Conducting The Election, Counting The Ballots and Certifying The Results
The NLRB usually conducts elections at the workplace, setting up a polling area where employees can cast ballots. Each party to the election is allowed a number of observers, depending on the size of the unit. The starting or ending times of the election will depend on the nature of the employer’s business; if the employer operates more than two shifts the Board will typically schedule separate polling times to allow employees to vote as they arrive for and leave from work. The Board less often conducts elections by mail ballot, usually in cases in which workers are widely dispersed.
Observers may challenge the ballots of employees who one side or the other claims are not members of the bargaining unit or not eligible to vote for any other reason. The NLRB will challenge the ballot of any voter whose name does not appear on the list supplied by the employer. Those challenged ballots are held separately to be counted after a hearing officer determines, following a post-election hearing, that the individual’s vote should be counted. Even then the Board may not make any determination on this issue or counted any challenged ballots if the number of such ballots is too small to affect the outcome of the election.
A party that wishes to protest the outcome of the election must file objections within seven days after the election. The Regional Director determines, after an investigation, whether any of the charges have enough merit to justify a hearing into them. The hearing officer conducting that hearing will also resolve any challenges to individual employees’ ballots if they are sufficient to affect the outcome of the election. If a party has also filed unfair labor practice charges based on the conduct it claims made a fair election impossible, the hearing on its objections will be held before the Administrative Law Judge before him any such unfair labor practice charges are tried.
Read more about this topic: NLRB Election Procedures
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