OMG! The Fastest Way To Vote Proxies In 2010 Turns Out To Be Snail-Mail!

This year we are paying much closer attention to the proxy packages we receive than we ever did before. And we know we’re far from alone here, although how carefully most other individual investors will attend to these matters – and perhaps reverse the steady increases in voter apathy we’ve been witnessing over the fast 10 years still remains to be seen. (We’re going to go out on a limb here, and predict that this year there will BE an uptick in individual investor voting…But it ain’t gonna go the corporate way - ‘like it used to was’ - we’ll also predict.)

In any event, this year WE very firmly resolved to do a much better job of reviewing the director candidates – and all the proxy issues that are up for a vote – and to take our own advice: To set aside some “quality time” and to vote our proxies faithfully, and in a timely and systematic fashion.

So on the 28th of March, we tore the shrink wrap off the packages we’d received over the prior few days and set to work. Here’s what we found in the first five Voting Instruction Forms we looked at:

AT&T had 17 items; 11 director candidates – three of whom we felt were very poor choices – plus one management and 4 shareholder proposals – where voting all FOR – or all AGAINST would not work out for us, however convenient

BP had 25 proposals; 16 directors, 8 management proposals and 1 shareholder proposal…but oops…no “All in favor” for us here either.

BofA had 24 proposals; 13 directors, all of whom we’d give a free pass after all the vetting that went on, but 4 management and 7 shareholder proposals, where an across the board vote for the management positions would not square with our judgment.

Citigroup had 25 proposals; 13 directors, 6 management and 6 shareholder proposals, where a straight management vote was NG with us either.

IBM had 19 items to vote on; 14 directors – one of whom we thought was a total clunker – which spoiled our one chance to “vote with management” across the board.

After we dutifully checked all the boxes, so we could keep all our choices straight, we started to pick up the phone, for our “usual” way of voting.

But wait! This was going to take a VERY long time! Maybe we should try Internet voting, we thought. But shoot! By the time we Googled up the voting site – and navigated between five company-oriented sub-sites – and typed in our various control numbers – then tried to check a mind-boggling total of 110 “boxes” – followed by a check of our own box checking – we figured we’d be out of pocket for at least 45 minutes…on top of the nearly two hours we’d spent studying proxy statements.

How liberating – but also how weird it was – to realize that shoving all five forms into one envelope, where we were able to scavenge one un-torn one from the waste bin – was the fastest and safest way to cast our votes as we wished, by far!