Initial press coverage of Morales's victory

The Salt Lake Tribune and Denver Post each report on the election of the Rev. Peter Morales as UUA president. The UUA General Assembly, where Morales was elected, is being held in Salt Lake City; Morales has been serving as senior minister of Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colo.

UUA elects Colorado pastor as president (Salt Lake Tribune, 6.27.09)

Unitarians elect golden [sic] pastor to presidency (Denver Post, 6.28.09)

President-Elect Morales address General Assembly

UUA President-Elect Peter Morales addressed the General Assembly for the first time during an election celebration Saturday night at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. A transcription of his remarks follows:

Mercifully, the election is over. [Laughter] Laurel and I joked—but there was much seriousness to it— the carbon footprint would have been less if we just took turns going to the forums, because we could deliver each other's stump speeches and answer any questions that came up on the campaign trail. [Laughter] And truly we spent, for some time, much more time with one another than we did with our families and loved ones. I thank her very much, and her supporters, who were spirited and gave, and may that be a source of strength for us all. [Applause]

My remarks are going to be brief tonight because I'm too delirious to be coherent for any length of time. [Laughter]

I believe firmly that religion is much more about what we love than about what we think. And all of us—all of us—love the same things: We love compassion, freedom, stewardship of the earth, religious community, spiritual depth—and therefore we have one religion.

In the nature of a campaign we try to highlight the differences, but the truth is that what unites us is so, so very much more important than anything that is dividing us.

We have a big challenge. I talked about it and put out a very ambitious kind of agenda. It's going to take all of us, all of us. This campaign is about and has been about taking our movement and realizing its potential, and that will happen when the commitment and the idealism and the energy of all of us, in over a thousand congregations, is unleashed. So it is time that we let our people go. [Applause]

The challenges are enormous—and we can do this. We are smart enough, and committed enough. We can make a tremendous difference. We can grow this faith, and be a far more powerful voice for all of those things that we care about.

So tonight I ask you to rededicate yourselves to this faith that we all love, and hand in hand—as I'm fond of saying, mano y mano—let us go forward together. Thank you very much. [Applause]

Morales: 'We have this amazing potential'

In a brief conversation with UU World and members of the UUA's Communications staff shortly after he was named President-Elect on Saturday, June 27, the Rev. Peter Morales praised his opponent and identified some key goals of his administration.

Morales said, "To get to where we want to go requires all of us, and we need [the Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman's supporters'] commitment, their enthusiasm, their passion, and their vision. I also particularly want to say that I fully appreciate Laurel's consistent emphasis on spiritual depth, on the creation of profound covenant in communities, and also her deep passion for retaining our youth and young adults."

Asked where he would like to take Unitarian Universalism in the next four to eight years, Morales said, "I want to grow our faith, to reach all those people who are looking for nondogmatic, liberal religious community. I look forward to working with partners in many other progressive and justice-seeking religious groups. There are tremendous issues that we'll be facing in the coming years and we're going to need one another." He pointed to Friday's interfaith rally for immigrant families as an example, which brought Mormon, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Unitarian Universalist leaders and laypeople together.

Morales described what Unitarian Universalism has to offer to the world. "The number of people who are already in agreement with us—not just in an intellectual sense, but in complete harmony with our core values—is enormous. The breadth of our message is very appealing, but we need to become more culturally diverse in our forms of expression in order to reach the millions of people who share our theology and values. We've tended, because of our particular history, to have a narrow range of expression. I so want to see our faith become much more multicultural and open to other ways of expressing the same fundamental values."

Did he expect to win? "I had no idea," he said. "We thought momentum was on our side," but he said the final vote count "really surprised me."

"We were underdogs for sure," Morales continued. "I started out a good year and a half after Laurel, and understood that she was very well funded, and also that four or five other people had considered it and declined to run. So it was a daunting undertaking, we had no illusions about that."

"I hope, and believe, that people resonated with the call to take our faith to a place it has not yet been, although we have this
amazing potential. The consistent message of our campaign was that we could be much, much more. We need to
make some adjustments because we live in a time of tremendous change. There's an enormous demographic shift going on."

Laurel Hallman's speech at election celebration

The Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman, who lost to the Rev. Peter Morales today in her bid to become president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, addressed the General Assembly Saturday night. Her comments are transcribed below:

Thank you. I congratulate Peter and his campaign staff for all they have done and for their success. I thank all of you who have paid attention to this election, participating in candidate forums all across the country—Peter and I are bonded forever: We have been to thirty-three of them—reading and commenting on Election-L and various blogs. I believe that you've heard what we've been saying, and that each campaign, in the appropriate process that is the democratic process, each campaign has been influenced by the other.

So we have each been forced through the implications of what we have been saying and what the other candidate was saying, and we are both different because of it. This can only be good for our beloved faith. [Applause]

Well, this campaign has mostly been a joyful journey. [Laughs] It has had some harrowing moments. But I will be happy to put it behind me now, to regather our liberal religious movement together from two hard-working campaigns back into one free faith, one association of free congregations, all of us united by our love for Unitarian Universalism. We are united by our determination to widen its reach and strengthen its impact, and by our wish for as many people as possible to experience the saving power of our free faith that has saved so many of us.

I am grateful to Peter for lifting up the issues he has, and for being good company as we've toured the country, all over, telling all of you our dreams for this faith that all of us love.

Many people have told us that they feel lucky that Unitarian Universalism had two people this year so dedicated to our faith that we were willing to campaign and possibly serve as president.

I am more grateful than I can say to the people of First Unitarian Church of Dallas that generously gave me time and space to do this campaign, and to all the colleagues and friends who encouraged me to seek the presidency and supported me every step of the way. I couldn't have done it without you, I have been enriched by the journey, and I thank you all.

Morales wins UUA presidency decisively

UUA President-elect Peter Morales won the UUA presidency decisively with 59 percent of all votes. He won 55 percent of the absentee vote (1,020 to 827) and 61 percent of the on-site vote (1,041 to 654). His margin of victory is 580 votes. Seven ballots were disqualified for discrepancies; one vote was cast for "No."

Outgoing UUA President William G. Sinkford won by the largest margin of any UUA president in a contested race when he was first elected in 2001. Sinkford won that election with 67.7 percent (2,218 to 1,043).

Votes still being counted in UUA presidential race

Unitarian Universalists are waiting for an announcement of the winner in the 2009 UUA presidential election. At 7:00 p.m. MDT, votes are still being counted. An hour from now, a formal announcement of the winner is expected in the General Assembly plenary hall, but we will publish the election results as soon as we hear them.

Voters line up in UUA presidential election

Today is election day in the Unitarian Universalist Association, as delegates to the General Assembly cast their ballots for president of the UUA. Polls are open from noon until 5:30 p.m. MDT; although a winner will be formally announced at 8:00 p.m. MDT, UU World will announce the winner as soon as UUA Secretary Paul Rickter and UUA Executive Vice President Kay Montgomery confirm the outcome sometime after 6:00.

Here are some scenes from the voting area this afternoon:



Signs in the General Assembly Exhibit Hall lead delegates to the polling place.



An usher divides delegates into two lines, based on their congregation's state. Long lines formed promptly at noon.



Delegates formed long lines in the Exhibit Hall as they waited to cast their ballots.



Delegates put their completed ballots in the ballot boxes. At 5:30, the ballots will be scanned and then special software will count the votes on the scanned ballots. More than 1,800 absentee ballots will also be counted at that time.

Absentee ballots cast in unprecedented numbers

At Tuesday afternoon's meeting of the UUA Board of Trustees in Salt Lake City, Secretary Paul Rickter reported that more than 1,800 absentee ballots have been submitted for the UUA's presidential election. Other delegates will cast ballots at the General Assembly on Saturday, June 27, between noon and 5:30 p.m.

The number of absentee ballots this year is nearly double what it was in 2001, the last contested presidential election, when 947 (or 29 percent) of the 3,276 ballots cast were absentee ballots. Don Plante of the UUA's General Assembly and conference services staff told UU World in May that approximately 5,000 delegates are eligible to vote in the presidential election. He said that 68 percent of the eligible voters in the 2001 election cast a ballot.

Rickter told his fellow trustees that each ballot will be scanned before being processed by vote-counting software. He said that absentee ballots will be scanned before the end of Saturday's voting, but they will be counted at the same time as votes cast in person.

The Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman of Dallas and the Rev. Peter Morales of Golden, Colo., are running to succeed the Rev. William G. Sinkford, who is completing his second term as president. See UUA.org's election section for more information about the election.