Executive Director’s Message

THE VIRGINIA STATE BAR rarely has a contested president-elect election. In the last ten years, the VSB has had three contested elections: 2012, 2014, and 2020. In the 2012 election Raymond B. Benzinger trailed by a margin of less than two percent when he lost a VSB president-elect election to Kevin E. Martingayle of Virginia Beach. About 20 percent of Virginia’s 30,000 active lawyers cast ballots in that VSB election, the last such contest using only paper ballots. In 2014, Raymond B. Benzinger of Arlington, Thomas A. Edmonds of Richmond, and Michael W. Robinson of Reston competed for the presidency. The three-way election resulted in 4,517 votes being cast from 31,180 eligible voters (14.49%). Robinson won with 2,043 votes.

This year, the VSB had a contested president-elect election between Stephanie B. Grana of Richmond and David E. Neumeyer of Lynchburg. Grana won the election with 2,986 votes, compared to Neumeyer’s 2,436 votes. A total of 5,4691 voters returned a ballot out of 32,174 eligible voters (17%).

The low voter turnouts in VSB elections have not gone unnoticed. We would like higher lawyer interest, but also understand that you are busy and may believe that the president of the Bar has no bearing on your careers. In my experience, that is untrue. When any lawyer in the Commonwealth contacts the current or even former president of the bar on an issue, it has without fail generated response and action.

Of course, our election was taking place during another notable election: Donald Trump did receive two write-in votes in the VSB election, placing him a very distant third if he were an eligible Virginia lawyer. But back to our turnout: the biggest spike in votes occurred, unsurprisingly, on days when we emailed the ballots or reminded you that you still needed to vote.

Yet, there was no U.S. presidential election in 2014 to dampen voter response. The low turnout in the 2014 election prompted the Report of the Study Group on VSB Online Elections (May 2015) and the Final Report and Recommendations from the Special Committee on President-elect Procedures (June 15, 2016). Substantive changes were made in the election process because of those reports, but the low turnout remains.

The measures proposed by the study group and adopted by the special committee had three guiding principles, which guide our elections today:

• every member of the VSB who desires to participate and vote in an electronic election should have a reasonable opportunity to do so and receive a message that their vote has been received and counted;

• the VSB affords each president-elect candidate the opportunity to communicate their goals and positions to Bar members.

One of the recommendations made in 2014 was that the VSB membership should be sent periodic reminders about the election. The 2020 election report confirms that the email reminders work because the vote counts spiked on Mondays, the day the reminders were sent. Because it is against VSB policy to inundate our lawyers with emails, it was deemed sufficient to send the reminders once a week on a Monday.

To combat low voter response, we have received suggestions that the president-elect election be moved to the spring to occur at the same time as the Council elections. VSB members are more likely to know the Council candidates in their circuits and, therefore, Council elections would attract circuit members to vote for the president- elect position because it would be on the same ballot as the circuit candidates.

The proposal set forth for your consideration below would change the timing of the president-elect election to coincide with the Council elections. It also proposes that the election period be shortened to two weeks. Because elections were originally held through the mail, they were held through a month. The advent of electronic balloting means this extended period is no longer necessary.

The Paragraph 42 rule change and bylaw changes that would be necessitated by this proposal are simple, as indicated in this redlined proposal (additions are denoted by underlining; deletions by strikethroughs):

The officers of the Virginia State Bar shall be a President, a President-elect, an Immediate Past President and a Secretary-Treasurer. The President-elect shall be elected annually for a term to commence on July 1immediately upon the adjournment of the Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar and to continue until the next president-elect assumes the presidency or the president-elect otherwise vacates office-adjournment of the next Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar, at which time he or she shall take office as President. The former President shall continue in office until adjournment of the next Annual Meeting, at which time he or shethen shall become the Immediate Past-President until the following July 1adjournment of the following Annual Meeting.

To be eligible for nomination as President-elect, the candidate must, at the time of nomination, have been an active member of the Virginia State Bar for a period of seven years and must have served on the Council for a minimum of two years within the five-year period next preceding his or her election.

The method of election of the President-elect shall be in the manner prescribed by the Bylaws of the Council.

If the President were unable to complete his or her term of office, the President-elect shall become President. Should a vacancy occur in the President-elect position, for whatever reason, an election shall be held as soon as possible to fill the vacancy pursuant to the election procedures set forth in the bylaws.Vacancies in the office of President or President-elect shall be filled by the Council. Should a vacancy occur in the Immediate Past President position, the vacancy will remain until a new President qualifies as Immediate Past President.

The President, the President-elect and the Immediate Past President shall be ex officio members of the Council; the President shall preside over the Council. In the absence of the President, the President-elect shall preside.

The Secretary-Treasurer shall also bear the title of Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. In the event of a vacancy, Tthe Council shall recommend its nominee as Secretary- Treasurer to the Supreme Court of Virginia which shall approve or reject the Council’s recommendation. If the Supreme Court rejects Council’s recommendation, Council shall submit another recommendation to the Court for its consideration. The Secretary- Treasurer shall keep all records of the Council and the Virginia State Bar. Accounts of the Secretary-Treasurer shall be audited annually.

The Secretary-Treasurer may be removed from office by the Council with the approval of the Supreme Court or by the Supreme Court, acting sua sponte.

The Virginia State Bar is comprised of all attorneys licensed to practice law in Virginia.

The officers of the Virginia State Bar shall be a President, a President- Elect, an Immediate Past President and a Secretary-Treasurer. The term “Secretary-Treasurer,” “executive director,” and “Executive Director” refer interchangeably to the same position throughout these bylaws.

Election of President-Elect Sec. 1. Nominations. In order to qualify for election to the office of president-elect for the ensuing bar year, a candidate must be duly qualified as set forth in Paragraph 4 of the Rules of Court, Part Six, Section IV and must file a nominating petition with the executive director.

Sec. 2. Petition. The nominating petition shall be signed by at least 50 members of the Virginia State Bar and shall be signed by the candidate, who shall certify that he or she is qualified to run for the office. The nominating petition must be received by the executive director on or before March 15October 1 of each year.

Sec. 3. Method of Election. In the event only one nominating petition is received by the executive director on or before March 15October 1 of any year, the election for the office of president-elect shall be held at the next annual meeting in accordance with the provisions of Article IV, below.

In the event two or more nominating petitions are received by the executive director on or before March 15October 1 of any year, the election of the president-elect will be in accordance with the provisions of Sections 4 and 5, below.

Sec. 4. Ballots. In the event nominating petitions for two or more candidates are received by the executive director, then:

(a) The executive director shall prepare a ballot which shall list in alphabetical order the names of those persons nominated to the office of president-elect.

(b)The president-elect ballot shall be distributed by mail or made available by electronic means to all members on or before April 15November 5. The form of the ballot and the procedure for distribution, collection and tabulation of ballots shall be determined by the executive director.

(c) If any member fails to receive a ballot within ten (10) days of distribution, or by November 15, whichever is later, the intended recipient shall be given a replacement ballot upon executing an affidavit, in a form to be prescribed by the Executive Committee, averring (i) that no ballot has been received and (ii) that in the event the original ballot is subsequently received, it will promptly be returned unmarked to the executive director. The affidavit and request for a replacement ballot must be received by the executive director not later than November 22, and the replacement ballot must be returned to the executive director by December 1.

(d) If any member receives more than one ballot, he or she shall return the excess ballot or ballots, unmarked, to the executive director in the same envelope provided for return of his or her marked ballot.

Sec. 5. Ballot Elections. The ballots shall be collected and counted in a manner which assures the confidentiality of the members' votes. A plurality of the votes cast by all members shall elect. No ballot received by the executive director after May 1December 1 shall be counted. Write-in votes shall be permitted, but the executive director may exclude illegible write-in votes and shall exclude write-in votes for any candidate ineligible to serve pursuant to these bylaws, if elected.

Sec. 6. General Provisions. The following provisions shall be applicable to any election of the president-elect under this Article III.

(a) For purposes of these provisions, a "member" is an active member in good standing of the Virginia State Bar. Only such person may nominate, be nominated, vote or be elected in any election for the office of president- elect.

(b) Records maintained by the executive director as to membership and good-standing status shall be controlling.

(c) The failure to comply with the dates designated for the occurrence or completion of certain acts shall not invalidate any election, unless substantial prejudice can be shown to have resulted therefrom.

(d) For purposes of determining voter and candidate eligibility, the membership list maintained by the executive director as of March 15October 1 shall be controlling. Except to correct clerical errors in records maintained as of that date, no revisions or additions to the membership list for purposes of the election shall be made after March 15October 1.

(e) The executive director shall announce to the bar the results of the election for the office of president- elect.

(f) Any responsibility assigned herein to be discharged by the executive director may be assumed and discharged by the Executive Committee, at its discretion.

(g) Any challenge to an election shall be resolved by a committee which shall be chaired by the president and shall include the president-elect, the immediate past president and two members of Council appointed by the president who shall not be current members of the Executive Committee.

… Please let me know your thoughts on the election process in general, or in specific. You can reach me at gould@vsb.org or (804) 775-0550.