Re: [Harp-L] SPAH election results

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I sent the message below two days ago and have heard no reply.  

Perhaps it's the novelty of actually having more than one candidate for a SPAH office that makes it difficult for the people administering the election to tell us how it was done.  I'm sympathetic to a point, but as a SPAH member I want to know the answers to the three questions posed below:

1)  What were the actual vote tallies for the candidates?
2)  How do I, as a voter, know that my vote was counted?
3)  Can you please tell us what measures were taken to preserve the integrity of the vote--e.g., who counted it, under what circumstances, how many ballots were rejected for various reasons, and how was the count validated?

I'll add a fourth question to the three above: where are the ballots that were cast, and are those ballots available for inspection by, say, the candidates, or the SPAH membership, or some other third party not connected to the current SPAH administration?

Need I point out that there's plenty of potential for abuse in a system in which none of the above questions have answers?  Please note: I'm not questioning anybody's integrity.  I'm pointing out that in a well-run system, there's no question about the integrity of the election, because the procedures are in place to ensure that errors aren't easily made.  What were the procedures used to count the votes in this case?

While I'm on the subject, I'm disturbed that my vote, which was made via email as per instructions from SPAH, had to be accompanied by my name and address, which means that anyone counting the votes had my vote right there with my name and address.  That's not tops. 

As I said, it's apparently a novelty for SPAH to have more than one candidate for office, so perhaps the crew can be forgiven for not knowing how a vote is really run. They're still having problems with that in a lot of new democracies.  But it is absolutely unconscionable to announce simply that one candidate won, without providing any information on the vote itself.

Making the information requested above available should help to improve everyone's confidence in the vote, and so confidence in future votes, higher levels of voter and candidate involvement, etc.  And that's what we want, right?

Thanks, Richard Hunter


-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jul 5, 2012 1:38 PM
>To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [Harp-L] SPAH election results
>
>Jp Pag?n wrote:
><The SPAH 2012 Election is over! Winslow Yerxa has been elected to serve as SPAH's next president, beginning his term after the <2012 Convention. LJ Atkison will remain as SPAH's vice president. This was a historic election, with two official presidential <candidatesÂa SPAH firstÂand over 250 ballots castÂa SPAH record. We would like to thank Bob Cohen and Warren Bee for running and we <would especially like to thank all of the SPAH members who cast ballots. And don't forget, members, this is not the end of your <participation in SPAH's future, only the beginning. 
>
>JP:
>1)  What were the actual vote tallies for the candidates?
>2)  How do I, as a voter, know that my vote was counted?
>3)  Can you please tell us what measures were taken to preserve the integrity of the vote--e.g., who counted it, under what circumstances, how many ballots were rejected for various reasons, and how was the count validated?
>
>There's no information on SPAH's site that describes any of the above, and I'd like to know. Anyone who's been involved in counting votes for any election knows that transparency in the process matters.
>
>Thanks, Richard Hunter
>
>author, "Jazz Harp" 
>latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
>Myspace http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
>Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
>more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
>Twitter: lightninrick


author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
Myspace http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Twitter: lightninrick