Re: [council] e mail votes v2

[Ken Stubbs <kstubbs@digitel.net>]

i am not at all comfortable with some of the sections here of the proposal..

 

my recommendations so far are as follows:

 

1. Paragraph 13.7 ... any proposal to take an entirely new vote should only be undertaken if a "supermajority" (i.e. 2/3) of the council agrees. a simple majority is just not appropriate here.

2. para 13.4.....  secretary should confirm receipt of vote back to all voters within 12 hours of receipt of the vote.  if a voter does not receive a receipt within a reasonable time (figure 24 hours from time of vote) then the onus is on the voter to contact the secretariat and confirm receipt of vote and if necessary vote by telephone.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE BURDEN BE PLACE ON THE SECRETARIAT EXCEPT TO CONFIRM RECEIPT OF THE VOTES

 

ken stubbs

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Philip Sheppard

To: NC (list)

Cc: Louis Touton ICANN

Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 7:11 AM

Subject: [council] e mail votes v2

Glen and Tony Holmes have proposed some changes to the draft addition to the NC guidelines which I gladly endorse. New text follows. (Louis your comments would be welcome).

Philip
-----------
NEW 13. E-mail voting
13.1 All votes using the DNSO secretariat voting software have resource implications. Any vote of the NC or GA undertaken by the DNSO Secretariat must be requested by the Names Council Chair. The NC chair will not ordinarily refuse a request for a vote from the chair of the GA for a GA vote, so long as there is no cost implication from overtime or other costs above that expected in the annual DNSO secretariat budget.

13.2 The voting period for any vote will ordinarily be 14 days. In exceptional circumstances it may be shorter. A reminder will be sent out two or three days before the end of the vote reminding the registered voters to vote before the close of the vote. Once the vote is closed, the address to which the ballot is sent is no longer valid and an out-of-time vote will be returned to sender.

13.3 ICANN by-laws VI-B 2(h) requires that NC members "can speak to and hear one another" for an NC meeting to be valid. Votes taken by e-mail therefore have to be validated at a subsequent meeting.

13.4 The secretariat will typically act as returning officer for an e-mail vote, and in case of non-receipt of a vote should attempt to ascertain whether a vote was submitted. Provided it is confirmed by the member that a vote was originally sent within the set timeframe, the secretariat may take that vote by telephone. The result of the e-mail vote will be declared as soon as practicable once known.

13.5 Typically at the next meeting of the Names Council, the Chair will ask for the e-mail vote to be validated by a simple vote of approval. After such validation the result of the e-mail vote will be an act of the Names Council.

13.6 Should there be any technical failure or other anomaly in the e-mail vote, the Chair will ask NC members at the next NC meeting to re-affirm their original or intended e-mail vote.

13.7 Under exceptional circumstances which must be described by the Chair and agreed to by the NC, it may be decided to hold a fresh vote at which NC members may chose to vote differently from their earlier e-mail vote.