[council] Enfranchising absent voters

["Philip Sheppard" <philip.sheppard@xxxxxx>]

Fellow Council members,
The small group drafting a proposal to enfranchise absent Council members has 
completed its
work.
Attached is a proposal for electronic voting by absent Council members.
The group believes this process is sufficient to enfranchise the votes of 
absent Council
members and thus no duplication with a system of proxy voting is needed.
In short one or the other are workable and both achieve the same goal: we opted 
to recommend
electronic voting.

Note:
1) In discussion the group raised the issue of conflicts of interest. The 
electronic voting
proposal contains a sufficient reference on conflicts. However, the group 
recommends that
Council separately address this issue of conflicts as there are a number of 
aspects that
could be usefully explored with respect to ordinary in person voting and 
conflicts.This
discussion on conflicts need not delay a Council decision on electronic voting.
2) One group member also raised the issue of an option for a Council member 
present at a
meeting to instead vote later by electronic vote. As this need went beyond the
enfranchisement of absent voters and introduces additionally complexity it is 
not included
in the attached proposal and may again be considered separately if Council so 
desire.

Philip Sheppard
Chuck Gomes
Robin Gross

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Attachment: Vote enfranchisement.doc
Description: MS-Word document