Dec. 20, 2023
I strongly urge immediate consideration of new rules to fix proxy voting in public companies and to eliminate failures to deliver on trades. If the SEC intends to make protecting retail investors and maintaining fair markets genuine priorities, there must be protections for when retail investors exercise or abstain from exercising their voting rights, and for all parties to complete all obligations on time. Additionally, any person or entity that fails to deliver should be immediately required to cover and only be allowed to participate in the market after being banned from all trades for exponentially longer than they failed to meet their obligation. The current proxy process is broken and fails to protect retail investors. No person or entity, other than the retail investors themselves, should be allowed to vote the shares of the retail investors. Additionally, every retail investor exercising their right to vote should always have their vote counted. No person or entity should be allowed to participate in the market while simultaneously failing to meet the obligations of trades already made. FTDs undermine the fairness, efficiency, and trust in the market. These two issues must be placed among the SEC's top priorities, not deferred. Thank you.