The USA Dance 2024 National Elections are ongoing and will close at midnight on Sunday, November 24, 2024.
Electronic ballots were sent, and voting began on November 15, 2024. Members who share an individual (personal) email address, typically within the same household or partnership, should have received an e-ballot unique to their membership number and first and last name.
After the electronic voting concludes, the contracted election service Simply Voting Inc. will provide the certified election report to the Nominations & Elections Committee (N&EC). After receiving and reviewing the certified election report, the N&EC will announce the election results to the membership.
January 1, 2025, is the date for those elected to begin their four-year term of office.
American Dancer will continue to update its information to help you vote.
Meet the Presidential Candidates and plan to vote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why didn’t I receive my voting email?
Your voting email came from USA Dance vote@simplyvoting.com on November 15. First, check your email spam or junk folder. If you did not receive your voting email or if you have any other questions, concerns, or difficulties in voting related to the election process, please contact Mike Lynch, Chairperson, Nominations & Elections Committee (National Elections Director) at nominationselections-chair@usadance.org.
I received my voting email from Simply Voting, but my spouse/partner did not receive theirs. What should they do?
Their voting email came from USA Dance vote@simplyvoting.com on November 15. First, they should check their email spam or junk folder. If they did not receive their voting email or if they have any other questions, concerns, or difficulties in voting related to the election process, please have them contact Mike Lynch, Chairperson, Nominations & Elections Committee (National Elections Director) at nominationselections-chair@usadance.org.
I didn’t receive my voting email, and when I asked the National Elections Director, I was told I was “unsubscribed”. What does that mean and what do I need to do to vote?
The Election Service Simply Voting provides a report to the National Elections Director that includes USA Dance members who are “unsubscribed”. Typically, this means that a member opted out of one of the USA Dance Your Membership (YM) System email notifications, e.g., Announcements, Monthly Digest, etc., at some point in the past. Opting out from one of the USA Dance YM System email notifications carries over into being “unsubscribed” from all USA Dance emails, including USA Dance <vote@simplyvoting.com>.
The National Elections Director will email those members whose email addresses are “unsubscribed” with the following voting instructions: The member may choose to opt back in by sending an email from the affected email address to resubscribe@simplyvoting.com. The member will receive an automated confirmation email once this is done. Once the member has resubscribed, they should contact Mike Lynch, Chairperson, Nominations & Elections Committee (National Elections Director) at nominationselections-chair@usadance.org. The National Elections Director will then inform Simply Voting to re-send the voting email to the affected member.
I received my voting email from Simply Voting but when I tried to submit the Membership Number and Password, it didn’t work. Why?
You may want to use the direct voting link (the second link in the voting email you received from Simply Voting) rather than trying to enter the Membership Number and Password. Some members might be trying to use autofill credentials saved by their browser rather than what is provided in the voting email.
If you are still having difficulty, please contact Mike Lynch, Chairperson, Nominations & Elections Committee (National Elections Director) at nominationselections-chair@usadance.org. He will contact the Project Manager, Simply Voting LLC (the USA Dance Election Service), for technical support assistance.
Why are there two different links in the voting email I received from Simply Voting?
Two links are provided to give voters two options to log in. You may click on the first VOTING WEBSITE link and then submit your Membership Number and Password provided in the voting email, or you may follow the second DIRECT VOTE link to access the ballot directly.
The VOTING WEBSITE link may be useful in instances where there is a technical problem preventing the voter access through the direct voting link (for example, some anti-virus software may forcibly break links by injecting code). The DIRECT VOTE link may be useful where the voter might have difficulty entering their membership number and password into the login fields.
Why is the position of President the only position on the ballot?
Since the only contested position on the ballot is President, the Board of Directors passed a motion on September 26, 2024, to have members vote only for President in the USA Dance 2024 National Elections. USA Dance Policy Governing National Elections (Article IV.A.7.) allows USA Dance to fill uncontested National Officer or DanceSport Delegate positions without a membership-wide election.
When I completed voting in the USA Dance 2024 National Elections, Simply Voting’s online voting system listed voting receipts I received from previous USA Dance elections. Will someone be able to track how I voted in this and past USA Dance elections?
No. Once you submit a ballot, the results are encrypted and stored in a database. Your Membership Number is then flagged as “voted” and you are denied access to the ballot to vote again. The results are stored anonymously; nobody will ever find out how a particular voter has voted.
Communication between your computer and the Simply Voting website is encrypted with TLS 1.3. Simply Voting servers are “hardened” and are routinely subjected to PCI Compliance security scans. Simply Voting application code adheres to guidelines set out by the Open Web Application Security Project.
Is it possible for a member to use more than one email address to vote more than once?
No. Once a member’s credentials (USA Dance Membership Number) have been used to cast a ballot those credentials are deactivated and cannot be used to vote again. This functionality is entirely independent of what email address(es) the credentials are sent to. Put simply, once a member is flagged as “voted” they cannot vote again regardless of the email address used by that member.
I got my email, and I am ready to vote, but I don’t know anything about the candidates. How can I find out more?
The three Presidential candidates were each asked to submit a National Candidate Confirmation Form, Nomination by Petition Form(s) with signatures, photo, resume, and Statement of Reasons for Running for Election. You will find their unedited Statements of Reasons for Running for Election at https://americandancer.org/presidential-candidates/.
Why is voting being done electronically?
USA Dance continues to conduct electronic voting because it offers significant cost and time savings over mail-in ballots.
