[council] Council wide Nominations are closed - Part 2 Each House determines a Candidate

[William Drake]

Hi

On Oct 15, 2009, at 3:56 PM, Avri Doria wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Don't know.  Worth checking.  Though the system may have to be  
> reworked for the bi-cameral nature of the vote.
>
> We can certainly do paper ballots where one indicates not only their  
> vote but their House.
>
> Do other council members believe this needs to be a secret ballot?

No

Best,

Bill
>
>
> On 15 Oct 2009, at 15:46, Gomes, Chuck wrote:
>
>> Is there any reason why we couldn't hold a live email election?  I  
>> don't know the limitations of the election software.
>>
>> Chuck
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: owner-council at gnso.icann.org
>>> [mailto:owner-council at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Rosette, Kristina
>>> Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 7:25 AM
>>> To: avri at psg.com; council at gnso.icann.org
>>> Subject: Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed -
>>> Part 2 Each House determines a Candidate
>>>
>>>
>>> To my recollection, none of our previous elections while I
>>> have been on Council have been public.  I thought I'd missed
>>> the rationale for holding it publicly.  I've gone back and
>>> reviewed the messages I could find, but haven't seen one.  I
>>> had thought we would be voting privately in the week
>>> beforehand with the results announced at the meeting.
>>>
>>> I object to our having to hold the election as a roll call
>>> vote.  I believe all Councilors should be permitted to cast
>>> votes privately.  Casting open ballots will not be conducive
>>> to the improved working relationship that many of us have
>>> articulated a desire to develop.  Moreover, given that I have
>>> found the environment at ICANN meetings generally (including
>>> public Council meetings) to be hostile, I believe casting
>>> those votes publicly is more likely than not to exacerbate
>>> that problem.
>>>
>>> In sum, I want to vote privately as we've done in the past
>>> and have the results announced at the Council meeting.  Doing
>>> so has the extra benefit of having a definitive result at the
>>> Council meeting (assuming there is a clear winner); no delay
>>> from absentee balloting will occur.
>>>
>>> K
>>>
>>>
>>> Kristina Rosette
>>> Covington & Burling LLP
>>> 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
>>> Washington, DC  20004-2401
>>> voice:  202-662-5173
>>> direct fax:  202-778-5173
>>> main fax:  202-662-6291
>>> e-mail:  krosette at cov.com
>>>
>>> This message is from a law firm and may contain information
>>> that is confidential or legally privileged.  If you are not
>>> the intended recipient, please immediately advise the sender
>>> by reply e-mail that this message has been inadvertently
>>> transmitted to you and delete this e-mail from your system.
>>> Thank you for your cooperation.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------------------
>>> Sent from my Wireless Handheld
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: owner-council at gnso.icann.org <owner-council at gnso.icann.org>
>>> To: Council GNSO <council at gnso.icann.org>
>>> Sent: Thu Oct 15 03:23:01 2009
>>> Subject: Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed -
>>> Part 2 Each House determines a Candidate
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I wanted to ad a few more details to this part of the process.
>>>
>>> On 15 Oct 2009, at 08:01, Glen de Saint Géry wrote:
>>>
>>>> B. PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR THE VOTING
>>>>
>>>> For this election, the voting will take place at the public Council
>>>> meeting in Seoul on Wednesday, 28 October 2009.
>>>>
>>>> Avri Doria, current GNSO Council chair, will serve as
>>> non-voting chair
>>>> of the bicameral Council meeting on 28 October until such time as a
>>>> new chair is elected, at which time the new chair will assume the
>>>> chair responsibilities.
>>>>
>>>> If an absentee ballot is required to complete the chair's election,
>>>> this will be a 24 hour ballot scheduled to end on 29 October. If no
>>>> chair has been elected by the end of the Annual meeting on
>>> 30 October,
>>>> the vice-chairs will assume the chair responsibilities as
>>> defined in
>>>> the Bylaws and a runoff will be scheduled as determined in
>>> the Council
>>>> Procedures.
>>>>
>>>> The winning candidate needs 60% of the votes of each house.
>>>>
>>>> The Council shall inform the Board and the Community
>>> appropriately and
>>>> post the election results on the GNSO website within 2
>>> business days
>>>> following the election.
>>>>
>>>> In the event that the GNSO Council has not elected a GNSO Council
>>>> Chair by the end of the previous Chair's term, the Vice-Chairs will
>>>> serve as Interim GNSO Co-Chairs until a successful election can be
>>>> held.
>>>
>>> Since this election will be done in the meeting, I am
>>> planning to hold it as an open vote via a roll call.  This
>>> will be the second major item on the agenda, after a vote on
>>> any amendments to the proposed Operating Procedures the new
>>> Operating Procedures as possibly amended.
>>>
>>> I am hoping that all of the council members will be available
>>> for the vote, either in person or via remote communications,
>>> so that the election can be completed on the Wednesday, even
>>> if it needs to go to two rounds.  If we do not have everyone
>>> available for the call, then we will need to go a 24 hour
>>> absentee ballot on each round.  This means that the first
>>> round would not end until Thursday morning.  If necessary we
>>> could schedule a second round for Thursday, though we would
>>> then need to allow for voting at the Thursday meeting, which
>>> would be an exception to our normal practice.  In this case a
>>> second absentee ballot would end on Friday afternoon.  In any
>>> case, the goal is to enable the election of the new chair, if
>>> at all possible, by the end of the Seoul meeting.
>>>
>>> As I said, I am hoping we can avoid needing to do an absentee
>>> ballot so I hope that any council member who cannot attend
>>> the meeting can participate remote in al least the first part
>>> of the Wednesday meeting.
>>>
>>> Assuming we have a different candidate from each House, each
>>> council member polled would in turn be able to vote for:
>>>
>>> Candidate chosen by Contracted Parties House (CP House or,
>>> Candidate chosen by Non Contracted Parties House (NCP House)
>>> or, None of the above
>>>
>>> (In the case of a single candidate chosen by both Houses, the
>>> vote would resemble the second round procedure below)
>>>
>>> The votes would be tabulated separately according to House,
>>> though the roll will be called alphabetically.
>>>
>>> To  succeed a candidate needs 60% or each house.  This means  5  
>>> out of
>>> 7 votes for the CP House and 8 out of 13 votes for the NCP House.
>>>
>>> - If either the CP House candidate  or NCP House candidate
>>> get 60% of each House, he or she will have been elected and
>>> will take over as chair of the meeting at that point.
>>>
>>> - If 'None of the above' gets 60% of each house, then the
>>> election is halted and rescheduled for a month later.  In
>>> this case the two vice- chairs will take over as interim
>>> co-chairs at the end of the week.
>>>
>>> - If neither of the candidates (or "none of the above") gets
>>> the required 60% of each house, then a second round is called for.
>>>
>>> Assuming every one is present on Wednesday morning, we can
>>> hold this second round vote immediately, otherwise we can
>>> hold it on Thursday.
>>>
>>> The second roll call vote will be between:
>>>
>>> The candidate who received the greatest combined percentage
>>> of the votes when the results of each house is summed to the
>>> other (Percentage from CP House + Percentage from NCP House)
>>> or, None of the above
>>>
>>> If the candidate receives 60% votes of each House ( out of 7
>>> votes for the CP House and 8 out of 13 votes for the NCP
>>> House) then that candidate has been elected and will take
>>> over as chair of the meeting at that point.
>>>
>>> Otherwise, the election then the election is halted and
>>> rescheduled for a month later.  In this case the two
>>> vice-chairs will take over as interim co-chairs at the end of
>>> the week.
>>>
>>> I believe this process follows from the rules set for the
>>> election of chairs in the new bi-cameral council.  I very
>>> much look forward to completing a successful election on
>>> Wednesday morning.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> a.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
  Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
***********************************************************