Convention-Style voting procedure used for the DNSO selection of ICANN Board members

A rough outline of the rules that would govern a convention-style voting procedure.

1. BASIC RULES
1. The list of Director nominees is presented to the NC.
2. Each NC member votes for one nominee.
3. The nominees are ranked by the number of votes received, and the NC is informed of the result.
4. The lowest vote-getting nominee is eliminated from the list. [For the first round, all nominees receiving zero votes *and* the lowest vote-getting nominee are eliminated from the list.]
5. The procedure is repeated with the new (reduced) list.
6. A winner is declared when a nominee receives 11 or more of the NC's 21 votes.

In order to reduce the number of rounds of voting, the NC might eliminate the *two* lowest vote-getting nominees after each round (until such time as three nominees remain, at which point the *one* lowest vote-getting nominee is eliminated).

2. VARIATIONS BY VOTING MEDIUM

BY EMAIL

To conduct a convention-style election by email:

• the Secretariat emails a ballot to each NC member, along with a deadline for the ballot to be received;
• each NC member emails his/her vote back to the Secretariat;
• the Secretariat tallies the votes and prepares a new (reduced) list of nominees;
• emails the results and the new ballot to the NC, with the deadline for the next ballot to be received.

The disadvantage of this method is that it will be time-consuming and at least some NC members will likely miss the deadline for at least some rounds of voting. At least 24 hours will be required for each round, unless the NC members agree in advance to check their email (for example) every 8 hours over the course of a 3-day period.

BY TELEPHONE AND EMAIL

To conduct a convention-style election by phone and email:

• the Secretariat emails a ballot (list of nominees) to the NC members for reference;
• each NC member send his/her vote to the DNSO Secretariat in real time by email;
• each NC member may request to vote by phone using a separate Secretariat line or request to be called if necessary;
• the Secretariat tallies and announces the results;
• the Secretariat determines and announces which name(s) to eliminate;
• the process is repeated until one nominee gets 11 or more votes.

Under this scenario, the NC members will be voting during a teleconference. There is a guarantee that nobody will miss any round, the second telephone line providing for a backup of difficult situations (no email access).

This variation allows for secret voting, but may actually lengthen the teleconference due to (i) the time necessary to call the NC members without email access, and (ii) the time required for the Secretariat to read the emails and tally the votes.

The past NC experience indicates that one vote request for one hour time, and that it is not wise to expect to last the teleconference for more than two hours.

Under this scenario the teleconferences shall be scheduled on consecutive days.