We promised you that we’d cover the results of the shareholder vote on the future of the Hyde Park Co-Op, and so we shall, even though Chicagoist did it first. But there are some odds and ends to add, at least.
The vote was 3200 in favor of Option A (Co-Op out of Dodge), and 2049 in favor of Option B (Dig in, fight the Man). This is slightly less A-positive than the Co-Op board itself, at least according to the last email we were privvy to from Hank Webber, Vice President for Community and Government Affairs at the University of Chicago (he claimed the board was 2/3 in favor of A).
Then again, according to the Co-Op’s webpage about the vote, fully “75% of the ballots contained minor violations of the rules that did not effect the vote,” which was monitored by Project LEAP. We’re glad the irregularities didn’t affect the voting, on principle, but come on, three quarters of the voters screwed up? WTF! What hope does our democracy have if the members of simple cooperative in a university neighborhood can’t get their act together filling out and mailing forms.
We’re also a little confused by the contention that while 19000 ballots were sent out and 4000 were received back (21%, quite pathetic), this somehow added up to 5200 votes. We’re sure there’s an obvious explanation for this, but…
Okay, so the next step is for the board to make a final decision, which they’re doing in an hour or so. Maybe there will be more on this tomorrow! But we think we know what will happen.
Hyde Park Co-Op Shareholders Vote to Close Flagship Store [Chicagoist]
Results of the December 14, 2007 vote
on the Future of the Co-Op [Co-Op Market]
