Despite a ruling that the Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must negotiate a new contract through binding arbitration, the union today is sending out ballots for a second vote on the original contract.

The union’s membership rejected the contract by seven votes in January, weeks after an illegal three-day strike that paralyzed the city. The union’s president, Roger Toussaint, said the first vote was influenced by a campaign of “misinformation” by Governor Pataki, the New York Post, and some of the union’s members.

The state’s Public Employee Relation Board ruled on March 24 that the two sides were at an impasse and began the arbitration process. A public arbitration panel consists of three members, one from each side and a third chosen from a list provided by the PERB. Neither the union nor the authority has yet nominated a member to the panel.

The head of the MTA board, Peter Kalikow, has said the authority won’t accept a new vote on the old contract offer. He contends the MTA took the deal off the table when the union’s membership voted it down.

Voting for the second contract will be done by phone and e-mail.The votes will be tallied on April 18, union sources said.

A group of union officials who opposed the contract the first time vowed to fight the second vote as well.

“Toussaint has made every attempt to quell free speech about the contract,” one of the TWU’s vice presidents, Ainsley Stewart, said. “Dollar for dollar, the contract doesn’t make any sense.”

For now, Mr. Toussaint has come up with a technique to keep dissidents out of union halls and from talking to members, Mr. Stewart said. All four dissident leaders have been reassigned to an MTA office in Manhattan until April 18, he said.