Philadelphia Reflections

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018

Internal Medicine

Hematology

Phone 691-2282

December 2, 1989

George Ross Fisher, III, M.D.

829 Spruce St. Suite 308

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Dear George:

I served as a chief teller at the recent House of Delegates meeting. This experience has convinced me that we must change our method of voting. We can no longer efficiently manage the business of the house using paper ballots. The mechanism is too slow and inefficient.

I also favor the abolition of the bullet ballot. As you pointed out on the house floor the bullet ballot controversy is closely linked to the concept of plurality votes. Plurality voting is the official practice of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and it is debatable as to whether this is something that should be preserved.

If we intend to abolish the bullet ballot and plurality voting it is going to be mandatory that we have some type of electronic or mechanical mechanism for counting ballots.

I have mentioned this to Jack Rhodes and Howard Richter. The problem is that no one knows how to do this type of voting but I am certain that with some degree of ingenuity a mechanism could be found. Surely this problem must face other organizations and perhaps we can get some advice and guidance from our friends at the AMA.

I hope that you will give this problem some consideration since I suspect it will be discussed at the board of trustee’s level sometime during the next year.

Best wishes,

James R. Regan, M.D.

JRR/gms

Originally published: Wednesday, July 05, 2017; most-recently modified: Thursday, May 23, 2019