On Wed, 24 Aug 2016, Ayden Férdeline wrote:

> Yes, I agree there should be a mechanism in place that allows voters to spoil their ballot paper, should they wish to do so. The number of spoiled ballots should be recorded.

I would consider it improper for anyone, be they ICANN staff or a member of our community, to contact a voter about the contents of their ballot paper and to insinuate that they may have voted in an improper manner. If indeed it is possible to determine the number of 'invalid' ballot papers before the election is over, and who has cast a vote in such a manner, I am surprised this is the case.

- Ayden

hi Ayden,

yes, with the mistrust that the NGSC has had for ICANN staff, it seems that
trusting the election to a staff-run system would be considered non-optimum.

i would prefer that an independent outside voting organization that would
keep the partial results of elections in progress secret from members and
ICANN staff and only report the final results.

while this is possible in the bylaws, our organization has no independent
funds to contract for this outside work.   but this option should be on
the table with the later discussion of voting procedures.

-ron