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<p><font size="+1"><font face="Lucida Grande">Thanks for the questions Tapani. I will try to answer each.
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2019-06-10 15:16, Tapani Tarvainen wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:20190610191642.GA21358@kusti.tarvainen.info">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Dear Stephanie,
Thank you for your thorough explanation.
I would, however, like to clarify two points:
(1) Even though the charter says one must vote for _exactly_ N (in this
case 3) candidates for council, voting for just one or two (or none)
is acceptable.</pre>
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<p>A<font size="+1">t the moment our voting system (Tally) is not very sophisticated. It chokes when you give it 8 choices (all four names, and four opportunities to abstain. So although the Charter is explicit about voting for each potential seat (i.e.N)
we do not actually have a mechanism to ensure that people do by bouncing their ballot until they make a selection.
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</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Now this is not a problem at the moment, because we have 3 vacancies to fill, and only four applicants. If people want to fulfill the expectations of the ballot and of our charter, they will choose one of the following:</font></p>
<ul>
<li><font size="+1">Vote for their 3 favorites, and leave the fourth blank.</font></li><li><font size="+1">Vote for two or one or zero, and mark 3 with abstain.</font></li><li><font size="+1">Vote for two or one or zero and leave the others blank.</font></li></ul>
<p><font size="+1">I do hope that people will not</font> <font size="+1">vote for all four. Nothing bad will happen, but it is not helpful in selecting the successful candidates.</font><br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:20190610191642.GA21358@kusti.tarvainen.info">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
(2) It makes no difference whether one votes abstain or nothing at all
for a candidate. I'm not sure if "abstentions will be counted" means
explicit abstain votes are counted separately from omitted votes or
are they just added up, but in any case it would not affect the
election result. Even if some candidate gets more "abstain" votes than
positive ones they can still get elected if they get more "for" votes
than someone else.
So if, for example, you want to vote for just two candidates, you can
vote either abstain or empty for the other two (or abstain for one
and empty for the other), with exactly same effect.</pre>
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<p><font size="+1">You have indeed pointed out to me privately that this system/ballot does nothing to successfully implement the Charter provisions for voting that the previous option with no abstain option provided. At a substantive level, i.e. the outcome
of the election, that may be true. However, there are other beneifts to introducing the abstain button. The system will tally up the abstentions, which gives valuable feedback to candidates about how voters feel about them. In addition, we would have had
a significant problem if we had had more than four candidates....we need to work on voting procedures, so I have gone to some trouble to explain this problem so that we can discuss it in the NCSG-EC, who are responsible for voting mechanisms along with me.
We need to develop procedures that give effect to the Charter in a more fulsome way, and this was on my list (that is the list that I got from Farzi of things I need to address as Chair, it is a long list!). Unfortunately, having the election early meant
not getting to the matter in time for this election.PS <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">I hope this helps.</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Stephanie Perrin</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">NCSG Chair</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">PS my apologies to Ayden Ferdeline, whose name appears to have been mangled on the ballot. I will ask Maryam to look into this, but I think it is too late to change it now the ballot has gone out.<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:20190610191642.GA21358@kusti.tarvainen.info">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Did I get it right? If not, please clarify.
Thank you.
Tapani
On Jun 10 17:08, Stephanie Perrin (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:stephanie.perrin@MAIL.UTORONTO.CA">stephanie.perrin@MAIL.UTORONTO.CA</a>) wrote:
</pre>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Dear NCSG members,
You will soon be receiving your ballots for the election. The rules for the voting mechanism are specified in our Charter, under section 4. Specifically, the mechanism is described as follows:
4.3
Election for NCSG GNSO Council Representatives
(size, number, and distribution of votes):In
the discussion below, N refers to the number of seats
that need to be elected. Optimally N will equal 3 seats in years with normal rotation. Any number of reasons can cause this number to vary:
NCSG members classified as “individuals” will be given N votes and must assign 1 vote to each of N candidates.
• NCSG members classified as “small organizations” will be given 2N votes and must assign exactly 2 votes to each of N candidates.
• NCSG members
classified as “large organizations” will be given 4N votes and must assign exactly 4 votes to each of N candidates.
4.4 Election of NCSG Chair (size and number of votes):
• NCSG members classified as “individuals” will be given 1 vote.
• NCSG members classified as “small organizations” will be given 2 votes.
• NCSG members classified as “large organizations” will be given 4 votes.
• Members must cast all their votes for a single candidate.
4.5 Member Voting Eligibility:
Any NCSG active Member who has been an active member for at least thirty (30) days before the date of the election is eligible to nominate candidates, vote in NCSG elections, and propose amendments to the NCSG Charter.
You will note the use of the word MUST. Because we have used the word MUST in the Charter, i.e. individuals, small and large organizations MUST vote for N candidates, we have elected in the past and in this particular election to offer voters the opportunity to abstain from voting for particular candidates. What this means is, if you really only want to vote for two candidates instead of the three, you may cast your vote for abstain, for the candidates you do not wish to vote for. This is very clear in the vote for the Chair where there is only one option....if you cannot bear the thought of voting for me, vote abstain. However in the selection of three out if four candidates for the council seats, it may be less clear. The purpose of my note is to make sure that all voters realize that they may vote for up to three council members. If they do not care to vote for a candidate, they may either omit that candidate, or vote abstain, the ballot will not be invalidated. Abstentions will be counted. We attempt to balance in the Charter two important aspects of a democratic organization…..strong pressure to exercise your franchise and vote, and a recognition that no one should be forced by ballot rules to vote for someone they do not support.
We select our council members based on total votes, so one person may get many abstentions (i.e. more than another candidate) , yet still have more votes than that candidate, and would therefore win.
I hope that this is clear. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, I will attempt to explain it further. You may change your ballot using your ballot link, up until the close of the voting period; only the last ballot counts.
Kind regards
Stephanie Perrin
NCSG Chair.
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