[ALAC] Rule 27 - At-Large Director selection

[Alan Greenberg]

At 25/08/2010 04:18 AM, Tijani BEN JEMAA wrote:
>Alan,
>
>Once again, thank you for your time and your energy.
>
>Indeed, I’m really uncomfortable with selecting 
>a Board Director by a random draw. The situation 
>in e is the most critical. We can avoid having a tie in the following cases:
>·         The number of the electors is odd (not even as it is in our case)

That is not really controllable. First, we can 
always have the situation where one or more 
voters cannot or will not vote. Second, according 
to the intent of the Bylaws (but we don't know 
what the final ones will say), some voters may be 
prohibited from voting because they have also 
submitted their name as a candidate. In fact, it 
depending on the wording of the Bylaws, it may be 
possible that a person submits their SoI to the 
BCEC, is NOT selected, and still cannot vote (I 
think that I will send a note to ICANN about that).

>·         With an even number of electors, the 
>Chair has a preponderant vote only when there is a tie.

That is certainly one option which gives the 
tie-breaking vote to the ALAC chair (or someone 
else if the Chair is running!). This could make 
the chair "King maker" is the vote is cast to 
break a tie. It also has the down side that if A 
receives 10 votes and B receives 9 votes and the 
Chair had planned to vote for B, A will win. So 
sometimes the Chair's preference wins because of 
this rule, and sometimes the Chair's preference loses because of the rule.

Alan

>
>I hope this can help
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>Tijani BEN JEMAA
>Executive Director
>Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations
>Phone : + 216 70 825 231
>Mobile : + 216 98 330 114
>Fax     : + 216 70 825 231
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : alac-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org 
>[mailto:alac-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] De la part de Alan Greenberg
>Envoyé : mardi 24 août 2010 17:42
>À : ALAC Working List
>Objet : [ALAC] Rule 27 - At-Large Director selection
>
>Thanks you all for your comments and support for getting this new RoP
>section done in record time. I am attaching the final version of Rule
>27 to be incorporated into the Rules of Procedure.
>
>The final version differs from the draft in the following ways:
>
>1. Explicit reference to electronic votes.
>
>2. Including documents related to creation of the selection process
>in the history to be kept.
>
>3. A provision saying that a person cannot simultaneously be a BCEC
>member and part of the designated elector group (ALAC member or RALO Chair).
>
>4. A requirement that in the case of a tie, the specific election be
>re-held once if time permits.
>
>Regarding the last item, I think we all agree that an election (or
>candidate elimination) selected by random draw is NOT the best
>outcome. If someone can come up with a better alternative, there is
>still time to change it. In some groups, one person's ballot is not
>counted unless there is a tie (often the Chair). That would work in
>the case of the final vote but not necessarily to eliminate a tie for
>3rd place. Also, withholding a vote can cause one candidate to win
>where using the vote would give a tie (this effectively says that the
>vote withheld causes the "Chair's choice" to loose - less than
>optimal). But there must be other ideas as well.
>
>Alan