We had parents crawling out of the woodwork this year to vote their friend in who has tried 3 times before for a board position. A volunteer was giving a ballot sheet to everyone even though they were not paid members. They paid their $5. (valid for one month!) just so she could finally get voted in. Oh well. I'm sure half these people won't be seen again until the next election. LOL What I didnt like was this person was very adamant about RRO yet no one could tell us if this new board of people actually won by majority vote. Some people will stop at nothing to "win" and to me that makes them losers. Some people will interpret the By Laws when and how they want. Its shameful that this is more of a power position/issue instead of being about the kids/school. I can only hope that this is not indicative of their attitudes and desire for the coming year. We'll see.

Our PTO had a problem many years ago where the night of elections people crawled out of the woodwork to vote someone into a position. Then of course these people were never heard from or seen again.

What they did to combat this was that membership to the PTO gives you the right to vote. We charge $5 per year per family. If you do not pay the dues you do not get to vote. Our secretary brings a list of all paid members to the elections and checks everyone in who is voting.
We have never had a problem again.

Our PTO encountered a similar situation a few years ago and some of the parents went nuts. In the end, we modified our bylaws to encourage nominations be presented at least one week before the election meeting. All this means for us is that the nominees will have their names posted and in the school newsletter. However, we did NOT eliminate nominations from the floor. That's really the source of this kind of "sneakiness", but's it's also a valid and important right of membership to allow nominations up until voting. So, after much wailing and whining, we still could have someone unexpected get elected. That's all part of the process.

How to make it more fair? We've tried to do a better job with a nominating committee matching interested candidates to the various positions, but even that's imperfect. Do you identify only one person for each position, or do you try to present as many qualified people as possible for each position? Do you vote on individuals, or a slate of officers? Do you actively recruit a candidate for a position that you know the incumbant would like to retain? This isn't an easy issue, either.

I guess the lesson we learned from the experience is that some years elections run more smoothly than others - just depends on the personalities involved that year. For your friend, the tactic hurts. Hopefully she isn't so discouraged that she gives up volunteering all together. Maybe next year will be her turn.

Hello
This is my first time on this site. I was a PTO election last night and my friend who was up for reelection only found out she was running against someone when they hand her the ballot. They other board memembers had stacked the deck this way and also called in friends and new parents to vote. How can we make the voting more fair