Rules & Timeline for the GNOME Foundation 2003 Elections

Elections Rules

  1. See the GNOME Foundation charter for general rules.
  2. There are 11 board slots that are to be filled during these elections.
  3. Members of the GNOME Foundation as of November 1, 2003 are eligible to vote in the elections. Anyone who has made a contribution to GNOME can apply for membership by completing the application.
  4. Any eligible voter is eligible to be elected to the Board of Directors. To announce your candidacy, send a message to foundation-announce@gnome.org with your full name, e-mail, corporate affiliation (if any), and a description of your reasons for wanting to serve as a director. Candidacies must be announced prior to November 7, 2003, 23:59 UTC.
  5. All candidates should mail a summary of their candicacy announcement (see previous rule) to elections@gnome.org. Summaries should be no more than 75 words of continuous text (i.e. no bullet lists or multiple paragraphs) and must be received by the nomination deadline given above. A compilation of the summaries will be mailed to all registered voters several days prior to the elections.
  6. All discussion related to the elections should be held on foundation-list@gnome.org. Members are invited to ask questions to one or all candidates on that list.
  7. Ballots will be sent via e-mail to all eligible voters on November 21, 2003, and must be returned by December 5, 2003, 23:59 UTC (18:59 EST). Full instructions will be included in the ballot.
  8. Ballots will be held confidential during the elections, but an archive of all submitted ballots will be made publicly accessible at its conclusion.
  9. The Elections Committee is responsible for counting the ballots, after taking appropriate action to fix misformatted ballots.
  10. The 11 candidates who receive the most votes will be elected, except that no more than four individuals affiliated with any one corporation may be elected. Should more than four of the top eleven vote-getters be affiliated with the same company, only the four with the most votes will be considered elected. For a full definition of corporate affiliation, see the GNOME Foundation charter.
  11. In the event of a tie for the final slot on the board, the Elections Committee will schedule run-off elections as soon as possible.
  12. The Elections Committee will announce preliminary results as soon as possible after the elections close, along with instructions on how to access the ballot archive and how to independently verify the vote count.
  13. Any eligible voter may challenge the preliminary results by e-mailing elections@gnome.org prior to December 19, 2003. The decision of the Elections Committee as to any challenge shall be final. Once any challenges have been resolved, the Elections Committee shall announce the final results.
  14. Any questions regarding these procedures should be directed to the Elections Committee by e-mail to elections@gnome.org. The committee shall have the power to make any necessary changes or clarifications to these rules at any point during the elections.

Timeline

(all deadlines are 23:59 UTC/18:59 EST)