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Open Science Grid Council Voting Procedures

Abstract

This document describes the rules by which the council votes on decisions where a formal vote rather than consensus decision is needed.

Introduction

Decisions of the OSG Council are made by consensus at any officially convened council meeting whenever possible. Council meetings are officially convened by announcing them via the osg-council list server; topics requiring voting are indicated in the agenda. The OSG Council is composed of representatives of organizations as listed on OSG Council Members. In this document, the term 'council member' refers to representatives of organizations with full voting privilege on the OSG Council.

If any member of the council challenges a consensus decision within two whole business days (A business day is defined as any days from Monday to Friday, 8 AM Eastern to 5 PM Pacific at the exclusion of US Government Federal Holidays defined by the United States of America, Office of Personnel Management: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/snow-dismissal-procedures/federal-holidays/#url=2013) of the posting of the official minutes of the meeting to the council email list then a formal vote will be taken on the decision.

A non-meeting voting process will be followed for any decisions which may affect the consortium and its governing structure as a whole. For example, elections of the OSG Executive Director or a vote pertaining to the exclusion of a VO from the consortium are topics which qualify for a non-meeting voting.

In-meeting voting process

Any official meeting of the council can have a tallied vote on an issue that was announced seven calendar days in advance of the meeting and included on the agenda. In this case, the council chair may appoint an administrator for the vote as needed.

The vote can consist of a show of hands or roll call, or by other means acceptable to council members present at the meeting. However, it shall always be an open vote where each council member is given an opportunity to reason their decision. The administrator shall ensure that only authorized members of the council or their appointed delegates vote. The count shall be tallied immediately and results announced before the meeting is adjourned. Unless otherwise specified elsewhere, a decision of the council is determined by simple majority of the votes cast, excluding abstentions.

Non-meeting voting process

The OSG consortium protects voter's right for privacy.

  • A formal vote of the council is conducted as an anonymous vote election initiated by Email to the osg-council mailing list. The election will be conducted following one of the technical procedures listed below as the discretion of the election coordinator.
  • For each election the chair of the council will appoint one member of the council considered to be reasonably impartial with respect the choices to tabulate the vote count and announce the result. This person is the election administrator. The chair may choose to appoint two election administrators to jointly oversee the election if appropriate.
  • Notice of an election is announced by the chair at least 7 calendar days before the start of the voting period. This notice will describe the topic of the election and identify the election administrator(s). In the case of an election caused by challenge to a consensus decision the posting of the meeting minutes starts the 7 day notice period, and the election administrator(s) are announced by the chair at least 24 hours prior to the start of the election period.
  • The voting period starts when an election administrator posts the ballot notice. The voting period consists of two whole business days following the posting of the ballot notice.
  • If any council member informs either the chair or an election administrator that he/she is unable to vote by email, he/she can cast his/her vote by telephone conference call with the election administrator(s). Delegation of voting rights by one council member to another or to a delegate should be explicitly mentioned upon opening of the voting period to either the osg-council mailing list or by Email to the election administrator(s).
  • Each organization represented on the council has an equal weight vote. An individual may represent more than one organization, and may thus have more than one vote. In accordance with the delegation principle, a council member may also hold several votes.
  • Each council member shall cast his/her vote(s) once within the voting period. Any votes cast outside of the voting period are considered void.
  • Any individual holding multiple votes shall be allowed to distribute the votes amongst the available choices or direct all votes to one choice.
  • A ballot item is considered approved by the council by a simple majority of votes cast, not counting abstentions. A quorum of at least 1/3rd of voting council member shall be represented for a non-meeting voting to be valid. Supermajority requirements may apply as addressed later.
  • If a ballot item is multi-valued and no single choice receives a simple majority of votes cast, excluding abstentions, then a new ballot is prepared with only the top two voted choices. In case of tied votes, the ballot consists of the minimum number of tied choices to allow at least two on the ballot.
  • In case a first round of voting does not result in a decision, the election administrator prepares the revised ballot and sends it to the council email list as part of the result notice of the vote and a second voting period starts. Voting procedures for the second round are the same as for the first round.
  • A tied vote between two choices shall not exceed two consecutive ballots. In such event, a new vote shall be organized at a later time. Addition of new choices or voluntary reduction of existing choices is then allowed.
  • The election administrators shall announce the results of the election within one whole business day of the close of the voting period.

Supermajority requirements

Instances requiring a supermajority are subsets of in-meeting or non-meeting voting regulations. Supermajority requirements are used for reaching decisions of broad impact or extreme importance to the consortium, its direction or structure.

OSG executive director election

The OSG executive director election will follow a non-meeting procedure and a minimal quorum of 60% of the voting pool will be required to validate the ballot.

Bylaws modification

Important restructuring and modifications of the OSG bylaws requires a vote following an absolute majority voting to ensure affirmative support for the proposal.

Suspension of membership

Council Member Organizations may transition from voting to non-voting membership and vice versa. Those cases are handled via the membership rules of the Council. Membership suspension requires a 2/3rd majority vote of an in meeting vote of the council. The period of suspension is to be stipulated as part of the issue being voted on. The council member who is subject to this vote is permitted to vote on this issue but is not required to be present at the meeting. A valid reason for the suspension must be included as part of the voting procedure and the reason must be agreed upon by the Executive Director, Council chair and two additional members of the Executive Board. The reason must be based upon credible evidence that the council member is materially interfering with or damaging the mission of Open Science Grid.

Announcing results

After the voting period is concluded and all votes are counted the election administrator(s) will send a notice of the decisions on each ballot item to the council email list, the chair of the council, and a CC to the other election administrator.

Challenging results

Any three members of the council or the executive board can challenge the results of an election. In case of a challenge, the chair shall appoint two people to audit the results, who are not the people challenging the results or the original election administrators. The two auditors and the chair shall together review all pertinent materials, provided by the election administrators or other means. The results of the audit shall be announced by the chair within two calendar weeks of the challenge.

Appendix - Technical Procedures

All announcements and notices of an incoming election are posted to the council email list, osg-council@opensciencegrid.org. The method by which the election is carried remains at the discretion of the election administrator(s). The above notes provide two balloting models:

Email balloting

Format of the ballot

The ballot shall include the list of names of all those persons permitted to vote, and the organizations they represent.

The ballot shall include a clear description of each item for which a vote is needed, and clearly identify each choice for the item.

The ballot shall indicate how a vote for a particular choice should be marked.

Posting the ballot

An election administrator sends the ballot as an email message to the council email list with a CC to the second election administrator if applicable. Casting a vote Each voting member of the council shall cast their vote by replying to the email message containing the ballot and indicating their choice(s) appropriately, as described in the ballot.

Counting votes

All election administrators shall independently verify that all received ballots are from only authorized voting council members, tally the results, and verify that their tallies agree. Any cast ballots received from non-authorized persons shall be discarded.

Only cast ballots received within the voting period shall be counted. The election administrators shall guarantee that the clocks on the computers where they receive email are accurate to within 15 minutes and accept cast ballots within 15 minutes outside the time window of the voting period.

In case that more selected choices are indicated on a ballot item than allowed for that item, the vote on that item on the cast ballot is considered invalid.

For ballots requiring a YES/NO answer, a ballot choice marked with an ambiguous value such as OK or XX rather than YES, shall be taken to mean YES. If a ballot choice allows a negative vote, only a clear value such as NO or NOT will be counted as negative.

In the case of two election administrators, both shall independently count all the ballots and compare their results at the conclusion of the voting period. They will work together to resolve any discrepancies.

E-Polling ballot

Format of the ballot

The ballot shall include a clear description of each item for which a vote is needed, and clearly identify each choice for the item. The ballot choices shall be self-explanatory as per how a vote for a particular choice; selection box should be coupled with text.

Posting the ballot

One of the election administrators, with CC to the second election administrator, sends to the council mailing list a list of names of voting council members and their Email address. Within one business day, individual Emails are sent to the council members indicating the location and access method of the ballot (a URL reference and password). Each individual Email shall be sent to both election administrators.

Casting a vote and tabulation

Each voting member of the council shall cast their vote by following the provided instructions contained in the Email message, as described in the ballot. The poll shall be opened only once to each voting member.

The poll shall be closed for access after the voting period has expired. The election administrators shall guarantee and verify that the clock on the polling-computer is accurate to within 15 minutes and accept cast ballots within 15 minutes outside the time window of the voting period. When the poll is closed, the results should be accessible to all council members.

Change History

V1, Nov. 28, 2006, JL, Approved by council 11/28/2006 moved to version 1.0

V0.5 Jan.1, 2006, fkw, Fixed 2 minor things that got overlooked.

V0.4 Dec. 31, 2005, fkw, Integrated Albert comments and misc. suggestions. Supernajoriity cases.

V0.3 Dec. 29, 2005, fkw, Modified Jermome's & Doug's version

V0.2, Dec. 22, 2005, JL, Revised version, references, quorum, abstention, tied ballots, anonymous polling.

V0.1, Dec. 21, 2005, Dlo, First draft for iteration by subcommittee.