Also praise for Tapani for doing the homework! 
But I am not praising his decision making process! 
I note that in 2012 we did it exactly the way we are asking to do it now. 
I still haven't heard a good reason why we can't fix the ballot. 
There can be delays and very severe problems for NCSG is this election is perceived as illegitimate and is challenged.

--MM
 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of AbdulRasheed Tamton
> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 5:19 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [Marketing Mail] ballots - history
> 
> Thank you Tapani for historically analyzing the NOTA for the last few years
> and for others for bringing up the subject for the discussion; especially
> Tatiana. Otherwise, the list members may have, mostly, ignored it.
> 
> Since, NOTA is the bottommost candidate in the list (NOTA = none of the
> above), please note that it is not that a silly process.
> 
> NOTA was implemented in the last Indian Parliament Elections that select the
> Prime Minister and the Indian government where more than 810 MILLION
> voters participated in 2014. Majority of the voters were from the rural areas,
> including the remotest villages. My point is  that it is a well established
> procedure that even applied and successfully tested for choosing one of the
> major governments of the world. So, it has its position in the world of
> elections. We could also use it with wisdom.
> 
> 
> BR.
> Rasheed Tamton.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Tapani Tarvainen
> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 10:47 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [Marketing Mail] ballots - history
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> As I've been accused of abruptly changing claimed long-established
> precedent in the treatment of NOTA, I looked at how it's been done in past
> NCSG elections since 2011.
> 
> The only case where I found the impact of NOTA explicitly addressed by the
> Chair running the election was in 2011. Chair then was Avri Doria and she put
> it like this:
> 
> "In the case of the g-council vote, the decision is to pick the top 4 people. So
> if 'none of the above' comes in in any of the top 4 places, I suggest that it just
> gets skipped and the top 4 vote getters become the g-council
> representative. It is just that those who got fewer votes than none of the
> above, will have a clue about how hard they will have to work in order to
> represent the membership."
> 
> http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1110&L=ncsg-
> discuss&D=0&P=115980
> 
> In 2012 the ballot, run by Robin, was organized differently:
> candidates were explicitly selected by region, with separate NOTA for each.
> No explanation seems to have been offered as to what NOTA means.
> (I can't now find the ballot in the web, only in my personal mail
> archive.)
> 
> In 2013 ballot was again run by Robin, this time with similar style as today with
> a common pool of council candidates, but there was no NOTA option at all.
> 
> http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A3=ind1310&L=NCSG-
> DISCUSS&E=base64&P=1735682&B=--Apple-Mail%3D_BE8CECBD-76B4-4895-
> 954A-
> 1A242E2FEF7E&T=application%2Fpdf;%20name=%22NCSG%20Election%20re
> sults%20October%202013.pdf%22&N=NCSG%20Election%20results%20Octob
> er%202013.pdf&XSS=3
> 
> In 2014, run by Rafik, there was one common NOTA for all council candidates,
> but no mention of it in the instructions.
> 
> http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1409&L=ncsg-
> discuss&F=&S=&X=31BCBB9C87C143B93B&P=1055
> 
> In 2015, again by Rafik, similar to 2014, except this time NOTA was mentioned
> in his instructions - but without any explanation as to how it would be
> treated, only stating that 'In each list (Chair, GNSO councillors), you will also
> find the "none of the above" option.'
> 
> http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1509&L=ncsg-
> discuss&F=&S=&X=24E79EEDA4AE17FE9E&P=5880
> 
> Absent explicit instructions to the contrary I took "None of the Above"
> literally: that you don't want to vote any of the candidates listed above.
> 
> So, out of five past elections, in one it was explicitly stated NOTA victory
> would not actually impact councillor election, in one case there was no NOTA
> option, one was different enough from current that it's not really useful as a
> precedent, and in the remaining two there was no explanation of what a
> NOTA vote or NOTA victory would mean.
> 
> Given such variance in past practices I don't see the present one as a radical
> departure from any established process.
> 
> I do accept the chastisement of not having established the process properly,
> however, and pledge to do so before the next election, if I remain the Chair.
> 
> --
> Tapani Tarvainen
> 
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