UAW election results delayed as monitor works to verify challenged ballots

Determining the results of the UAW's presidential runoff election will take at least a week longer than originally anticipated, according to the federally appointed monitor overseeing the process.

Ballot counting in the tight race has been halted since Saturday as the monitor's office works to resolve more than 1,600 challenged ballots. The monitor previously planned to resume the vote count Thursday but said this week it has delayed that re-start until March 16.

"Given the time-consuming nature of collecting information to resolve questions as to the eligibility status of the individuals who voted the challenged ballots, the monitor has determined that the vote count will not reconvene on March 9, 2023, as originally contemplated," the monitor's office said in a statement. "Instead, the monitor, UAW, and election vendor will continue the information gathering process until a sufficient number of challenged ballots have been resolved. In light of the remaining work, we now expect to reconvene the vote count with observers present on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at a place to be determined in the Detroit metropolitan area."

The count had previously taken place in Dayton, Ohio.

UAW President Ray Curry currently trails challenger Shawn Fain by 645 votes, according to the monitor's unofficial tally.

According to the unofficial results, Fain led Curry in seven of the union's nine regions. The exceptions are Region 1A, which includes much of the Detroit area, and Region 8, which is Curry's home region and includes most of the southern U.S.

Curry did particularly well at major Ford Motor Co. plants in Louisville, Ky., Dearborn, Mich., and Wayne, Mich., earning 72 percent of those workers' votes. Fain did well with several large Stellantis plants, winning 64 percent from Local 12 in Toledo, Ohio, and 86 percent at two big locals in Kokomo, Ind. Fain also earned 71 percent of the vote in Belvidere, Ill., where workers face an uncertain future after Stellantis recently idled production.

It was unclear what regions the unresolved challenged ballots were from.

In separate runoffs, incumbent Chuck Browning had an insurmountable lead over challenger Tim Bressler in the race for the final vice president slot. Browning, currently in charge of the UAW's Ford department, led Bressler 81,154 to 46,218.

Last week, challenger Daniel Vicente from the Unite All Workers for Democracy reform caucus declared victory in the race for Region 9 director.

"I look forward to working together and leading our region into a new era," Vicente said in a statement. "This election has shown that our members demand change — a union that places the working women and men at the forefront, that sheds the business management style union we have become, and returns us to the fighting working class UAW of our past."