Proxy Vote

See: Proxy.

You own the stock. The common kind...the kind that elects the Board of Directors and votes on major initiatives. There's a giant annual meeting where those votes happen. But you don't wanna be there. You just wanna "phone it in," or at least proxy it in...as in: you're approximately there, but not really.

So you give your lawyer, or a firm that does this thing professionally, or another representative, your signed consent to vote your shares as you and/or they see fit. Your vote will count. But you won't be there to submit it.

Why does this format exist? Well, 100 years ago, travel and even basic communications were tough. Not every investor who wanted a say in things could appear wherever that election was being held. So it made sense to appoint virtual versions of that voter so that, more or less, all the votes could be heard. Or counted. Or whatever.

Go back to your golf game; everyone's waiting for you on the tee.