EXCLUSIVE
The 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards could end up looking a lot like Florida in 2000.
There might not be any hanging chads, but changes the guild has introduced as a part of its green initiative could cost a significant number of members their votes this year.
For six years, SAG has had an online option and has mailed our more than 90,000 ballots but encouraged its members to forgo the paper and cast their votes online. (The guild has won two awards from the Environmental Media Association for its green practices.)
For this year's awards, however, SAG decided in the summer to send ballots only to those members who specifically requested them, and is asking everyone else to hit their computers.
The change was publicized in an October press release, and in the fall-winter 2010 edition of Screen Actor magazine, which went to every member in November.
Then, on Dec. 30, in lieu of the usual ballot mailing, postcards (sample above left) were sent to every voter reiterating that paper ballots would only be mailed to members who requested them by Jan. 14.
The big question now is how many guild members paid attention to the postcards -- and how many are internet-savvy enough to be able to follow the instructions.
Each postcard contained a PIN code that enables the voter to cast his or her ballot online, and a "movie code" that allows the member to download nominated films on iTunes and coupons good for free admission to theatrical showings of some of the nominated films.
"Lots of people now are asking me when they're going to be getting their ballots," said one consultant who contacted theWrap about the confusion. "I tell them they're not, that they have to vote online with the PIN number that was on their postcard. And they say, 'Oh, I threw that out.'"
SAG Awards spokesperson Rosalind Jarrett insisted that the guild gave its members substantial notice of the change, starting with the magazine article and also including the postcard, information on the SAG website and a press release that was sent both to media and to several thousand publicists, managers and agents.
"We were very conscious that some members may be less internet savvy than others," she told theWrap, pointing to the second paragraph of the article in SAG's print publication, which began, "If you’re not Web-connected, don’t despair. You may request a paper ballot now by calling our automated toll free line ... "
(Jarrett declined to supply information about how many members requested paper ballots and how many voted online in past years, saying those figures are "kept confidential by our elections firm.")
Most SAG members surveyed by TheWrap agreed that they were not confused by the change, with one adding that she was in fact happy to receive "one small postcard instead of half-a-dozen pieces of paper."
