MTHA Announces Revote – Modifies Voting Procedure

At a Board Meeting of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (MTHA), held May 7th at Laurel Park, the MTHA’s General Counsel, Alan Foreman, advised the group of a flaw in it’s recent vote on certain bylaw changes. 

The MTHA, held a special election on April 30th to amend some of it’s bylaws.  Among the proposed changes, the President and the Vice President would be elected by the membership, not by the Board of Directors.  243 members of the horsemen’s group voted at a meeting held at Laurel Park last Monday. Only members of record were allowed to participate in the election, and they had to vote in person.  The eligibility of the membership was confirmed by lists provided to the MTHA by the Maryland Racing Commission, who licenses the members of the group. 

To enter the meeting, participants had to display their Maryland Racing Commission owners or trainers license that was compared to lists supplied to the MTHA by the commission.  Last Monday’s vote was taken by secret ballot.

The problem arose the day after the election when it was discovered that the lists included individuals that had been licensed after the date of record.  That list contained approximately 87 names, many of which were in attendance.  The MTHA voting procedures for this type of special election restrict voting to only members of record as of the date that the notice for the special election is mailed out, in this case April 18th.

The MTHA’s Board has determined that a subsequent vote will be taken of it’s membership, which will be open to all members of record as of May 7th.  However, the re-vote will be conducted by a ballot to be mailed to eligible members and returned to an independent party to be counted.

The MTHA stated that it will send out the new ballots as soon as possible.