Does PEO function in a democratic manner?

[Question by reader]
An excellent question, because it goes to the core of PEO's culture. Most of us simply assume that PEO is a democratic organization.

And why not; we are used to living in a society that recognizes and values the benefits of a lively democracy, especially when compared to the alternatives. It seems only right and proper that PEO should be democratic too. Consider the following and judge for yourself.

• A representative democratic governance model is based upon equality. Every member should have equal influence/power. "One man, one vote."
  PEO's model on the other hand gives members who live in certain locations EIGHT times the voting power in PEO Council compared with East Central Region. Where political power lies, money follows.
• In 2007 and 2008 I tried to observe PEO's vote counting process. PEO's staff placed me at one corner of the room, while the "action" occurred at the other end of the room. Over the years, PEO's staff consistently prevented many independent observers from:
• Viewing any ballot
• Observing the mark on any ballot
• Knowing the tally of the ballots
• Verifying the security of the ballots
I asked permission to take a picture of the room, but I was prohibited from doing so.
• PEO’s 2009 voting rate was less than 15%. The figures from other years are similar. To place this number in context, there are third world countries that exceed this voting rate, with their first tentative experiments in democracy, after several lifetimes of absolute rulers. The question naturally arises, how can PEO legitimately claim to be a self-regulating organization?

This is serious business; engineers should know what PEO does in their name.