Re[2]: [ga] vote appeal

["William X. Walsh" <william@userfriendly.com>]

Hello Joanna,

Wednesday, April 11, 2001, 7:54:15 PM, Joanna Lane wrote:

> Hello Jonathan,

> This is the first election I have participated in where I was allowed to
> change my mind and vote again having already cast my vote. Not only that,
> there was no limit to the number of ballots I could send, for only the LAST
> one counted. Please point me to the relevant section in the rules agreed by
> a vote of the GA that confirms the procedure that took place.

The existing rules already let a voter send in a second ballot,
Joanna, which would invalidate any previously submitted ballot.

I can't say for certain that those rules were adopted by a vote of the
GA, you have to understand that the entire concept that the GA CAN
vote on issues like that is rather new.

> Clearly, the watchdog committe made it up as they went along. That may have
> been the best possible solution in the circumstances, and if anything, Eric
> would have gained more votes from the second ballot cast after one candidate
> dropped out.

Not really, to be honest, with the voting method used, it was
irrelevant.   Further, as was already pointed out, once an election is
underway, a candidate cannot withdraw.  This is common practice in any
election I've ever seen, and as we all know resulted in a dead man
being elected to the US Senate recently.  That is the commonly
accepted practice, to let the election continue as is.  All that was
done was that voters were reminded that they CAN change their ballots,
a right they already had.

> Nevertheless, the second ballot was an invention of the
> Watchdog committee, which was not elected by the GA, but was a group of
> people selected behind closed doors.

No, it really wasn't.  It was a second copy of the same ballot, not a
second ballot.  It has not been unusual for a second copy of ballots
to be provided, especially by email, since factors can cause any
particular email sent to be delayed, held in a queue somewhere, etc.


-- 
Best regards,
 William                            mailto:william@userfriendly.com


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