by One of the questions I have been getting with some frequency as a candidate for the NRA Board of Directors is, “Can I vote online?” I have to answer that they cannot and they must use the paper ballot that was mailed to them in the February issue of the various NRA magazines.
It is a reasonable question and with today’s technology the question really should be “Why can’t I?” We vote proxies for multi-billion dollar public companies online all the time with the option to use a paper ballot. We use DocuSign to sign off securely on mortgages and financial transactions. Judge Cohen called the paper and ink petition signature gathering process as very “20th Century” and “antiquated”. In his Final Order, while permitting the paper petitions to remain, he said the NRA must provide an online alternative.
It is doable and I know it is doable because I just voted that way this evening for the Dallas Safari Club Board of Directors. I realize that DSC is a much smaller organization but I can’t see why it could not work for a larger organization like the NRA.
I was given an Election Code and Voting PIN. The ballot had the names of five candidates plus spaces for three write-in candidates. I could vote for up to three candidates. I ended up voting for only two and the system questioned whether I wanted to vote for a third candidate before submitting my vote. I didn’t and it went through with no troubles. As you can see above, I even got a confirm that it was a success.
This system was run by a company called YesElections which was formerly known as Election-America, Inc. According to a PDF e-book that I downloaded, they are able to handle hybrid elections where members are sent a paper ballot with the option to vote it online.
I plan to follow up with them this week and ask is there a maximum limit on the number of voters that they can handle. I know there are other companies like ProxyVote that handle millions of proxy votes during Annual Meeting season. While the latter is exclusively for the financial world, YesElections seems to work with a wider range of clients ranging from associations to unions to educational institutions.
Read their e-book yourself. Can you think of any reason something like this could not be implemented for the 2026 NRA Board of Directors’ election?
I can’t.