Elaine Wynn secured just 17.1 percent of the vote in her failed campaign for reelection to the board of Wynn Resorts, according to a regulatory filing the company submitted today.
Wynn received 26.6 million of the 155.8 million votes tallied at the stockholders meeting Friday, the company said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
John J. Hagenbuch and J. Edward Virtue, the company-endorsed nominees who defeated Wynn in the election, received 46.6 million votes and 51.1 million votes, respectively. That translates to 29.9 percent of the vote for Hagenbuch and 32.8 percent for Virtue.
The rest of the votes were either withheld or classified as “broker non-votes.”
The vote totals are preliminary, the filing said, because an independent inspector still needs to certify them following a customary review and challenge period.
Wynn’s votes include the 9.5 million shares she owns as well as the 10.1 million shares belonging to her ex-husband, CEO Steve Wynn, the filing said.
Per a stockholders agreement between the two Wynns, Steve Wynn was required to vote his shares for Elaine Wynn.
Wynn Resorts spokesperson Michael Weaver said Steve Wynn did not vote for any other candidate besides his ex-wife.
“Mr. Wynn, following the shareholders agreement, voted his shares for Elaine,” Weaver said. He didn’t comment further.
That agreement was a big issue in the campaign. The agreement limits Elaine Wynn’s ability to sell shares and she has sued trying to get rid of those restrictions.
In justifying its decision not to renominate Wynn to the board, one of the company’s central claims was that the lawsuit interfered with her work as a director.
Wynn said it didn’t. She said she was an independent voice who could challenge management and argued that, as the company’s third-largest stockholder, her interests were innately aligned with those of all company stockholders.
She also stressed that she was the last female board member, so she said her removal would create an unacceptable dearth of diversity. In response to that point, the board promised to expand its ranks this year with diversity in mind.
Leading up to Friday’s meeting, three firms advised shareholders to vote three different ways. Institutional Shareholder Services said they should withhold votes for all nominees; Glass, Lewis & Co. supported the company’s two nominees; and Egan-Jones backed Wynn’s candidacy.