Penn State Board of Trustees Election: Ballot Requests After April 26 May Not be Honored

There are still six days left in the Penn State Board of Trustees election, so there’s still plenty of time to vote — except — for alumni who still haven’t requested a ballot.

Information posted on the board of trustees website says, “Voting begins on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 and the voting website will open at that time; voting will close on Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. (DST).”

The Director of the Office of the Board of Trustees, Paula Ammerman, confirms, “Anyone with a ballot can vote up until the deadline.”

But if you don’t have a ballot yet, and request a ballot in the final days, you could be out of luck. Ammerman says it’s possible that ballot requests made after Friday, April 26 may not be fulfilled.

“We will continue to fulfill ballot requests in the order that they are received up until the time of the ballot closing. This is how it always has been done,” says Ammerman.

Ammerman says 5,000 ballot requests have already been taken care of. She notes that it usually takes about a day to process a ballot request but as the deadline approaches there can be unexpected delays.

According to Ammerman, “There are instances when someone requests a ballot where it can take longer if they aren’t in the system. In that case, the University has to research the archives to identify that person’s transcripts. This is rare but it happens and that can take time.”

The best advice is to request your ballot as early as possible.

As was the case in 2012, there has been intense interest in this year’s election. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday 26,861 alumni had cast votes.

Thirty-seven candidates are competing for three alumni seats. Many of those candidates are running as proponents of change; promising to reform the board and fight to reverse sanctions imposed by the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The race has been fiercely contested with quite a few candidates running ads on radio, newspapers and websites, including StateCollege.com. Paul Suhey and Stephanie Deviney are the only incumbents up for re-election.

Click here to see profiles of all the board of trustees candidates.