[nabs-l] NABS Election Procedures

[T. Joseph Carter]

Arielle,

If order can be maintained for the election, this seems fine.  The 
problem is that NABS voice votes appear to happen more the, "All in 
favor, please scream now," as opposed to the, "All in favor, please 
say 'Aye'," that is actually requested.

I think the only solution to that, if we want to maintain the 
convenience of a voice vote, is to immediately re-vote if there were 
people screaming their choice.  It shouldn't be up to any candidate 
to "be the bad guy" and insist on a count at that point, there should 
either just be another voice vote or move directly to a count.

I suspect the first time a vote is retaken because of the screaming, 
it'll stop.  This could establish the tradition of throwing out the 
first vote of the NABS meeting every year, but hopefully not.

Just a suggestion,

Joseph


On Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 01:02:42PM +1000, Arielle Silverman wrote:
>If you'd like to see any of these changed, please tell us on the
>conference call or let someone know who will be on the call.
>
>NABS Election Procedures
>
>	The below assumes that we do not have a nominating committee. If NABS
>decides to appoint a nominating committee, then a nominating committee
>report will be added to the beginning of the election process.
>
>For each elected position, I will announce the position and then ask
>for nominations from the floor. I will ask for nominations three times
>and then request a motion and a second to close nominations. If only
>one candidate is nominated, then that candidate will be elected by
>acclamation.
>
>	If more than one candidate is nominated, then each candidate will be
>given thirty seconds to speak to the membership. Candidates will speak
>in the reverse order in which they were nominated. So if the
>nominations were John-Cindy-Karen, the speeches would go
>Karen-Cindy-John.
>
>	Following speeches, a voice vote will be taken. If one candidate
>receives all or nearly all of the “I” votes, then I will declare that
>person the winner and ask if any of the other candidates want an exact
>count. If not, then the candidate garnering the majority of the voice
>votes will win. If the voice vote is inconclusive (as almost always
>happens) or if the candidate(s) declared losers of the voice vote
>request a count, then a count will be taken.
>
>	The procedure for determining an exact vote count has not yet been
>determined—will be decided by the NABS board this year with feedback
>from the membership. All persons recruited to help count votes will be
>recruited and trained prior to the election, and back-up vote counters
>will be recruited in case the original counters cannot stay for the
>duration of the election.
>
>	If one candidate receives more than half (50%) of the total votes,
>that person will be declared the winner. If not, then the candidate
>receiving the least amount of votes will be dropped and a recount will
>be conducted. This will continue until one candidate has received more
>than half of the total votes. All voting will proceed in the same
>order as speeches (so in the above example, Karen-Cindy-John).
>
>	If at any point during the elections any member believes that proper
>procedures are not being followed, counters are not reporting
>accurately, etc. that member should come to the podium and get my
>attention during a count so that I can be aware of and address the
>problem immediately. Alternatively, any member can interrupt the
>election process by saying, “Madame President, point of order” and
>that person will be given the floor. The “point of order” request
>overrides any ruling I might have made about moving on to the next
>election.
>
>
>-- 
>Arielle Silverman
>President, National Association of Blind Students
>Phone:  602-502-2255
>Email:
>nabs.president at gmail.com
>Website:
>www.nabslink.org