[UA-discuss] UASG Elections

Jim DeLaHunt list+uasg at jdlh.com
Fri Jan 18 21:42:19 UTC 2019


Hello, Don and colleagues:

On 2019-01-18 07:02, Don Hollander wrote:
>
> Dear all:
>
> The Election for the UASG Chair and Vice-Chair positions is coming up.
>
Excellent!


> Please find links to the schedule for elections and the Position 
> Descriptions for Chair and Vice-Chairs available at
>
> https://uasg.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/07-Election-Proposed-Process-And-Timeline.pdf
>
> https://uasg.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/07-Position-Description-Chair-UASG.pdf
>
> https://uasg.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/07-Position-Description-Vice-Chair-UASG.pdf
>
> Key dates:
>
> February 20, 2019 – Call for nominations will go out.
>
> March 3, 2019 – Voting Opens
>
> All deadlines will be 23:59 UTC
>
> The voting is scheduled to end during the ICANN meeting in Kobe.
>
> Don
>
Reading these documents raises a number of questions for me about the 
election process, and I have some proposed answers.

Q: by what authority are we electing these officers, instead of having 
some body appoint them?  The charter doesn't explain this. It says, "one 
Chair and two to three Vice-Chairs who will be appointed to two-year 
terms". It says "appointed", not "elected". The charter wording uses the 
passive voice, so it doesn't say who or what does the appointing. I 
think one can argue that an election doesn't violate the charter, since 
it's a way to appoint someone. But if these are really elected roles, 
perhaps the charter should be clarified to say that.

Q: who gets to vote in these elections?

Q: are any of the present office-holders permitted to be re-elected?  
The charter says that they may serve at most two terms. Have any of the 
present office-holders reached that limit?

Q: the charter says "two or three" Vice-Chairs.  How many will we be 
electing?

Q: what is the electoral process used for this election?  There are 
several different processes used for such elections.

I suggest that best practice for a single-winner election (e.g. for 
Chair) is preferential ballot, counted with Alternative Vote (aka 
Instant Runoff Voting) method. Some people prefer Condorcet Method for 
single-winner elections.  I suggest that best practice for a 
multiple-winner election (e.g. for two or three Vice-Chairs) is 
preferential ballot, counted with Single Transferable Vote method (of 
which there are varieties, with minor differences).

Q: can a single person run for both Chair and Vice-Chair?  How does that 
work? I can imagine, for example, that it might be desirable for a 
person who fails to get elected as Chair be a candidate for Vice-Chair.

Q: what method will we be using to vote?  How are ballots distributed 
and counted?  The answer affects practical elections logistics. It also 
affects which variety of Single Transferable Vote counting works best. I 
suggest that the elections officers consider using OpaVote 
<https://www.opavote.com/>. It lets you distribute links to voters by 
email, and have voters cast votes on a web page, and then counts the 
votes, and produces a clear report listing the results and winners. 
Another group I am part of used OpaVote with great success.

Q: who is running the election? who counts the votes?

I propose that the Chair election be by preferential ballot, counted 
with Alternative Vote method.
I propose that the Vice-Chair election be by preferential ballot, 
counted with Single Transferable Vote method, with details chosen 
according to the technology chosen for administering the election.  If 
OpaVote, then use Meek STV rules (or Scottish STV).
I propose that the election be administered using OpaVote, unless some 
other technology is already available which is just as good as OpaVote.
I propose that candidates for Chair be permitted to run for Vice-Chair 
as a fallback. The election for Chair is held first, and the winner of 
that election is eliminated as a candidate for Vice-Chair before 
counting the Vice-Chair votes.

I am willing to be part of an elections administration team. Given that 
I ask all these questions and make all these proposals, it seems only 
fair that I offer my efforts also. And I have no interest in running for 
these positions.

Best regards,
          —Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada

-- 
     --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh at jdlh.com     http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
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