Like Casablanca, I view the proxy put threat as naked coercion... In that I have not yet decided how I'm going to vote, such coercion works against the candidates endorsed by the current board in my case.
I also find it distasteful that the board apparently intends to wait until after they see how the voting is going before deciding how to vote the proxies they receive... I would prefer that the proxies be voted equally for all the candidates endorsed by the Board so that no single candidate (i.e. Kirsh) gets special treatment.
As indicated on page 13 above, if the election of directors is by cumulative voting, the persons appointed by the accompanying proxy intend to cumulate the votes represented by the proxies they receive and distribute such votes in accordance with their best judgment in order to elect as many of the nominees for directors named on page 21 as possible.