New Era Academy teacher T.S. Grant, a presidential candidate in the May 17 Baltimore Teachers Union election, said the union?s nomination and election process is unfair.
But Marietta English, running for a third consecutive two-year term as union president, said it?s easier to run now than when she first won office in 1998. English lost her position in 2000, but won again in 2002 and 2004.
At the heart of Grant?s dispute is the time given challengers to put together a full slate of candidates, deemed necessary to be competitive.
To qualify as a slate, each presidential candidate must submit qualified candidates for 11 positions. Only English garnered a full slate this year.
The official candidate nomination process closed April 6. The list of viable candidates was mailed out April 18 to union members, but not received until April 19. Grant said, and a secretary at his school confirmed, he did not receive the list of qualified candidates until April 20 ? the same day as the deadline to submit a slate.
Grant had recruited eight candidates, but said he needed the complete list of qualified entrants earlier to fill out his ticket.
“There is no way of knowing who you can ask to be on your team,” Grant said. “Everyone knows that if you do not have a full slate, it?s next to impossible to win because being on a slate means one-touch voting for every candidate, as opposed to having to select each of the candidates for the offices.”
Grant said he would like to see the lengthening of the nominating process, allowing challengers a chance to join together.
“Perhaps next election we will do that,” English said. “We?re always open for suggestions.”
Grant and several supporters also brought up what they considered misleading balloting screens in 2004 favoring English?s slate, again the only one offered.
“When you logged on to the screen, the only candidates you saw were on Marietta?s slate,” Southwestern teacher Myles Hoenig said. “You could vote for them without even realizing it.”
Connie Goodley, English?s assistant, serves as election administrator and defended the ballot?s appearance in 2004.
“We brought in an outside agency, Elections USA, to cover these topics and all the candidates had a chance to review the ballots and no one raised any concerns at that time,” Goodley said.
