Dell Waged a 'Get-out-the-Vote' Campaign Ahead of Wednesday's Annual Meeting

Wednesday should—or might—be the day that Wall Street finally puts one of its most talked-about soap operas of 2013 to rest.

At 6:00 pm EDT, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) will hold its rescheduled annual shareholder meeting.

Related: Michael Dell and Silver Lake Backtrack on Previous Remarks, Raise Bid to $13.75 Cash

The rules of the fight go like this: Michael Dell needs the approval of the majority of Dell’s (the company as a whole) 740 million shareholders with Michael Dell’s 15.6 stake unable to vote. Any shareholder not voting counts as a “no” vote.

As of Monday, Bloomberg reports that about 18 percent of eligible shares hadn’t voted and 20 percent said they oppose Dell’s bid. That includes billionaire Carl Icahn who has an alternate proposal for investors to consider.

Like something out of a political campaign, the “get-out-the-vote” drive engineered by Dell has focused on three types of investors—large international funds that wouldn’t normally vote, banks holding shares for swap trades, and ETFs.

Related: Icahn, Southeastern Send Another Letter to Dell Committee, Call Ongoing 'Desperate Dell Debacle' a Stand Out Among 'Unconscionable Boards

Tuesday morning, the New York Post reported that the shareholder meeting may, once again, be delayed but later in the day, a Dell spokesperson released a statement saying that the report was pure speculation and that the vote was “still scheduled” for 6:00 pm EDT. The wording of Dell’s response doesn’t rule out a cancellation of the Wednesday meeting but makes it much less likely.

Michael Dell isn’t the only one doing some campaigning. Carl Icahn and Southeast Asset Management, published another open letter to Dell shareholders Tuesday. In it, they accuse the Dell Special Committee, of taking steps to assure the passage of Dell’s proposal by using such tactics as rescheduling the meeting and disclosing only negative news.

In the letter, Icahn and Southeastern write, ”In our years in business we have witnessed many unconscionable boards. But, we think that the ongoing “Desperate Dell Debacle” stands out as one of the most startling examples.

Amazingly, through it all, the Special Committee continues to remind us just how much they believe that they are taking care of us, watching out for us and protecting us. We have a number of questions for these self-congratulatory champions of Dell stockholders.”

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Tim Parker had no position in Dell