🗞️ A Tie Goes to the Company: NLRB Tosses Two Hand Delivered Ballots, Sinking Seattle Starbucks Union Bid
The NLRB ruled 2 to 1 that two Starbucks workers who hand delivered their mail ballots, rather than mailing them, cannot have their votes counted, leaving a Seattle union election deadlocked and unionization defeated.
A years long dispute over two pieces of paper has ended in defeat for a union organizing effort at a Starbucks store in Seattle. In a decision issued July 22, 2026, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that two employees who personally dropped off their mail ballots at the agency's regional office, instead of returning them through the United States Postal Service as instructed, forfeited their right to have those votes counted.
The case traces back to a 2022 election in which Workers United, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, sought to represent baristas and shift supervisors at a store on 4th Avenue South. The vote ended in a 4 to 4 tie, with two ballots challenged and set aside: one from Jessica Perez, whose boyfriend placed her sealed envelope in a drop box at the regional office, and one from Dan Kavanaugh, who handed his envelope directly to an agency employee. Both did so on the final day ballots were due.
Because the Board's election notice and voting instructions directed employees to return ballots only by mail, with no mention of an in person option, Chairman James Murphy and Member Scott Mayer, both appointed to the Board by President Trump, found the two ballots invalid, regardless of the fact that both were properly signed, sealed, and undisputedly authentic. With those ballots excluded, the tally remained tied, meaning the union failed to win a majority and the Board certified the election results against representation.
The Board did, however, reject the company's separate objections, which had accused regional staff of colluding with the union to arrange the drop offs. The panel found no evidence of coordination or that Kavanaugh acted as a union agent.
In dissent, Member David Prouty, an appointee of President Biden, argued that nothing in agency rules explicitly bars hand delivery, and that the majority's approach needlessly disenfranchised two workers who made good faith, verifiable efforts to vote on time. He noted that the Board has previously excused technical missteps, such as late arriving ballots or ballots marked in nonstandard ways, when a voter's intent was clear, and he pointed out that most states allow voters to drop off absentee ballots in person in elections for public office.
The ruling arrives amid a broader, often contentious history between Starbucks and the NLRB, including earlier company allegations, later scrutinized by the agency's inspector general, that regional staff had improperly assisted the union during mail ballot elections at other stores.
Key Points
- The NLRB voted 2 to 1 to sustain Starbucks' challenge to two hand delivered ballots, excluding them from the count.
- The exclusion left the election tied at 4 to 4, meaning the union did not win a majority and representation was denied.
- The Board separately rejected Starbucks' claim that regional staff or the union engaged in misconduct, finding no evidence of coordination.
- Dissenting Member David Prouty argued no rule explicitly prohibited hand delivery and that excluding the ballots needlessly disenfranchised the two voters.
- The case originated from a 2022 election petition at a Seattle Starbucks store and was decided under a mail ballot framework the Board itself later modified.
Primary Source Author: National Labor Relations Board (Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer)
Primary Source: Starbucks Corporation and Workers United Affiliated With Service Employees International Union, 375 NLRB No. 7 (July 22, 2026)
Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 19-RC-295849
