ARRLtried electronic balloting for Directors and Vice Directors for a three-year cycle not long ago. Physical ballots were mailed only to those members without email addresses on file. Members with emails on file got a link to the contractor's (SBS) online voting site. Voter participation in the few contested ARRL elections during that cycle plummeted, and the cost was pretty much a wash (it costs money to do electronic voting securely). The difficulty is that an email directing voters to a voting site is easily lost in the noise compared to a paper ballot received in the mail. This phenomenon is not uncommon; the same thing happened when the Virginia State Bar implemented online voting around the same time, with the same vendor. ARRL abandoned electronic balloting. VSB has kept it, and has dealt with declined participation. There are merits in both approaches, but the argument that electronic balloting is better and cheaper is fallacious. (Same thing applies to electronic publication as compared to paper--paper ad rates command a premium for a very good reason.) 73 de Brennan N4QX