So, good morning. My name is John Riccitiello. I am the President, Chief Executive Officer of Uniti and the Executive Chairman of our Board of Directors. Today, I will serve as Chair of this 2021 stockholders' meeting. Before I call the meeting to order, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the other members of the Board and the management team who are present today.
In addition to myself, the other members of the Board present today are Roulef Botha, Mary Schmidt Campbell, of Egon Durbin, Alyssa Henry, Barry Schueller and Robin Sisko. The other officers of the company present today are Ruth Antin, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and Luis Felipe of Visoso, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I would like to also introduce you to Brian Outland and Yi Wang of Ernst and Young, of the company's auditors, who are available to respond to appropriate questions. With that, the meeting has now officially come to order. We thank Keane and I will guide you through this formal business of the meeting as we set forth in your notice of annual meeting and proxy statement.
We are very pleased to be able to use this virtual meeting format as it's accessible to all of our stockholders regardless of their physical location. If you are a stockholder, you can listen to the meeting, submit questions, of both your shares online to the closing of the polls. Within the virtual meeting platform, you will find a copy of the rules of conduct and procedures for the annual meeting. Of the company's office. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask you to follow these rules.
Following the formal portion of the meeting, we will respond to stockholder questions submitted online. Of Mr. Rudan, can you please proceed with the first matter of business and please report at this time with respect to the mailing of the notice in the meeting and the stockholder list.
I have at this meeting a complete list of the stockholders of record of the company's common stock on April 20, 2021, the record date for this meeting. I also have an affidavit certifying that commencing on April 28, 2021, A notice of annual meeting of stockholders of the company was deposited in United States mail or via email to all stockholders of record by the close of business on May 7,
2021. At this time, I'd like to introduce Jan Castillo, who has been appointed to act as Inspector of Election at this meeting. She has taken and subscribed to the customary oath of office to execute our duties with strict impartiality. We will follow this oath with the records of the meeting. John Castillo's function of the Board of Directors to decide upon the qualifications of voters except their votes and when balloting on all matters is completed to tally the final votes.
Ruth Ann, will you please report at this time with respect to the existence of a quorum?
I've been informed by the Inspector of Election that proxies have have been received for 221,319,839 of the 279,000,000,328, of 287 shares of common stock outstanding on the record date, which represents approximately 79% of the total number of outstanding shares. This constitutes a quorum for the meeting today and we may now carry out the official business of the meeting.
Of the company. We will now proceed with the formal business of this meeting. Ruth Ann, can you please open the polls for voting and review the matters properly brought before this meeting?
The time is now 10:0.4 a. M. And the polls are now open for voting on all matters to be presented. Stockholders attending the meeting virtually may vote their shares in real time until the polls are closed. If you have already submitted a proxy to vote your shares, you do not need to submit of stockholders on the proposals before reviewing the voting procedures.
The polls will then be closed to voting. The first item of business is the election of 3 Class 1 directors to serve until the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until their successors are elected. The nominees for director are Roloff Botha, Davis Helgeson and John Riccitiello. The board is recommending the election of each of these directors and our proxy statement provides additional information regarding our board and its recommendations.
Of the company. The second item of business today is the ratification of the selection by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Ernst and Young as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. The Board is recommending the ratification of the selection of the independent registered accounting firm, and our proxy statement provides additional information regarding the Board's recommendation. Of this conference call. This was the final proposal for today's meeting.
We welcome questions from stockholders on the proposals at this time. It seems there are no questions. With that, we'll now describe the voting procedures.
Voting today is by proxy and electronic ballot. Each share of common stock is entitled to one vote. Any stockholder who has not voted, who wishes to change or who wishes to change his or her vote may do so by clicking on the vote button in the webcast portal and following the instructions provided. Stockholders who have submitted proxies or have previously voted on the Internet or by phone and who do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. Their votes will be counted automatically.
It is now 10:07. Oops. Right. One second. It is now 10:08 and the polls are closed for voting.
May we have the preliminary results of the voting?
The preliminary report of the of Election covering the proposals presented in the meeting is as follows. The proposal to elect Roelof Botha, David Helgeson and John Riccitiello as Class 1 directors of the company is carried. The selection of Ernst and Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, of 2021 is ratified. We expect to report our final voting reports on current report on Form 8 ks to be filed with the SEC within 4 business days after the end of this meeting.
Thank you, Ruth Ann. And with no further business, I hereby adjourn today's meeting.