[ALAC] ALS certification and decertification votes

[Alan Greenberg]

Sounds completely reasonable to me.

Consider my proposal changed.

Alan

At 02/10/2014 12:44 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
>On 2 October 2014 11:08, Salanieta T. 
>Tamanikaiwaimaro 
><<mailto:salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com>salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> 
>wrote:
>Secret ballots on decertification are not transparent.
>There should be utmost transparency involved in processes such as
>decertification.
>
>
>​On reflection, I have the following change of tack.
>
>I agree on open votes for Decertification 
>because it is a serious​ act of 
>disenfranchisement. By the time a vote comes up 
>there must be compelling reason to do this, it must not be taken lightly.
>
>However, on certification, for better or worse 
>some recent instances have become incredibly 
>politicised, with even the RALO itself unable to 
>properly advise the ALAC on a way to proceed. In 
>these instances, I would prefer a closed vote 
>that enables ALAC members to vote on the merits 
>of the action rather than risk acrimony amongst 
>people they will have to work with. As Alan has 
>said, this is now close to the realm of a 
>personal election, and IMO this is a specific 
>instance in which privacy trumps transparency.
>
>So, on reflection, I suggest this:
>    * Decertification votes are always open.
>    * Certification votes are open UNLESS the 
> RALO does not provide definitive advice. Then Alan's protocol applies.
>- Evan
>
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 1:37 AM, Alan Greenberg 
><<mailto:alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>
>wrote:
>
> > On our last ALAC call, Olivier brought up the subject of whether ALS
> > certification and decertification votes should use secret ballots (such as
> > we used for personnel votes) or not, and it was decided to discuss the
> > issue on the mailing list.
> >
> > The history is that most ALAC votes are open and it is disclosed who voted
> > which way, with the exception of personnel votes and others that the ALAC
> > explicitly decides should be secret. We have made such a decision of rare
> > occasions. The only example I can recall is when we voted on whether to
> > file objections to the .health new TLDs and we did so to avoid any
> > harassment of ALAC members who voted for such objections.
> >
> > A couple of years ago, a change was made to certification and
> > decertification votes to change them from open to closed because of one or
> > more objections filed by applicants. There is also a concern that a
> > rejected application could lead to harassment of those who rejected it, and
> > a concern that people might not vote honestly if the result was public
> > (similar to the reason for secret ballots on personnel votes).
> >
> > I think that this concern should be considered.
> >
> > However, under our rules and the ICANN Bylaws, ALS certification and
> > decertification decisions may be appealed to the Board. As such, we should
> > be in a position to explain why a decision was made.
> >
> > Accordingly I offer the following proposal.
> >
> > ALS certification votes shall be conducted in such a way that there will
> > be no public disclosure of how ALAC Members voted. However, the details of
> > how ALAC Members voted will be available to ICANN At-Large staff and the
> > ALAC Chair to allow them to conduct private interviews with voters to be
> > able to put together a rationale for why any particular decision was made.
> >
> > Comments?
> >
> > Alan
> >
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>
>--
>Evan Leibovitch
>Toronto Canada
>Em: evan at telly dot org
>Sk: evanleibovitch
>Tw: el56