The 2016 EEFC board election has presented many unique issues for the board, management, and all Co-op members. This election was suspended in October 2016 after staff and member concerns prompted the board to find a way to review the integrity of the election.

Due to these concerns, the board hired the CSI investigation firm to review the 2016 EEFC board election process. Following completion of extensive interviews and video review, CSI reported that EEFC election integrity had been compromised and that the procedures used to secure the paper ballots cast doubt on the integrity of the process for collection and the validity of the paper ballot totals.

Consequently, paper ballots will neither be tallied nor reported for 2016. The board reviewed the electronic ballots, and we believe that they were not tampered with. Additionally, we reviewed the electronic ballots for duplicates, and found none.

The results of the 2016 board election are as follows:

245 electronic votes were tallied, and totals for each candidate are listed below from highest to lowest.

  • Brynn Yochim (134)
  • Greg Nicholas (131)
  • Eddy Jones (122)
  • Mike Collura (118)
  • Patrick McHale (105)
  • Andrew Ritchie (99)
  • William Warnock (7)

The board voted at the January 2017 meeting to seat the top three vote-getters to three year board terms and to appoint the lower three vote getters to fill the three two-year spots on the board. Greg Nicholas also resigned from the board and withdrew from the election, and is therefore no longer a candidate. As a result, Brynn, Eddy, and Mike will be awarded the three-year board terms from the election and Patrick, Andrew, and William will be seated to the two-year terms from the current board vacancies.

We thank all candidates, members, staff and board members for their patience through this difficult situation. The new board must work to develop additional controls surrounding the paper balloting process to ensure that the weaknesses identified by the investigation are not repeated in future elections.

Please direct any questions or comments to boardofdirectors@eastendfood.coop