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Re: GR Ballot Option: Allow, but do not require, secret voting



I hereby second Harlan's option. Thanks a lot for taking the word for
writing it down and presenting the rationale!

Harlan Lieberman-Berg dijo [Tue, Mar 01, 2022 at 11:43:20PM -0500]:
> On 3/1/22 23:13, Harlan Lieberman-Berg wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> > I propose the following ballot option for the current GR:
> > 
> > Rationale
> > ========
> > While I agree that there are some votes which, due to their nature,
> > may be so controversial that the potential for a person's votes to be
> > publicly revealed may cause them to change their vote (or opt out of
> > the election), even among divisive GRs, few rise to that level of
> > controversy: the RMS GR and the systemd GR being two recent examples
> > which have provoked ire.
> > 
> > There is something which fundamentally distinguishes the kind of
> > voting that Debian does from that of a private institution or group,
> > where minutes and votes are typically kept out of public view: Debian
> > serves a larger community than the members of the institution.  In
> > that sense, we are more similar to a public body than a private
> > membership.
> > 
> > Our Social Contract makes this distinction clear: when it says that we
> > will not hide problems, it immediately emphasizes that the bug
> > database will be open for public view at all times.   Taking the step
> > to make a particular vote secret should require us to stop and
> > carefully weigh the costs to the larger community.
> > 
> > I hope this option better strikes the balance between the aspirations
> > of public visibility and the occasional, pragmatic need for secrecy.
> > 
> > Ballot Option
> > ==========
> > The changes are available at:
> > https://salsa.debian.org/hlieberman/webwml/-/commit/82729d07aba7dd7ac641f7e4a87178f34b23efca
> > 
> > A diff follows (the word diff is very confusing, so I've omitted it):
> > 
> > diff --git a/english/devel/constitution.wml
> > b/english/devel/constitution.wml
> > index 41cb9dfbd80..7924992d3a7 100644
> > --- a/english/devel/constitution.wml
> > +++ b/english/devel/constitution.wml
> > @@ -226,12 +226,15 @@ earlier can overrule everyone listed
> > later.</cite></p>
> > 
> >    <li>
> >      <p>
> > -       Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes, tallies, and
> > -       results are not revealed during the voting period; after the
> > -       vote the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting
> > -       period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the
> > -       Project Leader.
> > +       Votes, tallies, and results are not revealed during the voting
> > period.
> > +       After the vote, the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast,
> > unless
> > +       either one of the following is true:
> >      </p>
> > +    <ol>
> > +       <li><p>The vote is for a leadership election as defined in
> > &sect;5.2.</p></li>
> > +       <li><p>At least 4K Developers have sponsored any single ballot
> > option
> > +       which says the votes will be kept secret.</p></li>
> > +    </ol>
> >    </li>
> > 
> >    <li>
> 
> 
> Resending with not-clearsigned signature this time.
> 
> 




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