Two incumbents face challenges in the 2015 election cycle for ARRL Director and Vice Director. Both races are in the ARRL Northwestern Division: Incumbent Director James Pace, K7CEX, of Centralia, Washington, will face a challenge from William Balzarini, KL7BB, of Auburn, Washington. Delvin Bunton, N7QMT, of Vancouver, Washington, is seeking to unseat Northwestern Division Vice Director Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ, of Sheridan, Oregon.

The ARRL Ethics and Elections Committee earlier found that all candidates for the 2016-2018 term in this year’s election cycle to be eligible and nominated.

Incumbents in four other ARRL Divisions faced no challengers in the current election cycle and have been declared re-elected. They are Central Division Director Dick Isely, W9GIG, and Vice Director Kermit Carlson, W9XA; Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, and Vice Director Bill Hudzik, W2UDT; New England Division Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI, and Vice Director Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF, and Roanoke Division Director Dr Jim Boehner, N2ZZ, and Vice Director Bill Morine, N2COP.

Ballots will be mailed on October 1 to ARRL members in good standing in the Northwestern Division as of September 10, 2015. Ballots will be counted under the supervision of an independent auditor and the successful candidates announced on November 20.

The ARRL Ethics and Elections Committee decided in January to return to using solely paper ballots, after instituting a hybrid paper and electronic balloting process in the fall of 2012. Online balloting proved popular among those who took advantage of it, but overall voter participation declined significantly. See August 2015 QST, p 78, for more information.