[ncdnhc-discuss] ISOC to bid on .org

[Kent Crispin]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 11:44:36AM -0400, Hans Klein wrote:
> At 07:00 AM 6/7/2002 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
> 
> >In last years CIRA election they enrolled all voters in a lottery w/
> >$15000 in prizes, as an added inducement to vote.  In spite of that, out
> >of 90000 members, ~3000 voted, a 3-4% voter turnout.  You can spin that how
> >you like, but to me, that is a serious "apparent difficulty" that
> >doesn't give me a lot of warm fuzzy feelings about the election, or the
> >future stability of CIRA:
> 
> I disagree that this voter turnout indicates a problem.

As I said, you can spin it how you like.  The dangers of elections with 
very low turnouts are well-understood.

> As I understand it, there are few controversies over the management of 
> CIRA.  Therefore, there is little to which voters need to hold management 
> accountable.  Hence the low turnout.
> 
> But let's say the CIRA board started proactively making public policy or 
> was seen to be engaged in inside dealing with its friends.  In that case, 
> one could that voter turnout would greatly increase.  Members would get 
> involved and hold the board accountable.
>
> Seen as an accountability mechanism, elections only really kick in when 
> problems arise.

That's a pretty weak argument.  A far more plausible one is that the
vast majority of domain name registrants are simply uninterested and
therefore uninformed about the issues.  Hence, by the time a problem
raises to their awareness it will be a really bad problem, and it will
be far too late for them to do anything about it.

In any case, as I indicated in my response to Jamie, there are many 
other reasons why the CIRA example does not apply to ICANN.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent at songbird.com                          lonesome."  -- Mark Twain