Quorum

[ReneK]

So, let's say this is a vote for a new chairman.

Assume, the center has (just for argument's sake) 10 members.

A quorum would be 8 members.

Now, if the proposed chairman abstains, does this mean that the quorum should be reduced to 9 persons by this abstention?

Assume we have not one person running for chairman, but 4, who all vote for abstain.

Does this mean that 5 (4.8) is a quorum, and a majority of 3 votes on any given candidate decides the issue?

Seems far from perfect for me.

[Ivan Denisov]

Now we come to the crux of the matter. If 9 members abstain but two vote for the measure
does the measure carry? From your wording it would seem that the answer would be yes because
the majority of the members who voted, voted for the measure. That is not how I have been
interpreting Ivan's rule.

Yes, this is how Ivan has interpreted the current rule. I disagree with the interpretation, though.

I disagree, because if someone thought that he could not support either of the options given, the only way to make this obvious was to not vote at all, which would lead to the chairman buggering the not voters with eMails, until they voted. They *had* to choose something they did not want to choose.

That is why I suggest to add "veto" option. If people do not like options and think that all this poll is forcing and any decision they do not like, they should chose "veto" option, or "no" option, but not "abstain".

[Josef Templ]

I don't see any problem in this example.

The quorum rule says that we need at least 8 from 10 votes in order to be valid.

If there are A members that vote for 'Abstain' and C members that vote for one of the candidates,
we have A + C votes and if A + C >= 8 we have a valid result (assuming that there is an unambiguous majority
for one of the candidates).

Rene, I think that it is a mistake to reduce the number of center members
by A and then computing the quorum limit. The number of center members is not changed
by voting or not voting or abstaining. It is only changed when members are added to
the center or when members are leaving the center.
And then everything turns out to be really simple.

- Josef

[DGDanforth]

"The poll can be closed if the leading option is ahead by more than the number of missing votes."

I like it.

However, there is still the problem that the leading option may be too few, e.g. 2 YES, 0 NO, 9 ABSTAIN.
In my opinion that measure should fail.

[cfbsoftware]

That's is perfectly OK for me. e.g. If two members like a tracking system and everybody else is happy to defer to their choice that is fine by me.

[Josef Templ]

> However, there is still the problem that the leading option may be too few, e.g. 2 YES, 0 NO, 9 ABSTAIN.

1. This is a constructed case that is not relevant in practice.
2. If it really appears, the result is perfectly OK to me.
3. if it happens again and again we exchange the chair:-(

- Josef