Every voting system is susceptible to abuse. The real question is how
much you feel you can tolerate.
IMHO, membership on the mailing list some number of months before the
election (and I think three is better than two) is a perfectly valid
criteria. If you're concerned about vote-packing, there are a number
of things you can do to minimize the issue. Here are some examples:
Stagger the terms of the board. For example, one could have a three-
member board with three-year terms, one member elected per year.
Downside: of this is that you can't turn out all the rascals at once,
and you have an election every year. Upside: that vote-packing doesn't
work and you get much better continuity of knowledge on the board.
Give staggered voting rights. Less than a year on the list, one vote.
More than a year, two. Upside: vote packing is harder. Downside: vote
counting is a pain in the ass.
Require votes be pgp signed and the signing chain must have a current
or former elder within two link. Upside: much harder to pack, as most
vote-packing people would have to be hand-led through it plus whoever
is doing the packing has to be within on link. Downside: elders would
have to sign a lot of keys, vote counting is a pain in the ass.
Have public elect some members of board, elders elect some members of
board, current board elect some members of board. Assume for the
moment that the counts were 3, 2 and 2. Vote packing is essentially
impossible, and any two groups can fend off a third. Downside:
turnover on the board is harder.
Or one could establish some combination of these. I prefer staggered
boards because continuity is good and I only elect people I
trust. :-) It minimizes the effect of packing, because after the
first packed year opponents can do counter-packing. It also means all
vote counting is easy.
Any place I say 'vote counting is hard', assume it really means
writing a vote counter is harder that it is for simple elections.
Steve "just establishing my participation quota" Simmons
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