[ALSC-Forum] Re: Inconsistency with ALSC recommendations

[Mike Roberts]

As a matter of history, I'd like to comment that this topic was the 
subject of a good deal of discussion by Board members and others in 
the process of adopting the election rules and related Bylaw language 
for the 2000 election.

The conclusion was based on notions of fairness balanced against 
workability.  The basic rule is that the purposes of geographic 
diversity are best served by having candidates be required to be 
citizens of a country within a defined region.  Since the number of 
candidates is small, the process of verifying statements of 
citizenship by examining credentials in the event of any question is 
manageable by the election committee volunteers.

On the other hand, examining citizenship credentials for a worldwide 
electorate that could be very large is potentially an expensive and 
time consuming process.   Neither the time nor the money was 
available in the 2000 election to undertake such a verification.  The 
decision made in 2000 was that in any given country, the number of 
potential voters who were residents but not citizens was such a small 
proportion of the total that it would not likely affect the outcome 
of the vote.   Therefore, the postal mail distribution of pins 
required for authentication would also establish residency to a 
reasonable degree of accuracy and the procedure was adopted.

Presumably, the ALSO and its election committee, when established, 
will revisit this type of tradeoff in light of the procedures it 
chooses to adopt and the related budget considerations.  The ALSC 
recommendation for a regionally based ALSO will also assist in 
dealing with this issue.

- Mike




At 14:02 -0400 10/24/01, Joanna Lane wrote:
>The region for which an ICANN Board candidate may stand is determined by
>citizenship of the individual, whereas the electorate for each At Large
>region is determined by residency of the individual.
>
>Problem: Vast numbers of the world's population hold citizenship for one
>region while residing in another. Under the current Bylaws, this means that
>an individual domain name holder is not eligible to vote in the same region
>for which they may stand for election.
>
>Comments from the ALSC please?
>
>Regards,
>Joanna
>
>
>
>


--