§ 102.69 Election procedure; tally of ballots; objections; certification by the Regional Director; hearings; Hearing Officer reports on objections and challenges; exceptions to Hearing Officer reports; Regional Director decisions on objections and challenges.

(a) Election procedure; tally; objections. (1) Unless otherwise directed by the Board, all elections shall be conducted under the supervision of the Regional Director in whose Region the proceeding is pending.

(2) All elections shall be by secret ballot.

(3) Whenever two or more labor organizations are included as choices in an election, either participant may, upon its prompt request to and approval thereof by the Regional Director, whose decision shall be final, have its name removed from the ballot, except that in a proceeding involving an employer-filed petition or a petition for decertification the labor organization certified, currently recognized, or found to be seeking recognition may not have its name removed from the ballot without giving timely notice in writing to all parties and the Regional Director, disclaiming any representation interest among the employees in the unit.

(4) A pre-election conference may be held at which the parties may check the list of voters and attempt to resolve any questions of eligibility or inclusions in the unit.

(5) When the election is conducted manually, any party may be represented by observers of its own selection, subject to such limitations as the Regional Director may prescribe.

(6) Any party and Board agents may challenge, for good cause, the eligibility of any person to participate in the election. The ballots of such challenged persons shall be impounded.

(7) Upon the conclusion of the election the ballots will be counted and a tally of ballots prepared and immediately made available to the parties.

(8) Within 5 business days after the tally of ballots has been prepared, any party may file with the Regional Director objections to the conduct of the election or to conduct affecting the results of the election which shall contain a short statement of the reasons therefor and a written offer of proof in the form described in § 102.66(c) insofar as applicable, except that the Regional Director may extend the time for filing the written offer of proof in support of the election objections upon request of a party showing good cause. Such filing(s) must be timely whether or not the challenged ballots are sufficient in number to affect the results of the election. The party filing the objections shall serve a copy of the objections, including the short statement of reasons therefor, but not the written offer of proof, on each of the other parties to the case, and include a certificate of such service with the objections. A person filing objections by facsimile pursuant to § 102.5(e) shall also file an original for the Agency's records, but failure to do so shall not affect the validity of the filing if otherwise proper. In addition, extra copies need not be filed if the filing is by facsimile or electronically pursuant to § 102.5(e) or (c). The Regional Director will transmit a copy of the objections to be served on each of the other parties to the proceeding, but shall not transmit the offer of proof.