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%20results%20October%202013.pdf%22&N=NCSG%20Election%20results%20October%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 The information in this email may contain confidential material and it is intended solely for the addresses. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the email and destroy any copies of it, any disclosure, copying, distribution is prohibited and may be considered unlawful. Contents of this email and any attachments may be altered, Statement and opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender, and do not necessarily reflect those of Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC).