16 March 2001

Proposed by Harald Alverstrand, DNSO GA Alternate Chair

ELECTION RULES FOR THE DNSO GA

Version 0.2

Proposed for adoption by vote of the DNSO GA, March 2001

These are the rules for electing the chair and alternate chair of the General assembly.

OVERVIEW

The process is an instance of Instant Runoff Vote, the same type of procedure that was used for the At-Large Election of ICANN.

The electors are the voting roster of the General Assembly: http://www.dnso.org/secretariat/rosterindex.html

NOTE: Until the ICANN bylaws are changed, this procedure is an advisory vote by the GA to advise the Names Council of its preferences. This note shall be considered removed when the bylaws empower the GA to elect its own chairs.

WHEN TO HAVE AN ELECTION

An election is usually held near the end of the term of office for the chair of the General Assembly. The exact time is decided by the outgoing Chairs, or the Names Council if both outgoing Chairs are unavailable.

START OF ELECTION

The election process starts when the Secretariat announces that nominations are open.

At the same time, the voting roster is closed, and remains the same for the remainder of the election process. (New members can always be added, but do not get a vote for the election).

NOMINATION

All nominations and endorsements are made public.

Nominees for the Chair and Alternate Chair are sent to an email address provided by the Secretariat.

The nomination period shall be at least one week.

After the close of the nomination period, endorsements for the candidates are sent to an email address provided by the Secretariat.

The endorsement period shall be at least one week.

Before the end of the endorsement period, candidates that wish to be considered for the post must have sent in an acceptance of the nomination.

SELECTION OF THE SLATE

All candidates who have accepted the nomination, and had at least two endorsements from members of the voting roster of the General Assembly, are considered candidates.

Note: Candidates are allowed to endorse themselves. Members can endorse multiple candidates.

ELECTION

Before the start of the election, the (outgoing) Chair selects at least 2 people who are not candidates to act as an election watchdog comittee. These receive copies of all ballots. The names of the watchdogs are public.

Voting is secret; only the secretariat and the watchdogs get to see the votes.

Each member of the General Assembly roster receives one ballot listing all candidate names.

He/she then marks a preference, using "1" for the most favored candidate, "2" for the second, and so on. There is no requirement to mark all names.

Ballots are sent to an address provided by the Secretariat.

The election period shall be at least one week.

SELECTION OF THE CHAIR

The number of ballots for each candidate where he is ranked first is counted. If one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, he/she is the winner.

If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the ballots for that person are counted for the candidate who is ranked next on that ballot. If there is no ranked candidate left, the ballot is discarded. If two or more candidates tie for fewest votes, the one listed first on the ballot is discarded. (NOTE: this choice is essentially random. But flipping a coin is a process that cannot be repeated by the watchdogs.)

The process is repeated until one candidate is ranked at the top of more than 50% of the remaining ballots.

SELECTION OF THE ALTERNATE CHAIR

The same process as for chair is used, but the candidate selected for chair is eliminated before the counting starts.

(NOTE: This is likely to be a different candidate than the runner-up in the selection procedure for chair, for instance when 90% of the electorate rank one person first and another second, while the remaining 10% vote for a third. Re-running the process is considered more likely to select a team that can work well together.)