[OSGeo-Discuss] Secret ballots for voting

[Michael P. Gerlek]

Someone asked the Board (off-list) why we do not publish the results of our elections in detail -- such as how many votes there were for each candidate, including any candidates that weren't elected.

I'm not sure if our bylaws require secret ballots, but that has been our process since the Foundation began.There are clearly pros and cons both ways for this. If we were fully transparent, everyone see who voted for whom and there would be no possibility of cheating. By keeping votes private, on the other hand, we allow people to candidly express their feelings without feeling any social pressures.

It's not clear to me that the community favors a change from our current secret ballot process, but I know it has been asked about before over the years and I know at least one person raised a question about the lack of transparency in our last round of voting. If you feel strongly about this please feel free to start a thread about it and we'll see what the consensus is.

PS- I can say that 98 of the 144 charter members voted in this last election.

-mpg