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

[Adam Thompson]

John (et al.), the (admittedly so far very small) consensus we've seen today is "Hell, Yeah! Let's change the voting model", but I think everyone who spoke up today had approximately the same concern: at least _something_ a little more explicit needs to be put into the bylaws, or in a supporting document the bylaws _explicitly_ reference.

After a day's thought on this, although I very much want to get rid of FPTP everywhere I can - I think it's fundamentally broken - I am absolutely NOT OK with supporting the changes *as currently written*.  I wasn't really OK with it earlier, but the longer I think about it and the more times I review it, the more opposed I am.

I feel that it reduces protections and opens up new possibilities for malicious actors to (somehow) subvert the intent in the future, without putting even the most trivial of protections, assurances, whatever you want to call them, back in to either the Articles or the Bylaws.

I already suggested one tiny change that would make me happy (referencing the voting model in the Bylaws); I won't attempt to condense everyone else's opinion on what needs to change into a single paragraph.

Great idea, not so hot implementation IMO.  PLEASE revisit the changes and re-propose, I don't want this change in voting model to evaporate.

-Adam

Adam Thompson
Consultant, Infrastructure Services
MERLIN
100 - 135 Innovation Drive
Winnipeg, MB, R3T 6A8
(204) 977-6824 or 1-800-430-6404 (MB only)
athompson at merlin.mb.ca
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: ARIN-consult <arin-consult-bounces at arin.net> On Behalf Of John
> Curran
> Sent: Thursday, January 6, 2022 1:30 PM
> To: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>
> Cc: arin-consult at arin.net
> Subject: Re: [ARIN-consult] Consultation on Implementing Single
> Transferrable Voting for ARIN Elections
> 
> 
> > 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
> 
> 
> 
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