<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"><base></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">We also support this challenge.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Marc Rotenberg</div><div class="">EPIC</div><div class="">NCSG member organization</div><div class=""><br class="">
<br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 23, 2016, at 5:49 PM, Robin Gross <<a href="mailto:robin@ipjustice.org" class="">robin@IPJUSTICE.ORG</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><base class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Absolutely Paul. Actually the two issues are inter-twined in this case, rather than being mutually exclusive issues. When some members got their ballots, they expressed confusion about them, and how they are to be interpreted, etc. The chair’s explanation of NOTA to this list caused further concern and confusion on what it means to cast a NOTA vote on the ballot. The chair said that if you vote for one council candidate and also vote for NOTA, your vote will be invalided. As in, your vote doesn’t count. You can only accept all or none of the candidates under the chair’s interpretation of NOTA on this ballot. That is the interpretation in question and raised in the petition by the group of 21 NCSG members. The petition does a better job of explaining, so I’ll post the text below for clarity sake.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks,</div><div class="">Robin</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">**********</div><div class="">
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<div class="column"><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">The undersigned NCSG Members challenge the decision of the NCSG Executive Committee to
refuse to briefly postpone an annual election that is being held using a flawed ballot and that
suffers from an inadequately supervised election process in violation of the NCSG’s Charter.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">Without any notice to the membership or the Executive Committee, the NCSG Chair changed
the longstanding interpretation of the election rules, causing confusion among the membership
once the ballot was released. Once the confusion was explained, the Chair and the EC refused
to stop the election or to issue a clarified ballot. Part of the rationale given by the NCSG Chair
was that this was just a “symbolic vote” since we had only 3 candidates for 3 Council seats. This
is untrue, the mechanism summarily changed had allowed for a negative vote to be cast without
needing to vote against a particular candidate or against all the candidates. Without a new vote
with clarified procedures and ballot, the election cannot be seen as legitimate.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">The issue at stake is more than just a question of particular elections or particular version of a
ballot. It is an issue of good governance and due process. The NCSG has been known for
demanding transparency, accountability and good governance from ICANN. The suggestion of
“symbolic” elections with a confusing and disputed ballot undermines the whole concept of the
NCSG and casts a shadow on its future activities. And it undermines ICANN’s multistakeholder
model and its ability to deliver legitimate democratic processes for Internet governance.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">Similarly, not addressing this problem now might lead to issues in the shortterm and
mediumtolongterm in the functioning of the NCSG and its councillors, which will not benefit
the effectiveness of the stakeholder group. We therefore would like to see this concern
addressed before continuing with the election.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">Pursuant to Section 2.4.2.1 of NCSG’s Charter, the NCSG Members signed below hereby
initiate an appeal of this NCSG EC decision to refuse to fix the contested ballots and properly
clarify the election process before proceeding.
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">Member Signatures
</span></p>
<ol class="">
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Avri Doria Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">James Gannon Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Tatiana Tropina Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Farzaneh Badii Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Stephanie Perrin Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Robin Gross, IP Justice, Organizational Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Amr Elsadr, Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Ayden Férdeline, Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Niels ten Oever, Article19, Organizational Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">William Drake, Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Anriette Esterhuysen, APC, Organizational Member
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">Rachel Pollack Ichou Individual Member
</span></p>
</li>
</ol>
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<div class="column"><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">13. Milton Mueller, Internet Governance Project, Organizational Member </span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">14. Dan Krimm, Individual Member<br class="">
15. Stefania Milan, Individual Member<br class="">
16. Monika Zalnieriute, Individual Member
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">17. David Cake, Electronic Frontiers Australia, Organizational Member </span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">18. Norbert Klein, Open Institute, Organizational Member<br class="">
19. Michael Oghia, Individual Member<br class="">
20. Kim von Arx, Individual Member
</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class="">21. DeeDee Halleck, Deep Dish Network</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""><br class=""></span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 11.000000pt; font-family: 'ArialMT'" class=""> </span>**********</p>
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</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 23, 2016, at 1:26 PM, Paul Rosenzweig <<a href="mailto:paul.rosenzweig@redbranchconsulting.com" class="">paul.rosenzweig@redbranchconsulting.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" class="">Robin</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Now I am confused. . I had thought the complaint was about the "confusing" ballot. . Your note says it is about the Nota interpretation. Can you clarify which it is?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Thanks</p><div id="mail-app-auto-default-signature" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><p dir="ltr" class="">--<br class="">Paul Rosenzweig<br class="">Sent from myMail app for Android</p></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Tuesday, 23 August 2016, 03:09PM -04:00 from Robin Gross<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="mailto:robin@IPJUSTICE.ORG" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">robin@IPJUSTICE.ORG</a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">:</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><blockquote id="mail-app-auto-quote" cite="x-msg://2/14719794460000108366" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(252, 44, 56); margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><div class="js-helper js-readmsg-msg"><div class=""><base target="_self" href="https://e-aj.my.com/" class=""><div id="style_14719794460000108366_BODY" class=""><div class="">It is unfortunate that what began as one careless out-of-bounds comment from the chair on this list yesterday has had the effect of disenfranchising every NCSG’s member’s right to vote for or against any candidate, but that is why the appeal had to be launched: to restore meaning to our votes.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The entire NCSG Executive Committee is responsible for monitoring the elections, providing oversight to the election, and specifically overseeing the chair’s performance of executive functions under NCSG’s Charter. Our charter is clear that it isn’t appropriate for the chair to unilaterally declare an interpretation of NOTA on this list - but it is especially disappointing that the interpretation provided renders every member’s vote for council meaningless. Further concerning was the dismissive attitude displayed against those questioning his interpretation and the claim that NCSG elections are merely symbolic gestures. But instead of fixing this unfortunate error, the chair seems to be digging in his heels on his interpretation of NOTA, which prevents members having the ability to vote for or against every candidate on the ballot. It is the least democratic interpretation of NOTA possible. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">No rationale has been provided by the chair as to why this interpretation is best for our members or how it serves our members’ interest. </b></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I brought this issue to the NCSG EC list yesterday and asked for a meeting to be scheduled so we could work through it. That request was denied and the chair said we’d use the email list to discus the issue instead, which is fine, except he declared the discussion closed within a few hours of opening it and before all the EC members could even wake-up to see the discussion let alone weigh in on this critical issue.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As we face a new interpretation of NOTA that does not take democracy or elections seriously, but only as a symbolic gesture, where everyone who runs automatically gets a seat, irrespective of whether there is sufficient support from the members to be represented by that person, the group of 21 members lodged the formal appeal of this decision to try to get this election back on track and restore the voting rights of members. Now that the appeal has been launched the chair is calling for an EC meeting tomorrow, so I am hopeful we can get this straightened out quickly.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If we can accept the definition of NOTA as explained by Avri, Rafik, and myself, who were the previous EC Chairs and were involved in the drafting of the charter, an interpretation which provides members REAL choice, not merely symbolic gestures in our elections, we probably don’t need to redo the ballots for this year, and we can just continue with the understanding those candidates who receive less votes than NOTA are not elected this year. So we can fix our ballots for next year, but use the NOTA interpretation which restores the right of members to approve (or not) of the candidates for this year.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This seems to be to a reasonable compromise, which allows us go forward with the election now, but without the cloud of illegitimacy it will otherwise have if we use the new NOTA interpretation that disenfranchises our members. Let’s find a constructive path forward and try to work cooperatively to fix this, not spend more time pointing fingers at each other, but in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><u class="">fixing</u><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this error.</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">Thanks,</div><div class="">Robin Gross</div><div class="">NCSG Executive Committee Member</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><br class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 23, 2016, at 8:13 AM, James Gannon <<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3ajames@cyberinvasion.net" target="_blank" class="">james@cyberinvasion.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class=""><div class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><font face="Calibri,sans-serif" class="">Sam I suggest you read the letter from all 3 previous chairs of the NCSG to the current EC (which has been dismissed by the current chair) on that point:</font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri,sans-serif" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><a href="http://mailman.ipjustice.org/pipermail/ec-ncsg/2016-August/001083.html" target="_blank" class="">http://mailman.ipjustice.org/pipermail/ec-ncsg/2016-August/001083.html</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><u class="">-James</u></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" class=""><div class=""></div></div></div></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" class=""><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left; border-width: 1pt medium medium; border-style: solid none none; padding: 3pt 0in 0in; border-top-color: rgb(181, 196, 223);" class=""><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="">From:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>NCSG-Discuss <<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3aNCSG%2dDISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank" class="">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>> on behalf of Sam Lanfranco <<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3alanfran@YORKU.CA" target="_blank" class="">lanfran@YORKU.CA</a>><br class=""><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Reply-To:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Sam Lanfranco <<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3alanfran@YORKU.CA" target="_blank" class="">lanfran@YORKU.CA</a>><br class=""><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Date:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Tuesday 23 August 2016 at 16:08<br class=""><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="">To:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>"<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3aNCSG%2dDISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank" class="">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>" <<a href="x-msg://e-aj.my.com/compose/?mailto=mailto%3aNCSG%2dDISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank" class="">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>><br class=""><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Subject:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Re: By Laws Section 2.4.2.1 Appeal on the election process<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">The Group of 21</span></span></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>