In recent weeks, we've heard many stories of long lines for early voting throughout Suffolk County, such as the one above taken at Brookhaven Town Hall by FA president Dante Morelli. Local, state and federal elections matter—and making sure all those ballots are counted properly is critical. Join the FA elections committee to help out because this is as local as it gets for our members! (photo by Dante Morelli)

I hear there's a pretty big election going on in the United States of America right now.

But local elections matter too, and you're not going to get much more local than our very own FA elections.

For example, we are currently running elections for several positions on our Executive Council (EC), which is the policymaking body of our union. Most of these votes will be tallied on Friday, November 6, starting around 12:30 pm, and then we will count the ballots for a two special elections after that.

In the spring, we will hold elections for all six FA officers in addition to about half of the EC representatives.

This is critically important work to ensure that all elected positions in the FA are filled with engaged members who are ready to actively represent their constituencies. Thus, in accordance with the FA Elections Procedures, we are making a call for members to serve on the elections committee.

Each constituency in the FA—see Article IV.A. on pages 4-6 in our Constitution and Bylaws—is allowed to but not required to have representation on the elections committee.

D. Designation of Committee Members

1. Faculty Association members may volunteer to serve on the Elections Committee. Those interested must contact the Elections Committee Chair regarding their intent to serve as volunteers and all such volunteers shall serve on the Committee for the FA Election Procedures elections at hand.
   
   
2. Although each group in the Faculty Association is entitled to be represented on the Committee as described above, no group shall be required to fill its seat on the Committee.
   
   
3. Any member of the Elections Committee who is a candidate for office in a particular election shall be disqualified from participating on the Committee during that election.
   
   Our committee tends to be busiest in the spring semesters, mostly during ballot counting which tends to be in April. (Our busyness this fall is because the spring 2020 elections were postponed due to the pandemic.) We meet other times on an as-needed basis, such as when we run a special election and need to count those ballots, and beyond that much of our work is conducted via email.

Contact me if you would like to serve on the elections committee.