FESCo Election Policy **Draft**

[Toshio Kuratomi]

I've created a draft election policy for FESCo.  The text is included
below and on the wiki at:
  http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/ToshioKuratomi/ElectionDraft

Please comment on this draft as FESCo will be discussing soon.  We need
time to improve the elections infrastructure before the next election so
we need to start making decisions about this.

There are several sections which may be controversial such as how long
to wait between elections, who is eligible to be a candidate, and what
voting model we will use in the future so be sure to read through the
policy and give feedback about sections you think should be revised or
are just downright wrong.

I have not addressed the points raised by Michael Schwendt about what
FESCo's purpose is in this document as that is a separate issue from
elections.  If someone would like to make that discussion into a policy
draft so we can argue specifics it would greatly aid work in that area.

-Toshio

= FESCo Voting Proposal =

FESCo elections help to keep the leadership of the project in touch with
the packagers who make up the project.

== Schedule ==

FESCo elections will be held approximately once a year, after an odd
numbered Core release.  Elections will start two weeks after the release
is made public unless there is a lack of candidates (See Candidates
below).  If there are other elections scheduled at the same time the
ballots will be offered at the same time.  This is to help keep people
involved with the project from having a constant stream of elections to
remember to take part in.

Elections will run for a period between one and two week.  An attempt
will be made to include two weekends in the open voting period so people
can vote when they have free time.

The elections will be announced in public lists.  A reminder mail to
those who are eligible to vote but haven't done so will be sent three
days before the close of the election.

== Seats on FESCo ==

There will be 13 seats on FESCo.

== Candidates ==

Candidates may be any member of the cladone group in the Fedora Accounts
System.  This means anyone who has done the minimum to become a member
of the Fedora Project can run for a seat on FESCo whether or not they
are a contributer to the Fedora Extras portion of the project.
Candidates must self nominate at least three days before the election
opens by writing their information onto the wiki (Fedora account, email
and irc nick, statement of past contributions and what they hope to
accomplish while on the Fedora Project Board.)

In order to hold an election a minimum number of candidates are
necessary.  This will be the number of open seats + 25%.  If there are
13 seats available, there will need to be at least 16 candidates.  If
not enough candidates have signed up by the deadline, the election will
be held back by one week for more candidates to appear.  If there are
still not enough candidates, the candidates who are present will be
voted upon (or merely confirmed if there are less candidates than open
seats.)  If FESCo does not have the full number of seats filled at this
point, please see Filling Vacant Seats below.

Contributers who want to nominate themselves only if there are not
enough people to fill the seats may put the same information on a
separate section of the wiki page.  If there are not enough candidates
to complete the ballot, all the contributers listed in this section will
be added to the ballot.  No special considerations will be made for
candidates elected through this process to resign their seats after the
election.  If you really do not want to be on FESCo, please withdraw
your name from this list at least three days before the election so your
name does not go on the ballot.

== Voters ==

Voters may be any member of the cvsextras group in the Fedora Accounts
System.  This means everyone who has permission to maintain and approve
packages for Extras will take part in voting.

== Filling Vacant Seats ==

If FESCo does not have all its seats filled due to members leaving or
other lack, the vacant seats will attempt to be filled by the following
methods:
 1. If there are runner-up candidates from the previous election that
did not have the opportunity to be on FESCo, they will be offered a seat
according to their rank in the voting.
 2. If those candidates have been exhausted, FESCo will operate with
less members until the next Core release.  If this is an odd Core
release, normal elections will ensue.  If this is an even Core release,
a special election will be held to fill the vacant seats.  The
candidates elected to those seats will serve a half-term (until the next
normal election).  Rules for declaring candidacy and voting will be the
same for a special election as for a normal election.

== Voting System ==

The voting model for the election aims to be simple, easy to audit, and
fair in case someone resigns and their runner-up is selected.  We have
chosen a specific method of Range Voting to address these criteria.

A voter receives a ballot listing all the candidates.  For each
candidate the voter assigns from ''{{{0}}}'' to ''{{{number of
candidates}}}'' points.  At the close of the election, the points for
each candidate are tallied and the ones with the most points win a seat.
For example, if we have 20 candidates running for 13 seats, the voter
will be presented with a ballot where they can assign 0-20 points to
each candidate.  After voting, the 13 candidates with the most points
will win the election.

== Notes ==
There are no term limits imposed by this policy.  If FESCo chooses to
impose term limits for its internal positions (Chair, VP, etc) those
should be specified in the FESCo by-laws rather than this document.

The voting application needs to be enhanced in the following ways to
support this policy:
 * Web based administration to create a new election.
 * Creation of a new election needs to trigger generation of a script
that will interact with the accounts db and election db to send out a
reminder to vote message three days before the close of the election.
 * The interface will show the voter ballots for all the elections that
they can vote in.
Other enhancements:
 * List upcoming elections.
 * List results for current and previous elections.

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