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.

(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.

Did I get it right? If not, please clarify.

Thank you.

Tapani

On Jun 10 17:08, Stephanie Perrin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

> 
> 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.

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen