The Surprise: SEC Proposes Expedited Disclosure of Voting Results

Although most of the SEC's big open Commission meeting today went as telegraphed by earlier statements by the SEC Chair, there was one big surprise. The SEC proposed a new Form 8-K requirement for companies to disclose the results of a shareholder vote within four business days after the end of the meeting at which the vote was held (in contested elections, the final results would be permitted to be delayed under certain circumstances).

As I've complained before, the current disclosure standard doesn't elicit voting results for weeks - or sometimes months - after the vote, which doesn't really work in today's more competitive annual meeting environment.