FOREWORD

The ESC was charged to discuss and make recommendations to the Board on these areas:

1. Eligibility for voting including, but not limited to, eligible positions, definition of good standing, cutoff dates;
2. Standing Election Committee;
3. Voting mechanism including location and method;
4. Any and all other election issues brought up by the committee members or brought to their attention by others.

The ESC was required to file a formal report of its findings to the USGenWeb Advisory Board and the USGenWeb Project membership no later than 6 weeks from its appointment. This report will be posted to the BOARD-L mailing list, as well as the STATE-COORD-L mailing list, and to the four regional lists for dissemination to each state XXGenWeb Project mailing lists. On October 28, the USGenWeb Advisory Board granted the ESC an extension until October 31, 2000 for filing its final report.

The goal of the ESC was primarily to recommend election procedures that would

1. institute an election procedure that will be consistent from election to election;
2. provide accountability;
3. encourage more project members to participate in elections; and
4. provide both the appearance and the reality of political neutrality in the election process.

The Committee chose to recommend procedures that would be workable immediately within the structure of the current Bylaws. We also considered recommendations for changes to the Bylaws for additional improvement if and when such changes were made. Although most members of the ESC were in agreement on the following recommendations there are some minority opinions on some issues which are included in relevant sections of this report.

The Committee operated under a privacy guideline designed to encourage members to speak freely, make suggestions, and even play "devil's advocate". Meetings were conducted on a private email list in a loose discussion format with occasional votes taken on specific topics. In addition, each section of the report was voted on by the entire ESC prior to the final version of the report. All ESC votes may be viewed at http://www.timmweb.pair.com/esc/esc.gif. The Committee also invited public input by means of a survey. The survey received close to 300 responses for which we thank the general membership of the USGenWeb Project. To see a summary of the results of this survey, please visit this URL: http://www.timmweb.pair.com/esc/escsurvey.html.

OVERVIEW OF ISSUES

1. Too short a time frame between seating the committee and the start of the election
2. Longstanding concerns with voting mechanism's neutrality, security, and privacy
3. Lack of trust in the voting process
4. Poor official communication from the EC to the project at large in response to specific questions
5. Lack of oversight of the Election Committee by the Board or the project
6. Difficulties in getting voter lists
7. Chronic low voter turnout
8. A need for clearer more explicit voting instructions

Also identified as a problem in the last election was what may be described as "Unfair response to allegations of 'vote packing'." Although some measures have been identified in our report to help curtail the possibility of "vote packing", it is the unanimous opinion of this Committee that there is no realistic means of controlling this practice in every conceivable situation without adversely and unfairly affecting members who are not vote-packing. Therefore, the ESC calls upon all members of the Project to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity during any election or voting issue.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Standing Election subCommittee

The Election Study Committee unanimously recommends that the Advisory Board appoint a standing Election subCommittee (EC) within 30 days of receipt of this report. This subCommittee will operate year round.

The ESC does not recommend that the EC operate under strict parliamentary procedure. We feel that as a "working group" the EC will not benefit by this but will function better under less formal operating procedures. Day to day operating procedures should be determined by the members of the EC.

1. Composition of the subCommittee:

   The EC will consist of 12 members total and will include two members from each region, two members for the Special Projects, and two At Large EC members. From these members, the EC will choose a Chair and a Publicist-Secretary, each to serve for one year as defined in (3) regardless of the length of their individual terms. The Chair of the EC shall vote only in the case of a tie. The National Coordinator and the Representative-At-Large to the Advisory Board shall both serve as ex-officio members of the EC. They are not eligible to be either the Chair of the EC nor its Publicist-Secretary.

2. Formation of the subCommittee:

   The Advisory Board shall publish on the National Webpage, STATE-COORD, USGENWEB-ALL, USGW-CC-L, USGENWEB-DISCUSS, the Special Projects mailing lists, the regional mailing lists, and any other avenue appropriate to reach the most volunteers including, but not limited to, a personal e-mail to each project volunteer, a brief overview of the formation of a EC and a request for volunteers for such committee.

   From the list of volunteers the Advisory Board shall select a temporary chairperson of the committee. The chairperson shall select from the volunteer pool volunteers to fill the following positions: Two volunteers from each region, two volunteers from the Special Projects (as a group and not two volunteers for each special project) and two volunteers to represent the "at large" region for a total of 12 Standing Election Committee members.

   This list of volunteers shall then be submitted to the Advisory Board for approval or disapproval. The Advisory Board shall not be allowed to "pick and choose" any individual committee member. Should the Advisory Board disapprove the slate of members in its entirety then the Advisory Board shall chose a new temporary chairperson and the process shall be repeated.

   Replacement of EC members due to end of term shall be handled in the same manner as above. For members who need to be replaced within the term due to resignation or continuing non-responsiveness, a new member shall be chosen from the volunteer pool by the EC committee thru a majority vote. This majority opinion will be forwarded to the Advisory Board for final approval or disapproval.

   MINORITY OPINION--FORMATION OF THE ELECTION SUBCOMMITTEE Advisory Board members representing each region (normally one State Coordinator representative and two Local Coordinator representatives) will select two people from a pool of eligible voters within their region who volunteer to serve on the EC. The Special Projects Board members will likewise select two people from eligible voters within the Special Projects who volunteer to serve. At large members of the EC will be selected by the National Coordinator and the Representative-At-Large, who will each select one individual to serve as "members at large" from a pool of eligible voters from any part of the project who volunteer to serve. The ESC recommends that the Board members solicit for volunteers using State or Special Project mailing lists, Regional mail lists and any other means that the Advisory Board members feel to be useful in reaching the largest number of project members. Once the proposed membership of the EC is complete, the Advisory Board shall vote to approve the entire slate of proposed members. This procedure will also be followed to elect new EC members when the terms of outgoing members expire (see Section 3. Tenure of the Committee). The ESC recommends that the Board begin accepting volunteers for those positions that are opening up in mid-November, select new members and vote on the entire slate of replacement members so that they may be seated without delay on January 1. Should EC members need to be replaced before the regularly scheduled end of term, the appropriate Board member(s) in conjunction with the EC will select replacement members from a pool of volunteers appropriate to the qualifications for the vacant seat.

   If deemed necessary by the EC and approved by the Advisory Board, the EC may take on additional workers (as opposed to committee members) during actual election periods which shall be defined as the time from nominations through final vote count although it is the opinion of this committee that such additional workers would probably not be necessary.

   The selection of the EC Chair and the EC Publicist-Secretary will be made by secret ballot sent to the National Coordinator and the Advisory Board's Representative-At-Large for counting and verification. Since the terms for the EC and the terms for the Advisory Board and the regular election are not the same time period there should be no difficulty in conducting simple email votes for EC Chair and Publicist-Secretary.

   Any member of the project who is eligible to vote is eligible for membership in the EC unless they are presently running for office. EC members who decide to run for office must immediately withdraw from the EC and its mailing list. This includes the National Coordinator and the Representative-At-Large. Should both of them choose to run for office, they shall together select another Board member who is not currently running for office to serve as ex-officio member of the EC until after the election.

   EXCLUSION OF BOARD MEMBERS The ESC was evenly divided on the issue of whether or not sitting Board members other than the National Coordinator and the Representative-At-Large should also be EC members. Some members felt that there was a potential conflict of interest if Board members were also members of the EC; others felt that participation in the EC should not be limited.

3. Tenure of the subCommittee:

   Initially, each pair of EC members as outlined in (2) will have one individual serving for one year and one individual for two years so as to stagger the turnover in EC members. Thence forward, regular terms (not the filling of unexpired terms) will run for two years. As it is realistic to expect that these recommendations may be implemented by the end of this year, the terms are suggested as being from January 1 to December 31 even in the event that the actual formation of the EC takes place prior to January 1, 2001. The ESC recommends that EC members serve only one term and be ineligible for reappointment for one year after the expiration of a full two-year term. Those EC members serving for only one year initially in order to stagger terms may be re-selected for another term in the second year.

   If a member of the EC is not performing his/her duties on the EC or is disruptive of the EC's business, the EC may petition the Advisory Board via the National Coordinator and/or the Representative-At-Large for replacement of that member by a new volunteer. The ESC recommends that EC members be removed only for cause, which shall include but not be limited to failing to respond promptly and considerately to member communications, failing to perform duties related to the business of the EC, or continually disrupting the business of the EC with inappropriate or unprofessional behavior.

B. Duties of the subCommittee:

1. The ESC unanimously recommends that the EC conduct all national level elections for Advisory Board Representatives, including elections for National Coordinator, Representative-At-Large, Regional State Coordinator Representatives, Local Coordinator Representatives, Special Project Representatives, and votes on Bylaws Amendments as well as any elections required by future bylaws revisions or any other national level elections that may be held.

2. The committee will be responsible for maintaining current voter rolls. Lists of voters and email addresses shall be kept up to date on a quarterly basis using whatever methods best accomplish that, including working with State Coordinatorss, designated "election personnel" in the states or Special Projects, using online registration, etc. The voter rolls will be maintained solely for the purpose of conducting national elections and will be kept entirely confidential and will not be supplied to the Board or to other parts of the project for any purpose.

3. As its first order of business the EC will compile a current voter list. The EC shall request the list(s) of eligible voters from the last election and current voter lists from each State Coordinator and Special Project Coordinator. All duplicate entries (i.e. volunteers who work in more than one state, region or position) from the above specified lists shall be combined into one voter record. All voter records shall be maintained in a database capable of producing reports sorted by regional basis, special project basis, state basis, national basis or other breakdown as may be deemed necessary in the future. The voter record shall also be structured so as to contain information on all areas/issues in which the individual voter is eligible to vote.

   MINORITY OPINION--DUTIES OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE--CURRENT VOTER LIST Add this duty: A list containing only the names of all eligible voters, sorted alphabetically, without e-addresses or area(s) of participation, shall be placed online.

4. Verification of e-mail address and positions shall be made by use of an e-mail broadcast system to send personal e-mail messages to each voter. Other means of verification may be used as determined necessary by the committee to fulfill its obligation to have an accurate, up to date voter list. Any disputes or discrepancies shall be: (1) resolved between the State Coordinator and the EC (2) If no resolution is possible the matter will be referred to the regional Advisory Board representative for resolution. If the dispute cannot be settled by the region Advisory Board representative, then the matter will be referred to the entire Advisory Board for resolution.

5. The committee will be responsible for keeping the voter list up to date on a quarterly basis through:
   1. using an e-mail broadcast software to send individual messages to all voters verify e-mail addresses and positions. It was the consensus of the ESC committee that direct individual emails to voters would be both more effective in response and found to be more acceptable to many coordinators as compared to being subbed to yet another list.
   2. maintaining a membership registration or contact area on an EC website
   3. submission of the current list (sorted by state) to the current SC and/or any person chosen within the state to handle such duties; the ESC suggests that the states and the special projects may choose an election liaison to be the contact for that entity with the election committee.
   4. and/or by other means as determined by the EC during its day to day operations. Resolution of any disputes or discrepancies shall be handled as stated above.
   5. Each regional voter list and communications should be maintained and managed by the two members chosen for/by that region. The national list should be managed and maintained by the two members chosen by the National Coordinator and the Representative-At-Large, and the Special Project voter list should be managed and maintained by the members chosen by the Special Project reps.
   6. The regional and national members should manage communications with the state liaisons and/or the State Coordinators, but the Publicist-Secretary shall manage communications to the Advisory Board and to the project as a whole via the main lists (USGENWEB-ALL, USGENWEB-DISCUSS, USGW-CC-L, STATE-COORD, the regional lists) and by any other avenues deemed appropriate during day to day operations of the committee.
   7. The Publicist-Secretary shall be responsible for writing quarterly and post-election reports for submission to the Board and the Project.
   8. The ESC also recommends that the Publicist-Secretary of the EC be responsible for maintaining a web site for the EC that shall include but is not limited to:
      1. Contact page detailing who on the EC to contact, listing all members with emails both clickable and written out, their region of responsibility including the listing of the states in each region as well as noting who the current Chair and Publicist-Secretary;
      2. A page detailing eligibility guidelines including how and who to contact regarding problems;
      3. A general page about how the election mechanism functions in general (nominations, voting process, result release) to be replaced at an actual election time with a similar page detailing the specifics of that election including clickable and written out URLs to where each region voter goes, where to vote for national level, a listing of states in each region, alternative voting mechanisms for those who for any reason have a problem using the chosen voting mechanism, etc.;
      4. A page linking to all public election committee reports to date; and
      5. During an election period a page listing all candidates with URLs to their campaign pages both clickable and written out.

C. Eligibility of voters

After considerable discussion, the ESC agreed unanimously that the bylaws (Article VII, Section 6) state unequivocally that ALL project members are eligible to vote, excluding transcribers and lookup volunteers and that therefore no restriction should be made on the right of any member to vote. Therefore, any number of coordinators per county or state, town coordinators, and state level special project coordinators (as opposed to Special Project coordinators from the national level projects) such as Native American projects, African American projects, military projects organized as and part of the XXGenWeb state projects, shall be eligible to vote. A requirement that one be a member for at least 30 days prior to the start of an election was deemed acceptable purely on an administrative basis. State-level or Special Project-level voting restrictions shall not affect a member's right to vote in any national level election.

Challenges to a member's eligibility to vote will in no circumstances be addressed by the EC. The Project Coordinator or XXGenWeb State Coordinator should address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to allow the person to vote in the current election. If they do not, the person will be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to vote. If a Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision of the State Coordinator, then the matter shall be referred to the regional Advisory Board rep. If the Local Coordinator continues to challenge the decision made by the regional Advisory Board rep, then the matter shall be referred to the entire AB. The decision of the entire Advisory Board shall be final. However, should the matter fail to be decided before the end of any election or voting issue, the person shall be given the right to vote by default.

MINORITY OPINION--ELIGIBILITY OF VOTERS Challenges to a member's eligibility to vote will in no circumstances be addressed by the EC. Such challenges shall be addressed to and determined by the Advisory Board. The Advisory Board should address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to allow the person to vote in the current election. If they do not, the person will be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to vote.

Eligible voters may vote once for each region or special project position for which they are eligible, once for national positions and once for any national issue that may be placed on a ballot, including but not limited to bylaws amendments.

As has been the practice in past elections, Special Project state and project level File Managers and Coordinators shall be eligible to vote in elections for Special Project Representatives. Transcribers are not included as defined in the Bylaws, Article VII Section 6. Although the EC has not handled Special Projects elections in the past, the ESC was unanimous in determining that it should do so in future elections and that this is clearly directed by the bylaws.

D. Nominations

When nominations are made, the EC will be responsible for verifying that the nominees are eligible to run for office, based solely on the criteria in Article VI, Section 9 of the bylaws. No other determination of eligibility will be made by the EC, including that of good standing. Nominees shall be assumed to be in good standing unless determined otherwise by the Advisory Board or State Coordinators or Special Projects Coordinators.

If the nominee challenges a finding that they are ineligible to vote or run for office, the EC will in no circumstances make a ruling on their challenge. The Advisory Board should address the challenge in a timely fashion so as to allow the person to vote or run for office in the current election. If they do not, the person will be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to run for office.

E. Voting Mechanism

The ESC determined that the voting mechanism selected should meet at least the following criteria:

1. Accept votes (more than one per person, with the ability to drop earlier votes);
2. Display appropriate ballots depending on the ID of the person or have clear directions so a voter can easily find the correct portions of the ballot for which they are eligible to vote;
3. Send a confirmation email once the vote is accepted that includes a date/time stamp, and their votes;
4. Count votes and return reliable results within 24 hours;
5. Compile vote statistics in a way that the EC can post so that people can verify their votes; and
6. Be confidential and secure.

Additionally, the mechanism should be flexible, reliable, and free.

It is the opinion of the ESC that a voting method meeting the above requirements should be chosen initially from an outside or "third-party" service. Therefore, the ESC strongly recommends that the EC research and select an outside voting service as one of its first orders of business after being seated. The system should be in place and functional as soon as possible, but no later than June 1, 2001.

It is also strongly suggested that the election committee look into forming a supporting group to work on producing election software that meets our requirements. We are aware that developing an in-house voting software alternative would take time but feel that it is a good idea to establish independence from outside sources in the long term and that in the meantime the EC can establish itself as a non-partisan group. Should the Project decide that the development of its own voting software is desirable, the ESC recommends that a working group of programmers be formed that will address the requirements and design a suitable program. This working group should operate independently of the EC but should report to it regularly so that reports on development progress may be included in the EC's reports to the Project.

CLOSING STATEMENT

The Election Study Committee would like to thank the Advisory Board of the USGenWeb Project for giving us this opportunity to address these important issues. We strongly urge the Board to accept this report in its entirety.

Submitted 31 October 2000