Elections timing

[gameboy9]

PS - Election nominations for this years elections start on November 15th!

Why?
imho they are too far from the end of the year.

Kale, I thought this would be appropriate to kick this out of the championships thread. We nominate starting November 15th, but we vote from December 1st and the elections are finalized on December 11th. So there is only a 20 day waiting period before everybody takes their new posts. Which is far faster than how the US does their elections... they take two to three months between electing and taking post!

All this discussion has gotten me the itch to run either time trials, my old MARP tournament (one hasn't been run in four years), or both... Interestingly... I didn't know I was nominated for time trials last year until today.

[Zhorik]

I don't think we'd want to move the actual elections much later if at all. The current main voting period is for December 1st-10th, and votes generally do come in throughout the whole 10 days. There are also provisions for runoff periods to breal ties from December 11th-15th, then December 16th-20th, then December 21st-25th (rules are at http://replay.marpirc.net/rules/election.htm). So the current process can run as long as December 25th.

If we wanted to change something I think maybe we could remove the "dead"week between the end of nominations and the start of voting, and move nominations back a week. Currently nominations run from November 15th-November 21st, nominations can be accepted until November 24th, and then there is a week of no activity from November 24th until December 1st where any discussion or campaigning can take place.

In practice I've seen very little discussion between the end of nominiations and the start of voting, so I wouldn't be opposed to just moving nominations back a week (or allowing them to extend longer).

The current timeline allows for 3 runoffs and still lets elections finish by December 25th. I don't think we want elections happening during the Christmas to New Years timeframe since many people are busy with the holidays and have limited time online. However since we haven't had more than one runoff period in recent years, we could probably push the start of voting back a week and still get everything done without getting too close to Christmas.

This year I would recommend we stick wth the current timeline. Nominations start in a little over a week and by the time this thread allows for discussion and perhaps a vote on making a change, we'll probably already be into the current nomination timeline and have started the election process for this year. If we change anything on the election timelines, I think it should wait until next year's elections.

-George

[gameboy9]

Oh that's right - I forgot about the runoffs... though I remember only having to do one runoff... don't think we ever went into "double overtime". Yeah, I'd probably just connect the nominations with the voting, so nominate from 11/15 to 11/30 and then start voting the day after. Heck, you can campaign while voting, it's not like your vote has to be permanent once you vote, I don't see anything wrong with changing it once you vote... I assume that's not against the rules...

[Kale]

PS - Election nominations for this years elections start on November 15th!

Why?
imho they are too far from the end of the year.

Kale, I thought this would be appropriate to kick this out of the championships thread. We nominate starting November 15th, but we vote from December 1st and the elections are finalized on December 11th. So there is only a 20 day waiting period before everybody takes their new posts. Which is far faster than how the US does their elections... they take two to three months between electing and taking post!

All this discussion has gotten me the itch to run either time trials, my old MARP tournament (one hasn't been run in four years), or both... Interestingly... I didn't know I was nominated for time trials last year until today.

Ok, thanks for the response, now it makes more sense

[gameboy9]

Actually, I looked up the history of the elections... looking back at when I was elections coordinator, I stated when the results were made official that when you were elected, you take your new position immediately, not on January 1st. So basically once the results are official on December 11th, you take that position at that specified date. Now this history was explicitly stated that back in 2005... I don't know if that rule has changed, but I highly doubt it.

[Zhorik]

Actually, I looked up the history of the elections... looking back at when I was elections coordinator, I stated when the results were made official that when you were elected, you take your new position immediately, not on January 1st. So basically once the results are official on December 11th, you take that position at that specified date. Now this history was explicitly stated that back in 2005... I don't know if that rule has changed, but I highly doubt it.

I'd been interpreting the positions as starting on January 1, but the general election rules aren't completely clear on that point. For now I'm planning on sticking with considering new positions as effective on January 1. The rules state that positions are for 1 year, and since runoffs can occur, if the positions are for 1 year then IMO they shouldn't start until the end of the last possible runoff date, otherwise the positions might not be for one year.

Making the positions start on Jan 1 also avoids cases where a tourament might still be running into December, but the coordinator for the tournament could "officially" change before the tournament is over.

I'll include a statement that new positions begin on January 1 in this years election announcement to make this point clear. Feel free to continue the discussion on this thread though since if the majority disagrees with me I'll reconsider before the election voting starts.

[gameboy9]

Actually, I looked up the history of the elections... looking back at when I was elections coordinator, I stated when the results were made official that when you were elected, you take your new position immediately, not on January 1st. So basically once the results are official on December 11th, you take that position at that specified date. Now this history was explicitly stated that back in 2005... I don't know if that rule has changed, but I highly doubt it.

I'd been interpreting the positions as starting on January 1, but the general election rules aren't completely clear on that point. For now I'm planning on sticking with considering new positions as effective on January 1. The rules state that positions are for 1 year, and since runoffs can occur, if the positions are for 1 year then IMO they shouldn't start until the end of the last possible runoff date, otherwise the positions might not be for one year.

Making the positions start on Jan 1 also avoids cases where a tourament might still be running into December, but the coordinator for the tournament could "officially" change before the tournament is over.

I'll include a statement that new positions begin on January 1 in this years election announcement to make this point clear. Feel free to continue the discussion on this thread though since if the majority disagrees with me I'll reconsider before the election voting starts.

Nah, no objections on my end. January 1 is fine.