15 Mar 1998: Guidelines & Instructions of Two Votetaker Vote

From: Robert Felton <swinny@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Date: 1998/03/15
Subject: UKVoting: Guidelines & Instructions of Two Votetaker Vote
Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.net.news.config,uk.net.news.management




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Guidelines & Instructions of a Two Votetaker Vote
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reason for a system two Votetakers to be implemented is due to the
awful situation which occurred over the highly important committee
elections and the result being severely delayed in publication.
 
A vote will be handled by two Votetakers when decided necessary by
UKVoting or requested by the Committee, and also any RFD originating 
from uk.net.new.management (this will include elections and votes of no
confidence).

All votes will be handled in one of two ways.

1. Primary Votetaker copies and then forwards ballot papers onto the
   Secondary Votetaker.

or

2. Secondary Votetaker copies and then forwards ballot papers to 
   Primary Votetaker.
 
In order to avoid the manual intervention of either Votetaker, one must 
be running a MTA (Mail Transport Agent) capable of either running a
distribution list or of forwarding email.

The Secondary Votetaker is NOT to send acknowledgements or indicate how
the voting is going.  When the voting period has closed the two Votetakers
should not confer whilst the votes are being complied.

When the Primary Votetaker has compiled the result this should be 
forwarded to the Secondary Votetaker for confirmation, and at this time if
the Secondary Votetaker has any questions the two Votetakers should 
discuss this matter in consultation with the Co-Ordinator or Deputy
Co-Ordinator of UKVoting.
 
Presentation of results should be done with 14 days of the Closing of
Voting date, if the Primary Votetaker expects a delay they should make 
the Proponent, Secondary Votetaker and ukvoting@usenet.org.uk aware of 
this.
 
If there has been no communication from the Primary Votetaker after 14
days giving the status of the vote, a warning should be posted that if 
no update is received from the Primary Votetaker within the next 7 days 
that 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 Secondary Votetaker should step in.

The Secondary Votetaker shall send a second Acknowledgement to each 
voter. A 7 day period shall be allowed for bounces to propagate and
Acknowledgement errors to be corrected.  NEW VOTES WILL NOT BE ALLOWED.
The Secondary Votetaker will then have the normal time period to compile
the results.
 
In the event that both Votetakers fail to respond, the vote shall be
restarted.
 
However, if UKVoting deem it to be a complex vote this rule may be set
aside and either Votetaker shall be allowed a short time extension.
 
If the Secondary Votetaker is required to take over mid vote for 
whatever reason, the voting period should be restarted, with all previous 
votes ignored.  This is to ensure that all votes are acknowledged 
correctly.

A short FAQfile and these Votetakers Guidelines are available from the 
UKVoting web pages - http://www.cirra.com/ukvoting/

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.

UKVoting currently stands at the following volunteers:

SJFBeckwith - Co-Ordinator
Rob Felton - Deputy Co-Ordinator
Malcolm Mladenovic, Steven Inglis, Chris M. Dickson, Jon Ribbens and 
Robert Irvine.

If any further people want to become votetakers please contact 
ukvoting@usenet.org.uk for information.

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

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