Futurenow, I believe your prior vote will have been maintained.A...

Futurenow, I believe your prior vote will have been maintained.

A number of people, myself included, have been disconcerted when we re-accessed the online voting website to find that when we navigated to the voting page, we saw that the “open” vote option was preselected, even though an “against” vote had been cast earlier.I believe that that is just a function of the page programming. The web page evidently does not look up or ascertain your previous vote, and prefill the with that selection, rather it always presents with the “open” vote option checked.

My expectation is that, irrespective of the “open” option always being pre-checked, unless you actually progress to the point of “confirming” a new voting intention, your original vote will not be changed.The proof of the pudding is the issuance of a receipt. If you have not generated a new receipt then you have not changed your vote and any earlier vote, as confirmed by issuance of a receipt, would stand.

Link probably should look at changing their setup to avoid it causing the understandable confusion that has occurred in this case.In a contested vote, people are inclined to get a little paranoid, but if it is a choice between a stuffup or a conspiracy, it is usually a stuffup.
Or in this case, a web page that gives a disconcerting first impression to anyone who re-accesses it after having voted previously.

If you are worried about your vote, I expect that you could confirm that your original vote is still standing by ringing Link Market Services.

Given the overall tilt of the playing field, it will be a remarkable result if this scheme is voted down on Tuesday, or whenever the meeting is finally held.It will be testament to the efforts of the fierce pigeons who have given a surprising amount of their own time and effort to alert shareholders to the perceived deficiency and opportunism of the offer.

Also, for some, myself included, there is probably an element Chauvinism in so far as not wanting to see one of the few Australian hardware technology companies disappear offshore, and more especially, not for what appears to be a knockdown price.

Apart from any other consideration, the offer has been overtaken by the subsequent general improvement in the market.

Cheers