The by-laws, however, give the National Assembly considerable latitude. Article XIII, Section 12 reads: "Vacancies in the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly shall be filled by a plurality vote of the delegates composing the Convention which elected the Assembly, the ballot to be take by correspondence or in any other manner decided upon by the National Spiritual Assembly."

On this basis the National Assembly adopted an interesting system of voting which protected the confidentiality of the ballots and proved both rapid and efficient. Each delegate was assigned a code consisting of a colour and a number. A contact person selected by the National Assembly for each region, telephoned the delegates in that area, to advise them of their individual codes and explain the system of voting. Each delegate was asked to send a direct unsigned wire to the National Assembly, containing his or her code and the name of the person for whom he or she was voting. Each contact person phoned back when all delegates in the region had been notified, a week's time being allowed for transmission.

At the National Centre different teams of receptionists and scrutineers handled different stages of the process, so that the names of the delegates and the votes they were casting did not come together at any point in the process. The original deadline was extended an additional three days to be certain that all telegrams had cleared the system. Finally, on December 11, the ballots were counted under the supervision of tellers selected from available delegates in the Toronto area.

Altogether 124 of the 133 eligible delegates cast ballots. Only one ballot had to be regarded as spoiled. In six instances, new delegates had to be recognized to replace those who for one reason or another were no longer eligible to vote. Three of these friends not eligible to vote have left for overseas pioneer projects: Gail Burland, Bud Davies, and Lynn Smith. [Bahá'í Canada No 290 Dec/Jan 1978-1979 p1]