This election was characterized by a deliberate suppression of the vote of the rank and file by the entrenched UAW leadership. The union intentionally failed to provide adequate notice to the rank and file, who are not accustomed to direct elections and would not ordinarily expect to receive ballots. This fact is confirmed by the extremely low 9 percent turnout. Hundreds of thousands of members were simply unaware that an election was taking place and did not vote. In some locals representing tens of thousands of younger academic workers, turnout was less than one percent. The 9 percent turnout in the UAW elections was by far the lowest for any direct national union elections. By comparison, the first-ever Teamsters direct election in the 1990s had 28 percent turnout. The first-ever UMWA direct elections had 47 percent. The alibi of the UAW apparatus—that workers are “apathetic”—is simply not credible. Meanwhile, even as the UAW apparatus was keeping workers in the dark about its union elections, it went to great lengths to “get out the vote” for the Democrats in the midterm elections—meaning that the UAW leadership had the means to inform workers of the union elections, but deliberately did not. To remedy the violation of workers’ democratic right to participate in a meaningful election, either ballots should be re-issued and a new UAW election held, or the names of all candidates added to the ballot in the runoff. In either case, this time adequate measures must be taken to prevent the UAW leadership from suppressing the vote and ensure that the entire membership is aware of the election and able to vote. I urge workers in the UAW and my followers to read the full protest and to share it as widely as possible. Contact my campaign and send us a statement supporting my challenge opposing the UAW bureaucracy’s attempt to once again trample the rights of the rank and file. | 
