So we have a vote, which ends today. One very confusing ballot was mailed out, despite the claim on that ballot that another one would follow. Despite repeated pleas for a clearer ballot, the secretary has said nothing about what he will do towards making an easier to follow one, nor has he sent out the promised second ballot.
Branden Robinson has made a claim that the ballot for this vote should be withdrawn, because the time limit specified in the Constitution for action had passed before the Secretary acted to issue the ballot. The secretary has not made ANY comment about this, despite the fact that it would seem to be an urgent matter. I had the vague hope that there had been a second ballot mailed out, given that the vote expires today, and that I had somehow missed it or inadvertantly deleted it. I couldn't find any indication from the archives on lists.debian.org of such a second ballot. In a faint hope, I sent mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], as the web site indicates one should do, but have not received any response. Meanwhile, the web site information at www.debian.org/vote has been hopelessly out of date for nearly the entire process; it still lists the resolution as "Waiting for Sponsors". The entire process has been handled in an exceedingly poor manner. I'm not talking about the substantive question of interpretation of the constitution, here, I'm talking about the nuts and bolts handling of ballots and announcements and keeping people informed about what exactly the status is, how to vote, and so forth. I feel like we have a person listed as "Project Secretary", but no actual person actually doing much towards that job. It's not a huge job, but it's very important that it be done in a manner that inspires confidence in the fairness and legitimacy of the process, and what's happening here is that there is a stone wall of silence (or maybe it's inattention), a lot of confusion, a very important issue going to vote on a very confusing ballot, a claim that the vote itself is invalid due to expiration of a time limit, and several other problems. We need a Project Secretary who keeps up with the job, or asks the Technical Committee Chair to step in. This is a very important job, and it needs to get done, with a speed and efficiency that inspires confidence. Thomas
