Voting for Executive Board Members
Per the TMEA Constitution, voting for TMEA President-Elect and Vice-Presidents is conducted electronically for offices with more than one nominee. Eligible members are not required to attend the convention to vote. In 2025, the division Vice-Presidents being elected are Orchestra, Vocal, and Elementary.
Who are the candidates?
Nominations close on January 15, 2025. By January 22, 2025, TMEA will notify members of all candidates for President-Elect and Orchestra, Vocal, and Elementary Vice-Presidents. Candidate information will be online for review by that date at www.tmea.org/candidates.
According to the constitution, those nominated by four or more Regions at their fall Region meeting are official candidates. Additional President-Elect candidates can be nominated in writing, with a second, to the President and the TMEA Office. Additional Vice-President candidates can be nominated in writing, with a second, to the division Vice-President and the TMEA Office.
These additional nominations and seconds must be received by January 15 and be accepted by the nominee to be included on the ballot.
Who can vote?
If you are eligible to vote, your membership must be current by 2 p.m. CT on February 14 for TMEA to email you a link to your ballot.
Electronic voting closes at 6 p.m. CT on February 14, 2025.
Who is eligible to vote for President-Elect?
All Active, Retired, and Honorary Life Members are eligible to vote. TMEA will email eligible members a link to their electronic ballot on February 13, 2025.
Who is eligible to vote for Orchestra Vice-President?
Active, Retired, and Honorary Life Members whose Primary Division is Orchestra are eligible to vote. TMEA will email eligible members a link to their electronic ballot on February 13, 2025.
Who is eligible to vote for Vocal Vice-President?
Active, Retired, and Honorary Life Members whose Primary Division is Vocal are eligible to vote. TMEA will email eligible members a link to their electronic ballot on February 13, 2025.
Who is eligible to vote for Elementary Vice-President?
Active, Retired, and Honorary Life Members whose Primary Division is Elementary are eligible to vote. TMEA will email eligible members a link to their electronic ballot on February 13, 2025.
Prepare to Vote
Go to my.tmea.org/membership-card to verify that your membership is current.
Go to tmea.org/memberinfo to verify that the primary email on your TMEA member record is accurate.
Be sure you can access your Primary email account during the election.
Add membership@tmea.org to your safe senders list to prevent the email from being blocked.
Learn about the candidates so you are prepared to rank them in your preferred order on your ballot.
About Electronic Voting
The electronic vote will be conducted using a third-party online voting system (OpaVote). Votes are anonymous and no identifying information will be stored with the voting data. A ballot link can only be used to submit one vote. The member cannot return to their ballot and change their vote. As provided in the TMEA Constitution, preferential (ranked-choice) voting will be utilized to prevent runoffs.
To comply with the TMEA Constitution’s preferential voting requirement to prevent runoffs when using electronic ballots, the following rules will be used.
Rules for Two Candidates
If there are two candidates: the voting method will be first past the post.
A voter will select one candidate.
In first past the post elections the candidate who gets more than 50% of the votes wins. This is the method commonly used for elections in the United States.
Rules for Three or More Candidates
If there are three or more candidates: a Condorcet voting method will be used, switching to instant runoff method between tied candidates (in the case of a tie).
A voter will be presented with a list of candidates and must rank them in order of preference.
In Condorcet elections candidates are compared to every other candidate based on voter’s ranks and whoever beats all other candidates is the winner. It is possible for no candidate to beat all others or for multiple candidates to form a preference cycle (like the winning conditions in rock/paper/scissor). In these cases where there is not a single winner, an instant runoff election will be held (using the same ballots) between the group of candidates who beat all others not in the group (commonly known as the “Smith set”). Click here for more information about the Condorcet method.
In the case of a second-round instant runoff election between the remaining candidates, the count of voters’ first ranked candidate is tallied and if a candidate gets more than 50% of the votes they win. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, an elimination round commences where the candidate with the fewest votes and any candidate with 0 votes are eliminated and ballots which specified an eliminated candidate are reassigned to the next ranked candidate. If a candidate then has more than 50% of the votes they win, otherwise the elimination process repeats until there is a winner. Should there be a tie when eliminating candidates it will be broken by the results of the previous round (whoever had fewer votes will be eliminated), continuing back each round until the tie is broken or randomly if the tie cannot be broken by comparing previous rounds. Click here for more information about Instant Runoff Voting.
Rules for Election Certification
The TMEA President’s Election Committee and TMEA staff will inspect the election results. Candidates or their representative may also observe during this process. The Election Committee Chair is responsible for certifying the election.
Need ballot help?
Email membership@tmea.org before 5 p.m., February 14. If you are at the convention, visit the TMEA Help Desk inside Convention Registration during open hours (7:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.).