Federated Rural Electric members delivered high voting response thanks to the first year of mail-in ballots.
"We are very happy with the voting response for this annual meeting,” said Federated General Manager Scott Reimer. "Mailing ballots to all members gives each and every member the opportunity to democratically participate, which created the largest voting response ever. We had 1,382 ballots cast by mail, while 113 ballots were cast at the drive-in annual meeting. Previously, the largest voting response was in 2020 totaling 491 ballots."
Ballots were counted Wednesday after the annual meeting by the nominating committee and attorney.
Members voted 1,314-66 in favor of the Bylaws amendment. This amendment added arbitration as an alternative form of dispute resolution, instead of the court system.
Members also voted on directors.
David Meschke (Welcome) was re-elected for District 5 over Stuart T. Smart (Welcome) by a 966-479 margin.
Also, Bruce Brockman (Granada) was re-elected for District 6 as he ran unopposed and garnered 1,425 votes.
On the nominating committee Tim Mailahn (Fairmont) was elected for District At-Large as he also ran unopposed and totaled 1,442 votes.
A brief business meeting was held to approve last year’s annual meeting minutes and the nominating committee report.
Members honked to approve motions and listened to 1370 AM in their cars or at home to the short business meeting.
Members who voted will receive a $10 bill credit on their September bill.
Federated is a Touchstone Energy cooperative serving 6,800 electric members in Jackson and Martin counties.