[UA-discuss] UASG 2021 Elections - Process and Timeline
Charles 'chaals' (McCathie) Nevile
chaals at yandex.ru
Mon Feb 8 06:17:11 UTC 2021
Thank you Mo, Jim.
I have a preference for Meek STV rather than Scottish STV, but I support
all the suggestions Jim made - in particular his "curious option" to
include allowing a vote for "only 2 vice-chairs".
cheers
Chaals
On Sun, 07 Feb 2021 19:41:19 +1100, Jim DeLaHunt <list+uasg at jdlh.com>
wrote:
>
> Mo:
> Thank you for sending this out. It's good that we have a clearly
> stated election process, and that the process be clear before we
> add the specific candidates and opinions about which candidates to
> choose.
>
>
> I have some suggestions about the elections process as stated in
> the document you sent, 2021 UASG Election Process and Timeline
> 2021-02-04.pdf , section "2021 UASG Election Process".
> 1. The process does not state that how many Chairs and how many
> Vice-Chairs are to be elected. Yes, the "UASG Structure" above
> says that these numbers are "1" and "2-3" respectively. Still,
> for clarity it seems good to state what the purpose of the
> process is. I suggest adding an item before old #1, reading
> something like, "The election will elect one Chair and [2-3
> Vice-Chairs]".
>
> 2. The process does not state what kind of votes are cast and
> what method is used to count votes. I support using the same
> methods as last year, as described in
> <https://uasg.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Call-for-Nominations.pdf>,
> namely preferential ballots, counted with Instant Runoff Voting
> for the single Chair, and Scottish STV for the 2-3 Vice-Chairs.
> These methods are among the best ways to elect single and
> multiple winners for a group like UASG. I suggest adding between
> old #5 and #6, something like: "For the single Chair position,
> voters will cast preferential ballots ranking their choices, and
> the counting method will be Instant Runoff Voting
> <https://www.opavote.com/methods/instant-runoff-voting>",
> and "For the 2-3 Vice-Chair positions, voters will cast
> preferential ballots ranking their choices among all candidates,
> and the counting method used will be Scottish STV
> <https://www.opavote.com/methods/single-transferable-vote#scottish-stv>."
>
> 3. The process does not define how we will decide whether to
> elect 2 or 3 Vice-Chairs. There are several rules which we could
> use. We should state what rule we will follow. I suggest adding
> it as part of the entry for the Vice-Chair method above. Some
> rules we could use:
>
> 1. If there are 1, 2, or 3 candidates for Vice-Chair, they will
> all be elected by acclamation and they will not be voted on.
> 2. If there are more than 3 candidates for Vice-Chair, they
> shall be voted on and 3 shall be elected.
>
> 3. If there are more than 3 candidates for Vice-Chair, they
> shall be voted on, and an option "Only 2 Vice-Chairs" shall be
> added to the ballot. Voters may rank "Only 2 Vice-Chairs" the
> same way as any other candidate. The top two candidates shall
> be elected. If the option "Only 2 Vice-Chairs" is among the
> top three finishers, there shall only be two Vice-Chairs,
> otherwise, there shall be three Vice-Chairs, and the
> third-place candidate shall also be elected. [Note: this
> curious option means that voters who think some candidates are
> unsatisfactory, and a Vice-Chair seat should be left empty
> rather than be filled by those candidates, may rank "Only 2
> Vice-Chairs" above the unsatisfactory candidates, and the
> counting will respect their wish to the extent possible.]
>
> 4. I have no problem with the diversity intent of rule # 4, but I
> think it is a mistake to enforce this at the nomination stage.
> Suppose there are two candidates in one organization, "M. Good"
> and "M. Bad". Rule #4 says that M. Bad can prevent voters from
> supporting M. Good by submitting their own self-nomination
> first! Instead I suggest that we implement the rule at the
> vote-counting stage of the Vice-Chair election. As soon as a
> candidate is elected during the counting process, we disqualify
> all other candidates from the same organization or company, and
> continue (or restart) the counting process. This lets voters,
> not nominators, choose whether to support "M. Good" or "M. Bad".
> There is no need for this diversity rule in the Chair election,
> because only one Chair is elected. I suggest a rule about
> eliminating Vice-Chair candidates during vote-counting be added,
> and old rule #4 be deleted.
>
> 5. Rule #1 does not clearly say that sock-puppets are forbidden.
> It should. By saying "the subscribers… are… the electorate", it
> implies that email addresses, not natural people, are the
> electorate. I suggest rewording it to say, "The electorate
> consists of the natural persons subscribed to the UA-Discuss
> mailing list on [the date of record for the electorate]. Each
> person may cast at most one ballot. Sock puppets are forbidden."
> 6. Rule #8 addresses sock puppets as well. Move it to
> right after
> rule #1.
>
> 7. Rule #1 (and the Election Timeline below) are not clear about
> the time at which the UASG-Discuss subscriber list creates the
> electorate. Rule #1 says "the date of announcing the election".
> But the Election Timeline puts the label "Announcing the
> starting of the elections" onto a 10-day period. I suggest
> adding a separate entry to the timeline, labelled something like
> "Date and time of record for the electorate". Make it a specific
> UTC time; dates (interpreted with time zones) can span 48 hours.
> 8. Rule #6 says the election process will be managed by a
> specialised elections service provider. Who? Why not just say
> Opavote? And it says, "the final results will be audited and
> confirmed." How? By whom?
>
> 9. I suggest adding a sentence to Rule #6. "A detailed report of
> the vote counting steps, along with anonymised raw ballot data,
> shall be published, for transparency and for community
> auditing." Opavote provides reports and ballot data as a normal
> part of its service.
>
> Also, a few comments about the Election Timeline:
>
>
> 1. Dates without times or time zones are ambiguous in a global
> community. I suggest saying "all dates are UTC", or adding UTC
> times to each date.
>
> 2. The voting period should have times and time zones added;
> dates alone are too ambiguous. If the election starts at 00:00 5
> March UTC and ends at 23:59 15 March UTC, that is 11 days, not
> 10. If it starts on 5 March anywhere in the world, and ends on
> 15 March anywhere in the world, that is 12 days (00:00 5 March
> UTC-13:00 to 23:59 15 March UTC+12:00). Only if the election
> period is defined as a specific time and time zone can it be
> unambiguously 10 days. The voting period in days should match
> the duration between start and end times.
>
> 3. Suggest adding a timeline entry, "Date and time of record for
> the electorate". I would recommend it being the same time as the
> self-nomination period begins, or when the list of candidates is
> announced. There's a risk of a candidate packing the UA-Discuss
> with their supporters. The choice of date and time of record can
> encourage or discourage this.
>
> I hope this is helpful. Can you tell I am interested in electoral
> process?
>
> Best regards,
>
> —Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada
>
> On 2021-02-04 12:37, Mohamed Elbashir
> wrote:
>
>
>>
>> Dear UA
>> Community,
>>
>>
>> Find
>> attached the UASG 2021 elections process and timeline,
>> it will be published on the UASG.tech website.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank
>> you!
>>
>>
>>
>> Best
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>> Mohamed
>> (Mo) Elbashir
>>
>>
>> Universal
>> Acceptance (UA) Program Manager
>>
>>
>> The
>> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
>> (ICANN)
>> One World, One
>> Internet
>>
>>
>> [id:image001.png at 01D356F4.3F3911B0]
>>
>>
>>
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>
> --. --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh at jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/
> (http://jdlh.com/)
> multilingual websites consultant
>
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