2011 election of American Mensa

The 2011 election of American Mensa was the regular biennial election in which all elective positions on the American Mensa Committee were filled. In addition, there was one proposed bylaw amendment on the ballot.

There were 5,966 returned ballots from 45,043 eligible members with a final participation rate of 13.25%. 2,317 ballots were submitted via Web voting and 3,649 by paper ballot. Maggie Truelove was the election chair.

While there was no formal "anti-establishment" slate this time (as there had been with the "Round Table" team led by Dick Amyx in the 1993 elections), several candidates campaigned or were widely viewed as being in opposition to those currently in power, notably Lee Berkovits for chairman, Cary Chilson for treasurer, and Jared Levine for secretary.

Controversy erupted as the initially-reported results were quickly revoked for two of the positions due to an error by the outside vote tabulators (Survey and Ballot Systems). After examination by a third-party forensic auditor, it was determined that the electronic votes (via the American Mensa Web site) were mis-tabulated in the two races in which there were more than two candidates and the preferential voting system was used. The revised results changed the outcome of the vote for 1st Vice Chairman and Treasurer.

Several challenges were filed by candidates afterward, but no further action was taken after the final results were announced.

The bylaws amendment dealt with changing the manner in which vacancies in Regional Vice Chairman positions are filled, to comply with New York State law (under which American Mensa is incorporated); the current bylaw calls for appointment of replacements by the AMC, but this is apparently not lawful. Several attempts have been made to amend this, ranging from calling for new special elections to (as in this year's proposal) selection of a replacement by the Local Secretaries within the region involved, with differing opinions as to the legality of some of the proposals. This one failed due to lack of the required two-thirds vote.

Original results in two races with errors

1st Vice Chair

Candidate	Round 1 Votes	Round 2 Votes	Notes
Robin Crawford	2,871	3,319	Declared elected (but later revoked)
Dan Burg	1,758	2,365
Cookie Bakke	1,188		Eliminated in 1st round

Treasurer

Candidate	Votes	Notes
Cary Chilson	3,379	Declared elected (but later revoked)
Nick Sanford	1,414
Guy Conti	910

Final results

The following positions were unopposed and the candidates were declared elected:

• RVC 1: Andrew Heffernan
• RVC 2: Marc Lederman
• RVC 3: Betsy Mark
• RVC 4: Ken Silver
• RVC 5: Bob Cox
• RVC 8: Debra Reiger
• RVC 10: Mel Dahl

Chair

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Elissa Rudolph	4,159	71.4%	Declared elected
Lee Berkovits	1,670	28.6%

1st Vice Chair

Candidate	Round 1 Votes	Round 1 Percentage	Round 2 Votes	Round 2 Percentage	Notes
Dan Burg	2781	47.8%	3560	61.6%	Declared elected
Cookie Bakke	1791	30.8%	2215	38.4%
Robin Crawford	1245	21.4%			Eliminated in 1st round

2nd Vice Chair

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
John Recht	3,426	60.1%	Declared elected
Lori Norris	2,271	39.9%

Secretary

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Heather Poirier	3,453	60.2%	Declared elected
Jared Levine	2,283	39.8%

Treasurer

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Nick Sanford	2165	38.0%	2966	52.9%	Declared elected
Cary Chilson	2110	37.0%	2640	47.1%
Guy Conti	1426	25.0%			Eliminated in 1st round

RVC 6

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Roger Durham	385	70.5%	Declared elected
James Franzen	161	29.5%

RVC 7

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Peggy Pannke-Smith	282	84.2%	Declared elected
VeraLouise Kleinfeld Pfeiffer	53	15.8%

RVC 9

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Notes
Clark Jones	460	63.1%	Declared elected
Joan Johnson	269	36.9%

Bylaw Amendment 1

Position	Votes	Percentage	Notes
For	3008	54.8%	Failed to get required two-thirds vote
Against	2478	45.2%	Amendment fails.

Preceded by: 2009

Elections of American Mensa 2011

Succeeded by: 2013