Lots of misinformation here, so I'll try and clear a few things up. (I'm the Sounders FC Alliance Council President, so I've got a pretty good inside view on this.) The vote will be audited by an accounting firm. One of the Council members is also an accountant/auditor, so he'll be auditing the auditors. The vote will be using a third-party online voting provider. There are security methods in place to ensure the voting is on the up-and-up. We'll also be doing voting in person at the stadium for games in the next couple of months. We'll have tablets or netbooks or something (undetermined yet, someone at the Club is setting them up) and use them to log on to the vote site. Only Alliance members (and each season ticket comes with an Alliance membership) can vote, so we don't have to worry about someone from the outside. The reality is that the Alliance, and the notion of "Democracy in Sports", is something that is taking some time to grow- but being able to vote on your team's GM is a pretty damn big deal. We have confidence that by getting a large representation of the Alliance overall, and the season ticket base, we'll get a good result.