Re: [ga] Procedure.

[Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>]

On 2002-05-13 13:38:40 -0700, Gary Osbourne wrote:

>In the present example, those opposing the first motion seem to 
>have not taken into account that even an overwhelming yes vote of 
>perhaps 10% of the electorate would impress no-one, or that a 60% 
>yes vote of 50% of the electorate could hardly be termed 
>consensus. Rather than trust in the wisdom of the electorate, we 
>have seen the Chair and Alt Chair (with neither having any claim 
>to impartiality) engage in a number of arbitrary actions and 
>rulings on how this vote will be conducted.

>Therefore an overwhelming yes vote of perhaps 10% of the 
>electorate, or a 60% yes vote of 50% of the electorate will be 
>given more weight by some because the process was suspect. I fail 
>to see much wisdom in this. Indeed, it looks to me like the same 
>gaming of the system that goes on elsewhere in ICANN.

I'm still trying to get your point, and I'd like to ask you to make 
it more clearly.  


Just in case it helps, the ballot as I imagined it when I wrote my  
message in the morning would (roughly) look like this:

	[ ] motion 1
	[ ] motion 2

	[ ] abstain

The options you have: Either abstain, or give yes/no votes to _both_ 
motions.  In this situation, there are basically three things which 
can happen:

 - One motion wins (> 50% yes), and the other one loses (< 50% yes).  
   In this case, there is no doubt that the motion with > 50 % yes  
   should win.

 - Both motions get more than 50% yes.  In this case, there's 
   obviously more consensus on the one with more votes, so that 
   should be the winner.
   
 - Both motions get less than 50% yes.  In this case, there's 
   obviously no consensus at all, so no motion would be accepted.

I admit that this is a rather "creative" application of the GA's  
voting rules.


As far as I see it, a strict application of these rules would 
mandate that the question on the ballot is something like this:

	Please select one of the following options:
	
	[ ] The GA should adopt the "re-bid" resolution
	[ ] The GA should adopt the "basic principles" resolution
	[ ] The GA should adopt none of the above resolutions.

You'd make precisely one "x" (or abstain).  Obviously, only one of  
the options could get more than 50% of all the votes.  In that  
case, that option would be adopted.  If none of the options gets  
more than 50%, there would be no consensus on the GA, that would be  
documented, and we could at least try to return to more important  
things.

(Then again, taking this vote at all most likely implies that we are 
already bending some rather important rules, as William has  
argued.)


I'm still waiting for comments on this; I'd suggest that these  
comments should come rather quickly, since the time window we have  
for starting an election is limited to this week due to practical  
constraints at the secretariat, as I already pointed out more than a 
week ago.

-- 
Thomas Roessler                          http://log.does-not-exist.org/
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