[maemo-community] Election process referendum

[From: Andrew Flegg]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 3:31 PM, Dave Neary <dneary at maemo.org> wrote:
>
> Andrew Flegg wrote:
>>
>>   1) No change; the current process ("first-five-past-the-post") is fine.
>>   2) A single-transferrable vote system. (Wording TBD)
>>   3) A reweighted range voting system. (Wording TBD)
>>   4) Giving the outgoing council the decision before each election.
>>      (Wording TBD).
>>   5) None of the above.
>
> I think 5 choices is too many. Let's try and get a feel, through debate,
> for whether the community feels the need to safeguard against possible
> future abuses of the council, and if there's no need for a safeguard
> then let's propose what I suggest.

Agreed. However, I don't think we'll actually *get* a feel for what
the community thinks through debate. We've had, what, about half a
dozen of us discussing it here: that's hardly representative!

The advantages of a referendum, even an overly burdensome one:

  * It settles the matter once and for all (or allows any future council
    to say it has been, until the clamouring gets /really/ loud)

  * It is easier for people to cast a vote (and I think a single X applies
    to these suggested referenda) than compose an email.

  * Everyone who is eligible to vote would receive an email inviting them
    to do so; not everyone is subscribed to maemo-community, and attempts
    at bringing (a) debate here through planet & ITT haven't been
    massively successful.

> If the community feels there is a need to codify this (to avoid future
> debates every election, or to protect against Mugabe-type counting
> systems) then let's propose a 3 choice election: STV, RRV, no change.

You see, I think Ryan's desperate to hang on to the title and will
eagerly railroad Simon, Eduardo, Tim and me into maintaining power,
turning the chairman into an emperor, dissolving the last remnants of
the Old Republic and at last having revenge on the Jedi :-)

Cheers,

Andrew

-- 
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council member