The measure would let HP shareholders nominate their own board candidates and include them on the company’s proxy material. Shareholder activists say the proposal is the first of its kind in the United States in three decades.

It’s no coincidence that they’re trying it at HP. The computer maker’s annual shareholder meeting at a Santa Clara, Calif., hotel is the first since the spying scandal erupted last fall.

“When you lose touch with the voters, this is what happens,” said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. The company is “not their toy. It belongs to the people who bought the stock.”

HP opposes the proposal. Shareholders expect to fall short of the two-thirds vote required to change the company’s bylaws.

Still, corporate governance advocates say getting the proposal on the HP ballot was half the battle. A strong showing Wednesday could open the door to similar proposals at other companies.

It could also spur federal regulators or Congress to require that companies let shareholders nominate their own candidates, and include those candidates on official company ballots.

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