Re: Result for vote regarding new members for the board of directors

[CCing Wichert because I have a recommedation on ballot instructions.]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2003 at 02:11:41PM -0500, Lukas Geyer wrote:
> I see some votes which list only one option.

I see five: 33, 46, 67, 85, and 93[1].

> As I understood the voting guidelines, this effectively amounts to
> abstaining.

Yes.

> On the other hand,
> it is quite clear that the intent of those voters was different and
> that they probably did not understand the details of the voting
> procedure (or read the instructions...).

SPI members are not Floridians. We can expect basic literacy from them.
I suggest making future ballots more clear, perhaps with boldface text:

VOTING FOR ONE OPTION ONLY IS EQUIVALENT TO ABSTAINING. YOU MUST RANK
AT LEAST TWO OPTIONS FOR YOUR BALLOT TO AFFECT THE OUTCOME.

RANK ALL OPTIONS TO ENSURE THAT YOUR BALLOT HAS THE MOST EFFECT.

I strongly suggest that we do *not* try to interpret the five
aforementioned ballots under special rules that apply only to them. I
doubt that they'd affect the outcome, anyway.

> I have no Condorcet voting software at hand to run the results through
> but I know some people have. Would it make a difference if those votes
> expressed a preference over all other candidates and did not affect
> the races between the others? Of course a similar question applies to
> all votes with less than 8 options ranked. I don't think it would
> render this vote invalid but nevertheless I consider it an interesting
> question.

Wichert gave you a pointer to the software he used; if you'd do this
analysis I think it would be instructive. Considerably more ballots
(than five) failed to rank all options, and I'm not sure what impact
they had. If you can find this out and let the Board know before we
meet and act upon the results, it would be much appreciated.

I should re-iterate that under the SPI bylaws, this election does not in
and of itself appoint new people to the SPI Board; only a vote of the
Board itself can do this. This election basically serves as a
recommendation of the membership. Of course, the bylaws can be changed
to permit "direct election" of Board members by the organizational
membership, and if you feel that that should be the case, I suggest you
let the Bylaws Revision Committee know this:

spi-bylaws(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org

[1] http://www.spi-inc.org/secretary/votes/vote1/votes.xhtml

--
G. Branden Robinson, Treasurer
Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
treasurer(at)spi-inc(dot)org
http://www.spi-inc.org/