Fidelity faced a proxy contest Friday over human-rights related issues, and two shareholders have come forward to claim that their votes were improperly managed. Shareholders of nine of the Boston giant's funds will vote on Friday regarding a resolution seeking to ban investments that "contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity." This is just the latest in a spate of similar shareholder votes -- Fidelity investors nixed genocide-related shareholder proposals mid-July, and another genocide vote faced a similar fate at a Vanguard shareholder meeting earlier this summer.

Reuters reports that two shareholders claimed that their proxy votes were subject to "technical difficulties" that made it difficult for them to record their votes in favor of the genocide-related ban over the phone.

One shareholder told Reuters that the proxy process appeared "as if it was designed to make it hard to vote for" the genocide proposal. Both voters who lodged complaints were eventually able to cast their votes as intended.

Fidelity spokesperson Vin Loporchio told Reuters that "we're confident the process is working as it was intended to work," and also noted that there were only a few technical-related complaints among the nearly 3 million proxy votes. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE