Number of share holders for a shorted stock?

Question

When a stock is shorted, number of people who own the stock

increases; how do you decide on who are the true share holders,

specially when it is time to take voting on the proxies?

For example if there are 100 outstanding shares, if 20 of those are

shorted, there will be 120 people long on the stock. Do all the 120

take part in proxy voting? Or, only the first 100 take part?

Thank you

Answer 1

NO

When people short stock, their is no change in the number of outstanding shares

100 outstanding,

20 are short, therefore only 80 outstanding

100 outstanding

some one comes and sells 100 short

200 long - 100 short = 100 out standing

Answer 2

Think of stock the way you think of a real object.  You have 100 apples.  You lend 20 to Bob.  Bob sells them to Sally.  You have 80 apples.  Sally has 20.  Whoever holds the shares has the votes.

However, Bob still owes you 20.  So if you call in the loan, Bob has to buy 20 to return to you.  But they're not yours until the loan is repaid.

Answer 3

Oh goodness. I really hope you aren't shorting anything. No offense, but pretty much everything incorrect. If you have 100 shares...you have 100 shares. No more, no less. Shares don't just multiply or come out of thin air. The shares for a short sales are "borrowed" from another investor. Once you short the "borrowed" shares, then you have to go back and actually buy them from the original holder....but they have simultaneously been sold..so you don't own them.

So to answer your question...there are no additional votes...no additional shares. The actual owners of the stock have the voting rights...the "borrowing" person does not have any voting rights. He is basically using borrowed shares for the transaction.

To Respond to your update: Once the short sale is complete, then A does not own them anymore. So, A loses the vote for those shares and C gets the vote for those shares now that he is the owner of them. A would vote 30 and C would vote 20. You do not get a vote on shares that you do not own.