The votes are being counted, and the future of the United Auto Workers will soon be decided.
In Rosemont, Illinois, UAW election workers began tabulating ballots Tuesday, Oct. 6, for the 2026 International Executive Board election. The International Executive Board is the governing body of the union, comprised of regional directors, vice presidents, the treasurer of the union and the president.
Where will election results be posted?
The election is being administered by the monitor overseeing the union. Results for each race will be posted on the UAW monitor's official website, UAWMonitor.com, "as soon as is practicable," according to the election rules posted online by the monitor.
In elections where no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a run-off election will be held, according
to the monitor's guidelines. Run-offs will take longer, meaning it could take several days to decide some races.
The previous UAW election required several days for some races to be decided, including a run-off between Shawn Fain and the incumbent President Ray Curry. During that election, some election workers and candidates, who were on-site for tabulation, posted unofficial results online as votes came in.
United UAW, a slate associated with Fain, who is running for reelection, has shared an unofficial results tracker online. The tracker will be updated by election observers affiliated with Fain's slate as ballots come in.
Will Fain win again?
The election is a test for Fain, the popular president of the United Auto Workers, who led the union through a strike against the Detroit Three automakers in 2023. Under the leadership of Fain, the union launched a social media-savvy strike while holding the picket line at all three Detroit automakers — Stellantis, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors. The strikes have been largely celebrated by the union as a success.
Fain has also been under intense scrutiny over allegations that he can be hotheaded and vindictive as the union's president. The UAW has been under a court-appointed monitorship as part of a settlement reached following a corruption scandal, settled in 2021. Since then, New York-based attorney Neil Barofsky has been overseeing the union and publishing reports about every six months regarding the internal goings-on in the UAW.
Fain and his alleged penchant for retaliation have been the subject of many of these reports, causing some strife between Fain and Barofsky. That spilled over in July, when news broke that Fain would be the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into claims he improperly used his office to secure benefits for members of his family. Some details of those allegations came to light in one of the monitor's reports, as he investigated claims that Fain has retaliated against Rich Boyer, a vice president of the UAW who is now running against Fain for the top seat.
A full timeline of the breakdown between Fain and the monitor, leading to the grand jury investigation, can be found here.
Five other candidates are challenging Fain for president: Besides Boyer, they include Greg Mooney, a recording secretary from Local 2147 in Lima, Ohio; Tricia Geiger, a 20-year UAW member from UAW Local 977 in Indiana; Brian Keller, a 27-year automotive worker from Local 1248, and Will Lehman, a Mack Trucks employee from Local 677 in Pennsylvania.
The election will also decide regional directorships for the union's nine geographical regions.
A list of candidates for each region can be found here.
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW election vote count commences: How to track results online
