December. We are battling the Election Committee and the Election Monitor, Judge Kathleen Roberts in an effort to insure a Fair Election for all members.

Our struggle, with particular emphasis on retirees right to vote, is covered in detail elsewhere in this issue. The main point is that the UBC Trusteeship apparently will go to any lengths necessary to keep the Retiree vote as small as possible. DON'T LET THEM DENY YOUR VOTE.

MACOUT will continue to fight for a Fair Election. For your part, return the ballot application as soon as you receive it, and when you get the mail--in
ballot, cast your vote and return it immediately. And let them know what you think. Phone and Fax numbers are provided in this Newsletter.

October 19, 1999
RETIREES VOTING RIGHTS IN JEOPARDY

There will be elections for District Council Officers on December 10th and 11th for the first time in four and a half years.

Due to Restructuring, the Offices we will be voting for as well as the responsibilities connected to them will be quite different than in the past. Among the many things changed are the rules on how the election will be carried out. The new Rules, thirty confusing pages worth, were designed by McCarron and the UBC, modified by Judge Conboy and approved by Judge Haight. Apparently they didn't require any help from New York Carpenter members.

These new rules allow Retirees to vote by mail-in ballot. This is extremely important because many Retirees live too far away to vote in person, and many have health problems that would prevent them from doing so.

However, instead of simply sending each retired member a mail in ballot, these new rules specify that a Retiree must submit an application for a ballot.

The PROBLEM is hardly anyone knew they needed to send in an application, and the District Council waited until October 7th to send out these applications, which had a deadline of October 15th.!! Nobody received notice before October 8th. And because of the Holiday weekend, most members didn't receive it until the 12th. Some never received notice!!!

APPARENTLY, SOMEBODY DOESN'T WANT RETIREES TO VOTE !

On October 7th when no one had yet received notice, the Executive Committee of MACOUT decided action had to be taken. We made thousands of copies of the application, filled in the names and addresses of over 8600 Retirees, and turned them into the Council on Friday October 8th.

On Monday, October 18th, we found out our applications had been rejected by the Election Committee, but we were not officially notified until Wednesday October 20th. We were told we had no right to act as representatives for the Retirees. While, theoretically this is accurate, we took action because somebody had to, and the Officials whose job it is to protect the rights of ALL MEMBERS, sure as

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