American Library Association holds fourth online election in 2007

Contact: Mark Gould
Director, PIO
312-280-5042

mgould@ala.org

For Immediate Release
October 31, 2006

American Library Association holds fourth online election in 2007

Please make sure your membership and e-mail address are current

CHICAGO – For the fourth year, the American Library Association (ALA) will hold its election online. All paid ALA members as of Jan. 31, 2007, are eligible to vote in the 2007 election. Polls will open on March 15, 2007.

To insure that member e-mail records are accurate, ALA has been conducting e-mail tests in October 2006. Members who change their e-mail addresses prior to January 31, 2007, can update their information by:

Members who do not have an e-mail address at home or work, but wish to vote online may want to consider:

Members may choose to vote by either a Web or a paper ballot.

As in previous elections, this year there will continue to be an extended period between the first and last date for requesting a paper ballot (from October 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007) and the last date for returning the ballots (April 24, 2007, at 11:59 p.m. CST).

Paper ballots will be sent to all paid ALA members as of Jan. 31, 2007 who do not have a valid e-mail address or who request a paper ballot prior to March 2, 2007, by calling 800-545-2433 (press 5) or sending an email to
membership@ala.org. Paper ballot packages will be mailed between March 15 and March 22, 2007.

For 2007 elections, all Web voters will receive ballots between March 15 and March 17, 2007, in a 48-hour e-mail blast. This will ensure that voters have ample time to cast their ballots.

To ensure international paper ballot packages are delivered in a timely manner, they will be mailed between March 13 and March 15, 2007.

The ALA election domain name is
https://www.alavote.org. This name allows the election broadcast email “From” line to be:
2007election@alavote.org.

The 2007 ballot meets all applicable W3C accessibility standards and can be read by common screen readers used by people with visual disabilities. This allows ALA members with visual disabilities to navigate Web sites by converting text and other visual symbols to audible speech.