[NCUC-DISCUSS] NCUC EC Elections - Voting Starts tomorrow 23 Nov 2015

[Edward Morris]

Hi Bill,

Wow. I hadn't realized that we had been ignoring the Bylaws in tabulating our votes in past years. I knew there was a difference between the NCUC and NCSG voting weights but had assumed we had been following our own Bylaws all of these years. It was only when MaryAm, in her usual efficient manner, brought our attention to the vote weighing system in use that I discovered the problem. I do recall one election in the past that was decided by a single vote: it bothers me that we may have awarded an EC seat to a party that may not have won the election under our own Bylaws!

As a practical matter, now that the discrepancy is known, I'd suggest that  we either need to follow our own Bylaws or risk having a vote challenged by a losing candidate that would have won had the Bylaws been followed. Of course, if all the candidates were comfortable with using the NCSG formula that would not be an issue on a practical level although it still would be bad form. I guess this does illustrate, once again, the need for NCUC Bylaws reform. At a time when accountability of the SG's and Constituencies themselves have been questioned by certain Board members as part of the CCWG,  I'd suggest we fully evaluate this problem  and come up with a procedurally equitable decision at the front end of this election period. A challenge of the election results is not something any of us want or need.

Ed

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 23, 2015, at 11:56 AM, William Drake <william.drake at uzh.ch> wrote:
> 
> Hi Ed
> 
>> On Nov 23, 2015, at 12:10 AM, Edward Morris <egmorris1 at toast.net> wrote:
>> 
>>  
>> So rather than the 4-2-1 voting proportions used for NCSG  elections, NCUC elections are run using a 2-1-1 vote weighing system. In practical terms the NCUC Bylaws give more power to individual members, the NCSG Charter to large organisations. 
>>  
>> I do hope the tabulation software will be programmed to accurately reflect the NCUC Bylaws. We have several contested elections with some fine candidates and in fairness to them it would be good to use the vote weighing system contained in our Bylaws and not that of our SG.
> 
> This puzzled me so I checked with Glen and Maryam as well as the 2013 and 2014 final vote tallies I have saved on my computer.  As far as we can see, what we’ve done for some years now is follow the NCSG Charter's vote weighting rather than the NCUC Bylaws' weighting, which was defined prior the SG's formation. You were on the NCUC EC when we did this in the 2013 election and I don’t recall it being an issue.  There’s obviously an argument for having harmonization with the later and technically higher level model, no?  Why should we change direction at this point?
> 
> Unfortunately, Tapani (king of the data base) is off line today, so maybe we’ll hold off a day on sending out ballots until we can hear from him.  I’m about to get off a bouncy train in Zurich where I teach for four hours, and in any event have never touched the data base, so I’d rather make sure that our understanding fits with his.
> 
> Best
> 
> Bill
> 
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