[Proposal] Revision to Administrative Bylaw 4.B.vi.1

Election Reform proposal #2:

I hereby propose the following revision to Administrative Bylaw 4.B.vi:

vi.     The vote will open on the day after the seven (7) day council discussion period, and close no earlier than the same time seven (7) days later.

1.     The voting page during the election period shall be blind and none shall be able to see specifically which candidate has been voted for by any given Council Representative until the votes are closed, at which time the specific votes and comments will be able to be viewed under open votes as part of our voting history.

                                                                 i.     The only individuals who will be able to see the votes during this period will be members of the Web Coordinator’s staff. They will not provide information about the specific election results to anyone during the voting period.

I would like to propose this revision to our process because I feel that every year the elections only get worse in their drama and last-minute antics. I don’t mind if candidates contact CMs or campaign on Facebook or whatever else they want to do outside of the election discussion period. What I do mind is “so and so is losing by 2 votes, quick, check the list and contact these people and ask them to change their votes!” – the week of election period should be about reading the applications and discussing the viewpoints of the candidates, and not about how dirty we can get in our under-the-table lobbying.

Right now I feel that we have set the stage that it is difficult and near impossible for a new volunteer with all the right ideas to step forward and present their competition unless they have the ability to have a series of individuals with significant clout to lobby for them behind the scenes. I would like to even that playing field.

I do not think this is necessary for Head Coordinator elections, nor do I think it is necessary for Special Elections. The Organization only tends to dial the drama to an 11 during normal Coordinator Elections, and in the last couple of hours, dial the drama to 15. We don’t need this grief, to be honest, and we can get by with good and positive campaigning by candidates to win their votes by what they write and present themselves to the voting body.

I am leaving this Proposal open-ended as to if we want to make a method for players to check in to see if their CMs registered a vote or not, or however we want to do that… I don’t want us to have to make another series of props just to figure that out. It is my opinion that a good CM should discuss elections with their player base, but not all chronicles feel that is necessary (much to my disappointment). I can’t force CMs to represent their players and communicate, but I’m willing to enable what communication we can accommodate.

As far as the people able to see the votes are concerned, the Web Coordinator has said we can in fact make the votes blind, however, the Web Coordinator staff would still be able to see it but has reassured me that the Web staff have BA’s in place to maintain an integrity to their information they have access to. I would consider corruption by the Web staff leaking this information worthy of Disciplinary Action.

~ Jenn Bahrs

CM, Kings of New York

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