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Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed - Part 2 Each House determines a Candidate



Hi,

I think this is somewhat different. I would like to propose a solution that relies on our normal process of taking a vote anytime we decide to make something secret.

So I would like to suggest that we take a vote on making the ballot a secret ballot. We can do this after having voted on the Council Procedures and before stating the discussions on the election. By those, as of yet not approved procedures, this would require a majority vote of each house of those present.

In the meantime we will also ask staff to prepare paper ballots to be used if secret balloting prevailed. Different ballots (different color paper) for each of the houses.

ballot for the first ballot:

Name of Candidate from CP House
Name of Candidate from NCP House
None of the above


ballot for the 2nd round*

Candidate who had greatest total percentage in the first round (don't need name)
None of the above

-
Those who are absent could send their votes to a trusted staff person (or other trusted attendee - e.g. we could ask the Nomcom chair to act in this capacity) who would transfer them to ballots and put them in the ballot box with the others.

Would this work for people?

a.

* in the odd even that we have an equal total percentage for each candidate, we should postpone the second round until each candidate has had a chance to discuss their positions further with the council and then another round would be identical to the first round.



On 15 Oct 2009, at 16:46, Rosette, Kristina wrote:

Given that we have always taken the position that a vote can be a roll call vote (as opposed to one by acclamation) on the request of one Councilor, my request for a secret ballot should be sufficient.

If it's not secret, I will not vote.  Period.



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner- council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Avri Doria
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:56 AM
To: Council GNSO
Subject: Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed - Part 2 Each House determines a Candidate


Hi,

Don't know. Worth checking. Though the system may have to be reworked for the bi-cameral nature of the vote.

We can certainly do paper ballots where one indicates not only their vote but their House.

Do other council members believe this needs to be a secret ballot?

a.

On 15 Oct 2009, at 15:46, Gomes, Chuck wrote:

Is there any reason why we couldn't hold a live email election?  I
don't know the limitations of the election software.

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rosette, Kristina
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 7:25 AM
To: avri@xxxxxxx; council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed - Part 2
Each House determines a Candidate


To my recollection, none of our previous elections while I have been
on Council have been public.  I thought I'd missed the rationale for
holding it publicly.  I've gone back and reviewed the messages I
could find, but haven't seen one.  I had thought we would be voting
privately in the week beforehand with the results announced at the
meeting.

I object to our having to hold the election as a roll call vote.  I
believe all Councilors should be permitted to cast votes privately.
Casting open ballots will not be conducive to the improved working
relationship that many of us have articulated a desire to develop.
Moreover, given that I have found the environment at ICANN meetings
generally (including public Council meetings) to be hostile, I
believe casting those votes publicly is more likely than not to
exacerbate that problem.

In sum, I want to vote privately as we've done in the past and have
the results announced at the Council meeting. Doing so has the extra
benefit of having a definitive result at the Council meeting
(assuming there is a clear winner); no delay from absentee balloting
will occur.

K


Kristina Rosette
Covington & Burling LLP
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC  20004-2401
voice:  202-662-5173
direct fax:  202-778-5173
main fax:  202-662-6291
e-mail:  krosette@xxxxxxx

This message is from a law firm and may contain information that is
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Thank you for your cooperation.





-------------------------
Sent from my Wireless Handheld




----- Original Message -----
From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Council GNSO <council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu Oct 15 03:23:01 2009
Subject: Re: [council] Council wide Nominations are closed - Part 2
Each House determines a Candidate


Hi,

I wanted to ad a few more details to this part of the process.

On 15 Oct 2009, at 08:01, Glen de Saint Géry wrote:

B. PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR THE VOTING

For this election, the voting will take place at the public Council
meeting in Seoul on Wednesday, 28 October 2009.

Avri Doria, current GNSO Council chair, will serve as
non-voting chair
of the bicameral Council meeting on 28 October until such time as a
new chair is elected, at which time the new chair will assume the
chair responsibilities.

If an absentee ballot is required to complete the chair's election,
this will be a 24 hour ballot scheduled to end on 29 October. If no
chair has been elected by the end of the Annual meeting on
30 October,
the vice-chairs will assume the chair responsibilities as
defined in
the Bylaws and a runoff will be scheduled as determined in
the Council
Procedures.

The winning candidate needs 60% of the votes of each house.

The Council shall inform the Board and the Community
appropriately and
post the election results on the GNSO website within 2
business days
following the election.

In the event that the GNSO Council has not elected a GNSO Council
Chair by the end of the previous Chair's term, the Vice-Chairs will
serve as Interim GNSO Co-Chairs until a successful election can be
held.

Since this election will be done in the meeting, I am planning to
hold it as an open vote via a roll call.  This will be the second
major item on the agenda, after a vote on any amendments to the
proposed Operating Procedures the new Operating Procedures as
possibly amended.

I am hoping that all of the council members will be available for the
vote, either in person or via remote communications, so that the
election can be completed on the Wednesday, even if it needs to go to
two rounds.  If we do not have everyone available for the call, then
we will need to go a 24 hour absentee ballot on each round.  This
means that the first round would not end until Thursday morning.  If
necessary we could schedule a second round for Thursday, though we
would then need to allow for voting at the Thursday meeting, which
would be an exception to our normal practice.  In this case a second
absentee ballot would end on Friday afternoon. In any case, the goal
is to enable the election of the new chair, if at all possible, by
the end of the Seoul meeting.

As I said, I am hoping we can avoid needing to do an absentee ballot
so I hope that any council member who cannot attend the meeting can
participate remote in al least the first part of the Wednesday
meeting.

Assuming we have a different candidate from each House, each council
member polled would in turn be able to vote for:

Candidate chosen by Contracted Parties House (CP House or, Candidate
chosen by Non Contracted Parties House (NCP House) or, None of the
above

(In the case of a single candidate chosen by both Houses, the vote
would resemble the second round procedure below)

The votes would be tabulated separately according to House, though
the roll will be called alphabetically.

To  succeed a candidate needs 60% or each house.  This means  5 out
of
7 votes for the CP House and 8 out of 13 votes for the NCP House.

- If either the CP House candidate  or NCP House candidate get 60%
of each House, he or she will have been elected and will take over as
chair of the meeting at that point.

- If 'None of the above' gets 60% of each house, then the election is halted and rescheduled for a month later. In this case the two vice-
chairs will take over as interim co-chairs at the end of the week.

- If neither of the candidates (or "none of the above") gets the
required 60% of each house, then a second round is called for.

Assuming every one is present on Wednesday morning, we can hold this
second round vote immediately, otherwise we can hold it on Thursday.

The second roll call vote will be between:

The candidate who received the greatest combined percentage of the
votes when the results of each house is summed to the other
(Percentage from CP House + Percentage from NCP House) or, None of
the above

If the candidate receives 60% votes of each House ( out of 7 votes
for the CP House and 8 out of 13 votes for the NCP
House) then that candidate has been elected and will take over as
chair of the meeting at that point.

Otherwise, the election then the election is halted and rescheduled
for a month later.  In this case the two vice-chairs will take over
as interim co-chairs at the end of the week.

I believe this process follows from the rules set for the election of
chairs in the new bi-cameral council.  I very much look forward to
completing a successful election on Wednesday morning.

Thanks,



a.














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