspension from pastoral duties may vote but may not be elected as delegates (See Judicial Council Decision # 534). • Persons who are to be received into full membership and ordained Elder or Deacon in full connection at the 2007 session of the annual conference may vote or be elected only after they have been both elected and ordained.
