Following many concerns expressed by Hull City AFC supporters regarding the ballot over the proposed name change to Hull Tigers, City Till We Die yesterday sent the following list of questions to the club: There is a known problem with the online completion of PDF files issued by the club, as revealed during the issue and receipt of Wembley ticket orders, whereby fans are filling in the form, returning it by email then discovering that the submitted forms are blank. What controls have the club put in place to ensure the inadvertent production of such blank voting forms is avoided? If the risk persists of blank forms being submitted, what steps is the club putting in place to capture the voting intentions of those people affected? Some pass holders may wish to add comments to the voting form, as well as submitting their name, address and pass number details. What will be the clubâs approach to those forms with additional writing added? Will they be counted as valid votes? Can you please explain the protections that have been put on the email inbox [email protected], to reassure supporters that the votes received by email cannot be tampered with or viewed by Hull City staff? And can you please explain the process by which the independent adjudicator will be given exclusive access to this email inbox? Can you, in a similar fashion, explain how the postal ballot boxes will be protected so that no Hull City staff can view or tamper with the contents? Are the ballot boxes uniquely numbered and listed independently, so that there are protections in place to avoid boxes going missing, either accidentally or deliberately? Have the ballot boxes been sealed? When a box is filled, is it replaced with an empty one and stored, or is a full box emptied and reused? Where are the full boxes being stored? And how will the ballot boxes be transported to the independent adjudicator at the end of the ballot? Can you please explain why peopleâs name and addresses are requested, as well as their season card number? This is not normal procedure for secret ballots. Can you please provide the name, address and other contact details for the independent adjudicator retained by the club? And can you please briefly explain the process gone through to select that firm and assess their capabilities? Further, can you please explain what input the adjudicator had to the design of the ballot process launched last Friday? Can you please confirm the numbers of people eligible to vote, by season pass type (OAP, adult, youth, corporate sponsors, Premier Club)? Can you please confirm that all of these people have been contacted by the club, and explain how this has been achieved? Can you please confirm that all such communications inviting different groups to cast their vote, by whatever means, have included the exact same wording? Can you please clarify whether full-time and/or part-time employees of the club that are not pass holders (including, but not limited to, the playing staff) are eligible to vote? Have any such employees received communication from the clubâs management that differs from the other people invited to cast their vote? If so, can you please let us see a copy of any written communication, or summarise the spoken messages that may have been delivered? Finally, can you please confirm that the clubâs intention for this ballot, is to canvas opinions on the name change, and that issue alone? We were pleased to get a prompt response from James Mooney, Marketing Manager, assuring us that they would aim to answer them today following a meeting with the adjudicators appointed to oversee the ballot. However, 24 hours after submitting these legitimate questions, we have been unable to get a firm response from the club on any of them. In fact, Hull City have even been unable to provide us with the name of the adjudicators. We have stressed the need for clarity on the issues raised above and hope to receive some answers as soon as possible. The ballot closes at midnight on Friday 28th March. CITY TILL WE DIE Campaign Group
Seems a fairly reasonable set of questions, albeit a little late to have any impact but I look forward to reading the responses tbh.
You might have to wait a while, we were promised the answers today, but have just been told we're not getting them today and they won't even confirm who the adjudicators are. The club are currently making a video of how to get round the blank pdf issues, it will be released tomorrow, about 24 hours before voting closes.
All good points. I am particularly interested in exactly "who" gets a vote. As I mentioned before, I believe that various sponsors have a considerable number of season cards (or at least a consistent allocation of tickets, whether standard tickets, corporate boxes, Premier Club etc...). Can someone at Ideal effectively cast 100 votes?
Well it's mostly reassurances you're asking for, but the blank PDF thing shouldn't have happened, and I don't see how that can be rectified.
That does appear to be the case, and despite that most likely working in favour of the way I voted, I still don't like or agree with it. 1 fan, 1 vote was my expectation. Did I ever mention that I don't like polls, and that they cause more problems than they solve?
I don't think anyone has anywhere near that number of seats, the boxes are ten(I thought it was 12, but I've been corrected) so they get ten votes, but I doubt there's anyone with many more than that.
I'm pretty sure that the main stand sponsors, e.g. Ideal, MKM, Smith+Nephew get a lot more tickets than 12 per game.
I'm sure they have access to more tickets should they need them, but they won't make every game a works outing, I suspect only the directors will normally attend in a box.
They are generally distributed throughout the company. Anyone who works there can purchase/apply for a ticket for the game.
How many people were actually sent a voting form by email ? They definitely have my email address and do send me all sorts of emails but not a voting form
CTWDs request for clarifications and assurances seem reasonable enough. From the clubs point of view this whole ballot has been an omnishambles.
I can't help thinking I wished we had all refused to vote! If CTWD had issued a statement saying it didn't agree with the wording & the lack of anonymity, We should have just said f'ck you! Harsh but true.
