3 SAG Officers to Keep Posts Until a New Election Is Held

Screen Actors Guild officials said Tuesday that Melissa Gilbert can legally remain president of the union until a new election is held to make up for the guild’s problem-plagued vote last fall.

That position was taken by the union’s national executive committee one day after a SAG committee took the unprecedented step of scrapping the election two months ago of its top three national officers. Also being allowed to stay in office until the new election are Recording Secretary Elliot Gould and Treasurer Kent McCord.

The election was invalidated because New York members had two extra days to vote, and because their ballots were missing a signature line contained on ballots elsewhere. The committee concluded that the inconsistent procedures warranted a new election.

Gilbert, who defeated Valerie Harper, declined to comment Tuesday.

Ballots for a new vote will be mailed by March 15 to SAG’s 98,000 members, to be returned by April 10.

Like SAG’s last election, the vote challenge has continued to split the union. Gilbert campaigned as a moderate, criticizing the previous regime of William Daniels, who led the union on a six-month strike against advertisers in 2000.

Harper, a vocal Daniels supporter, challenged the results. So did Gould and McCord, who ran on Harper’s ticket.