The National Labor Relations Board is exploring electronic-voting methods for unionization elections, which employer advocates fear could be used to circumvent the current secret-ballot process and favor unions.

On Thursday, the NLRB put out a request for information to contractors who can provide "secure electronic voting systems" for remote and on-site elections. The board also asked for information about safeguards to ensure "that votes cast remotely were free from distractions or other interferences, including undue intimidation or coercion."

Some attorneys are interpreting the request for information as a step toward Internet or telephone balloting which they argue could favor unions. Today unionization votes overseen by the NLRB at private-sector employers are typically cast in person via secret ballots on company property.

"There's nothing to stop people from saying 'Let's do our Internet voting or telephone voting together to show our solidarity' " which could lead to peer pressure, said Chuck Cohen, senior counsel at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and former Republican appointee to the NLRB during the Clinton administration.

NLRB Chairman Wilma Liebman said the board's move is "exploratory and informational" and that questions about how electronic voting might be used are premature. She also said the National Mediation Board, which oversees organizing in the rail and airline sectors where workers are often dispersed, uses electronic voting exclusively.

Some business groups and business-side lawyers have expected the Democrat-controlled labor board to make changes to the election process through rulemaking after a controversial union-backed bill, the so-called card-check bill, which could have eased union organizing rules, failed to gain traction in the Senate.

Michael Lotito of Jackson Lewis LLP, who represents companies during union organizing, said he believes the NLRB wants to speed the election process and electronic voting would help do so. Unions want speedier elections, saying delays enable employers to hold meetings to intimidate workers.