Stray Marks on Ballot Mean Union Loss, New NLRB Precedent (1)

A single, invalidated vote defeated a unionization campaign at a Portland, Ore., hospital for about 840 medical, mental health, food services, and other staffers, in a case in which the federal labor board also established a new rule for judging union election ballots containing atypical or stray marks.

The National Labor Relations Board decided that ballots that contain more than one potential indicator of the voter’s preference will be presumed void. Board officials will no longer try to determine whether such ballots are valid if, for example, the voter erased a second, stray mark. The decision means unions and employers ...