[RZERC] RZERC Election Results and Next Steps

[Danielle Rutherford]

Dear RZERC,

Here are the results of the RZERC Chair Election from 16-23 March 2021:

Tim April              3
Geoff Huston     2
Daniel Migault   1
Did not vote       1
Abstain                 2

Per Section 2.2.3 of the RZERC Operational Procedures (attached), since none of the candidates received a simple majority of the members, we will hold a runoff election between Tim April and Geoff Huston.

Given that two RZERC members have announced they are abstaining from the voting process, Kaveh Ranjbar and Kim Davies, there is a possibility that the runoff election results in a 4-3 split. The Operational Procedures do not provide guidance in this scenario. The Operational Procedures state “A simple majority (half plus one) of the members will establish the new Chair.” For the RZERC, this would be 5 votes to establish the new Chair. However, while the Operational Procedures provide instructions for the case of a tie, they do not account for what happens when two candidates receive a non-tie split vote that still fails to obtain a majority of the complete membership. The Operational Procedures appear to assume that all members will vote.

Staff recommend in the case of a 4-3 split, with two members abstaining, the candidate with 4 votes be declared Chair as that candidate has obtained the simple majority among voting members. The rationale behind this recommendation is that members should be able to abstain from the voting process without causing undue hardship on the voting process. If there are no disagreements with this approach expressed within 48 hours, I will commence a new runoff election with the understanding that a simple majority will be determined by the number of members who vote instead of total members. I will also include an “Abstain” option in this and all future polls. If we do not reach consensus on this issue within the next 48 hours, we will discuss the procedures during the April RZERC meeting before proceeding with the runoff election. Staff has included this topic as an item for the upcoming Operational Procedures review.

Action Item: Please email me any disagreements you have with the proposal of amending the definition of a simple majority of voting members only no later than Friday, 26 March 2021 at 20:00 UTC.

Best,
Danielle

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/rzerc/attachments/20210324/0ab436e3/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: RZERC Operational Procedures.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 208967 bytes
Desc: RZERC Operational Procedures.pdf
URL: <http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/rzerc/attachments/20210324/0ab436e3/RZERCOperationalProcedures-0001.pdf>