Hello, Don and colleagues:
On 2019-01-18 07:02, Don Hollander
wrote:
Dear all:
The Election for the UASG Chair and
Vice-Chair positions is coming up.
Excellent!
Reading these documents raises a number of questions for me about
the election process, and I have some proposed answers.
Q: by what authority are we electing these officers, instead of
having some body appoint them? The charter doesn't explain this.
It says, "one Chair and two to three Vice-Chairs who will be
appointed to two-year terms". It says "appointed", not "elected".
The charter wording uses the passive voice, so it doesn't say who
or what does the appointing. I think one can argue that an
election doesn't violate the charter, since it's a way to appoint
someone. But if these are really elected roles, perhaps the
charter should be clarified to say that.
Q: who gets to vote in these elections?
Q: are any of the present office-holders permitted to be
re-elected? The charter says that they may serve at most two
terms. Have any of the present office-holders reached that limit?
Q: the charter says "two or three" Vice-Chairs. How many will we
be electing?
Q: what is the electoral process used for this election? There
are several different processes used for such elections.
I suggest that best practice for a single-winner election (e.g.
for Chair) is preferential ballot, counted with Alternative Vote
(aka Instant Runoff Voting) method. Some people prefer Condorcet
Method for single-winner elections. I suggest that best practice
for a multiple-winner election (e.g. for two or three Vice-Chairs)
is preferential ballot, counted with Single Transferable Vote
method (of which there are varieties, with minor differences).
Q: can a single person run for both Chair and Vice-Chair? How
does that work? I can imagine, for example, that it might be
desirable for a person who fails to get elected as Chair be a
candidate for Vice-Chair.
Q: what method will we be using to vote? How are ballots
distributed and counted? The answer affects practical elections
logistics. It also affects which variety of Single Transferable
Vote counting works best. I suggest that the elections officers
consider using OpaVote <https://www.opavote.com/>.
It lets you distribute links to voters by email, and have voters
cast votes on a web page, and then counts the votes, and produces
a clear report listing the results and winners. Another group I am
part of used OpaVote with great success.
Q: who is running the election? who counts the votes?
I propose that the Chair election be by preferential ballot,
counted with Alternative Vote method.
I propose that the Vice-Chair election be by preferential ballot,
counted with Single Transferable Vote method, with details chosen
according to the technology chosen for administering the
election. If OpaVote, then use Meek STV rules (or Scottish STV).
I propose that the election be administered using OpaVote, unless
some other technology is already available which is just as good
as OpaVote.
I propose that candidates for Chair be permitted to run for
Vice-Chair as a fallback. The election for Chair is held first,
and the winner of that election is eliminated as a candidate for
Vice-Chair before counting the Vice-Chair votes.
I am willing to be part of an elections administration team.
Given that I ask all these questions and make all these proposals,
it seems only fair that I offer my efforts also. And I have no
interest in running for these positions.
Best regards,
—Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada
--
--Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh@jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
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