Proxy solicitors and others have suggested 3 hypotheses to explain why proxy contests are less preferred mechanisms for imposing change on corporations: 1. There is inefficiency in the laws governing how managements and dissidents solicit votes from shareholders. 2. Some institutional shareholders face conflicts of interest in proxy voting absent from tendering decisions. 3. Because proxy contests involve little resource commitment by dissidents, they are regarded suspiciously by other outside shareholders. Whether these hypotheses explain the apparent relative disuse of the proxy contest mechanism is explored using a database comprising 100 large proxy contests occurring during the period 1981-1985. Results indicate that institutional investors and other outside blockholders vote more actively on amendments than nonblockholders. A strong positive correlation is found between the level of institutional ownership and the percentage of no-votes cast. Significant differences are found across types of institutional investors in voting on antitakeover amendments.