[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Implementing Single Transferrable Voting for ARIN Elections

[John Curran]

> On 6 Jan 2022, at 11:01 AM, Owen DeLong via ARIN-consult <arin-consult at arin.net> wrote:
> 
> I think that the best thing would be for the bylaws to call out a separate document, incorporated by reference
> which defines the STV process and that the bylaws should simply specify that voting shall be conducted
> by a Single Transferrable Vote process as documented at <X> location.
> 
> That allows appropriate documentation control over the process without the weight of a full bylaw amendment.

Some additional context on the proposed changes may help here –

At present ARIN elections are conducted per the "ARIN Election Processes” <https://www.arin.net/participate/oversight/elections/processes/> which are adopted by the Board and published on the ARIN website as required by the ARIN Bylaws.   Ideally, ARIN would have been able to move to a Single-Transferrable-Vote (STV) election process by simply adopting a revised set of ARIN Election Processes specifying such, but alas the Virginia Non-stock Corporation Act requires that "directors be elected by majority of votes cast" unless otherwise specified in the Articles of Incorporation.   

The proposed change to the Articles of Incorporation would allow the Bylaws to provide for election in a manner other than “majority of votes cast” – such as an updated set of ARIN Election Processes that specify STV.   We did not put the exact election system in the proposed Bylaws change (as the Bylaws are quite sparse on election processes with these instead being contained in the ARIN Election Processes) and continuing that approach would allow for any necessary refinement of the particulars of the election process without having to further revise the bylaws. 

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers