by Jeff Knox

Each year 25 of the 75 regular director seats comes up for election to 3-year terms along with the 76th director, who voters attending the Annual Meeting select for a one-year term.

There is little chance of any injection of new blood in this year’s election. The candidate list is a bit larger than usual, but it includes 26 incumbent directors, including the current 76th director, vying for the 25 seats. The Nominating Committee nominated all 25 of the current 3-year directors plus an additional six candidates. Additionally, six more candidates nominated exclusively by petition of the members. Historically we can expect that at least 23 of the 25 incumbents will win reelection. Since the NRA uses a cumulative total election – the 25 highest total vote getters win – the real race is always between candidates at the bottom of the list.

The fact that the committee nominated actor Erik Estrada and members tapped actor and retired Marine Corps NCO R. Lee “Gunny” Ermey, does add some spice to the campaign. Another interesting tidbit is the Nominating Committee’s refusal to nominate the current 76th director and perennial candidate, Steve Schreiner – again. Schreiner has run repeatedly for several years. Each time the Nominating Committee has snubbed him, and he has fallen short of the cut. As the next highest vote recipient, however, he has at least twice finished out a term after a death or resignation from the Board, as he is doing currently after the death of long-time Board member Donn DiBiasio.

Among the remaining candidates there are several retired officers and military shooters and several local/state activists, but with two celebrities, a sprinkling of politicians and 26 incumbents vying for the 25 seats, it is unlikely that any of the newcomers has any chance at all.

The Firearms Coalition usually endorses only a handful of candidates and always recommends voting for fewer than the maximum 25 names. This year we are only offering one endorsement: Linda Walker of Ohio. We encourage NRA voters to mark their ballots for Linda Walker and only Linda Walker. Every other name you mark reduces the chances of Linda Walker being elected. Linda will need at least 65,000 bullet votes to have a chance at a seat.

With only about 7 percent of eligible NRA voters actually casting ballots in any given election, it should be relatively easy to find an extra few thousand votes, but when faced with such overwhelming apathy, finding those votes is much easier said than done.