05 Mar 1998: The UKVoting Statement

From: sjfb@steves.org.uk (SJFBeckwith)
Date: 1998/03/05
Subject: Notice: The UKVoting Statement
Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.net.news.config,uk.net.news.management



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A Statement From UKVoting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After due consideration and discussion within UKVoting, the following
changes will take place in the way CFVs are handled.

The following message covers some changes and highlights some points that
were suggested, but were discarded.

Creation of the DRAFT CFV between the Proponent and Votetaker is to be
placed in the hands of the assigned Votetaker.  This should help speed up
the process of CFV creation.  There is a template available to aid this
process further[*].  Please note that this is only the draft version - the
proponent is not always sure which bits of the template needs to be
changed.

The `Voting Rubric' is pretty much required within the CFV, so rather than
trim it or remove it to a separate posting, some of it has been moved to
underneath the ballot paper.  Also, the address to send the vote to has
been moved to just above the `paper'.

Vote Acknowledgement MUST go to the address specified IN the ballot paper,
but the individual Votetaker can, if they feel the need, CC the
Acknowledgement to another address within one of the header fields.  It is
up to the Votetaker running the vote whether they do this or not, it is
NOT a requirement that where `From:' and `Email Address:' differ the
Votetaker sends the Acknowledgement to both.

The address that has precedence is the one contained IN the ballot.  It is
this address (in conjunction with Name) that will be used in the
presentation of the results.

For this reason it is now a REQUIREMENT that a CFV Ballot Paper contains
spaces for a voter to enter both their Name and Email address.  It is also
a REQUIREMENT that these fields are filled in for it to have been a valid
vote.

There will be no change to the length of the voting period, to do so would
require a RFD as it is specified within the Voting Procedures that a vote
should last a minimum of 18 days and a maximum of 28 days.

Presentation of results should be done with 14 days of the Closing of
Voting date, if the Votetaker expects a delay they should make the
Proponent and ukvoting@usenet.org.uk aware of this.

If there has been no communication from the Votetaker after 14 days giving
the status of the vote, a warning should be posted that if no update is
received from the Votetaker within the next 7 days the Votetaker will be
suspended.  Warnings should be posted to the UKVoting mailing list and the
personal address of the Votetaker.

If after a further 7 days (this equates to 28 days since close of voting)
there is still no communication, the Votetaker will be removed from
UKVoting and the vote reopened.

However, if UKVoting deem it to be a complex vote this rule may be set
aside and the Votetaker shall be allowed a short time extension.

A Votetaker may be reinstated following an appeal which will be heard by
the UKVoting Co-Ordinator and Deputy Co-Ordinator (or one other Votetaker)
but this will only be for exceptional circumstances.

Where possible the results of an AV style vote should be made to resemble
the format of the uk.rec.paranormal vote[*].  Also, spaces should be used
in place of tab characters, as there are still a few Legacy newsreaders
out there that cannot cope with them.

Once the results have been presented, NO comment is to be made of which
way "invalid" votes would have been counted.  In the event of a formal
objection being made against the results and subsequently upheld by
Control, this information will then, and only then, be disclosed.

A vote may be handled by two Votetakers which will be decided by UKVoting,
but may also be initiated at the request of the Committee.  Any RFD
originating from uk.net.new.management will automatically have two
Votetakers (this will include elections and votes of no confidence).

A short FAQfile and these Votetakers Guidelines will shortly be available
from the UKVoting web pages[*].

A further statement regarding the Two Votetaker option will be forthcoming
shortly.

With luck, over the next few weeks/months, UKVoting should become more
organised.  There will, no doubt, be a few errors - but please bear with
us.  We are trying.

Thank you to everybody that took the time to send in suggestions,
hopefully now, we can aim to be a bit more consistent.


Due to the continued non responsiveness of the previous UKVoting
Co-Ordinator (Rod Ellery), he has been removed from office.  As his
Deputy, I have been trying to "fill in" as best I can and will now take
over as Co-Ordinator naming Rob Felton as the new deputy.


UKVoting currently stands at the following volunteers:

SJFBeckwith, Rob Felton, Malcolm Mladenovic, Steven Inglis and Chris M.
Dickson with two new Votetakers (Jon Ribbens and Robert Irvine) coming
online shortly.


[*] Shortly available at http://www.cirra.com/ukvoting/


SJFBeckwith
- -- 

Co-Ordinator, UKVoting.
http://www.cirra.com/ukvoting/


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