[council] E-mail voting - guidelines
NC members,
Following discussion with the chair of the GA I propose the following guidelines for e-mail voting. Once adopted these will be added to our rules of procedure (as article 13). I propose that we have a vote on these at the start of the NC call April 18 before we continue discussions on ICANN evolution. In the meantime your support, your comments or proposals for improved wording are welcome. Philip. --------------------------- 13. E-mail voting DNSO 13.1 The DNSO secretariat will typically act as returning officer for an e-mail vote. All votes using the DNSO secretariat voting software have resource implications. Any vote of the NC or General Assembly (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 the number of requests are for ten or fewer votes per year. More than this number may have cost implication from overtime or other costs above that expected in the annual DNSO secretariat budget. If a request is refused, the GA chair is entitled to request NC discussion for the next ordinary meeting of the NC; the GA chair shall participate in such discussion. If the NC fails to honour such a request for discussion, the GA's request for a vote shall be considered granted. 13.2 The voting period for any vote will ordinarily be 14 calendar 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. The returning officer should confirm receipt of vote back to all voters. If a voter does not receive a receipt within one working day then the onus is on the voter to contact the returning officer and if necessary vote by telephone. Once the vote is closed, the address to which the ballot is sent is no longer valid and an out-of-time vote will be returned to sender. The result of the e-mail vote will be declared as soon as practicable once known. Names Council e-mail votes 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 Typically at the meeting of the Names Council following an e-mail vote, the Chair will ask for the e-mail vote to be validated by a simple vote of approval to show the will of the NC was fairly expressed by the e-mail vote. After such validation the result of the e-mail vote will be an act of the Names Council. 13.5 Should there be any technical failure or other anomaly in the e-mail vote, the Chair will ask NC members at the NC meeting following an e-mail vote, to reaffirm their original or intended e-mail vote. NC members cannot change their vote in a reaffirmation vote. 13.6 Under exceptional circumstances which must be described by the Chair and agreed to by the NC by a two-thirds vote, it may be decided to ignore the e-mail vote and hold a fresh vote at which NC members may chose to vote differently from their earlier e-mail vote. --------------END--------------
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