Reston Association Vote Stalled by a Typo

Balloting for the 2013 Reston Association's Board of Directors' election officially began on March 4.

However, most RA members have not cast a vote because they have not received their ballots.

The ballots were scheduled to be delivered by mail beginning March 4. Residents also need those ballots to access the online voting system. Cate Fulkerson, RA's Director of Administration, Member Services and IT, says two things have lead to the delay - a production error and a mailing rate decision.

New vendor Intelliscan discovered on Feb. 26 that "Association" was misspelled on the ballot guide, Fulkerson said.

"Our in-house team was surprised, as was I, on learning of the error," she said. "Especially since we were using design work from the prior year.  We learned that the mistake existed last year but were not informed by the former printing firm-- who fixed the mistake without letting us know the error existed."

"Needless to say, we could not let the incorrect ballots go out to Members," said Fulkerson. "This caused a two-day delay in mailing."

Adding to the delay - ballots to non-Reston addresses (owners who are renting their properties, for instance) are mailed with first class postage, while ballots to Reston addresses may be mailed bulk rate. So if you live within Reston, expect the slower-going bulk mailing to hit your mailbox this week.

The good news? The three candidates  - Eve Thompson (Lake Anne/Tall Oaks), Ken Knueven (At-large) and Tim Cohn (North Point) are all running uncontested. They each only need a quorum of 10 percent of eligible voters to earn their seats.

Also, the snag will not cost RA any additional money, said Fulkerson.

Fulkerson said the RA Elections Committee will be closely monitoring the ballot returns with Intelliscan.  If returns are not nearing or at quorum by Monday, March 25, the Elections Committee will consider next steps.

"These are lessons learned during a year with an uncontested election," said Fulkerson.  "We have every confidence that this will be successful election year."