[Sosfbay-discuss] Alternate Process to Elect Regional Rep (and Alternates)

[Gerry Gras]

Last Saturday our Regional Caucus at the Yolo Plenary agreed
to consider an alternative process for electing the Regional
Rep and Alternate Regional Rep(s).  At the GPSCC CC meeting
on Tuesday, we agreed to have a discussion online about what
that process might look like.  So this email is to start that
discussion.

NOTE: The next election is scheduled for the next plenary
in the Spring, possible early April.

The GPCA bylaws state:

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7-1.5  Selection of Regional Members

Regional members shall be selected by regional caucus of
delegates at General Assemble meeting, unless the active
counties of a region select another process.  Any such
alternative process must be consistent with the ten key
values, GPCA bylaws, and California law: and approved by
all the County Councils of the active councils of a
region: and filed with the Coordinating Committee and the
Bylaws Committee.  Regions with two or more seats are
encoouraged to strive for gender balance.

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Up to now, our official process has been the standard GPCA
bylaws default of deciding during the Regional Caucus.


Here are my thoughts, in no particular order.


1) Decentralization is one of the 10KV.

Currently only the most active members of the county
are involved in the election process.  By decentralization,
maybe we should involve all registered Greens in the County.
And it would be good if we could allow them to participate
without requiring a lot of travel.  So election by mail?


2) Timeline.

To allow time to have a thoughtful process we should provide
more time for nominations and elections.  Maybe something
like this:

- 12 weeks before plenary - Announcement of Election
   and Request for Nominations

- 8 weeks before plenary - Closing of Nominations
   and start of campaigns

- 6 weeks before plenary - Mail ballots to all Greens in
   region

- 2 weeks before plenary - Deadline for ballots to be
   in the mail


3) Respect for Diversity

One of the 10KV is respect for diversity.  We should
encourage that in this election process.  But how?
1) Nomination Process?
and/or
2) Vote Counting?

How important is it to have diversity in terms of ..
1) Gender?
2) Which County the rep is in?
3) Race?
etcetera

And don't forget we don't get many candidates willing
to take the job, so in practice we may have little or
no flexibility re diversity.


4) Multiple Alternates

The GPCA currently allows for multiple alternates, but the
relative position needs to be specified (1st alternate,
2nd alternate, ...)

How many should we allow?


5) Election Procedure

IRV is the standard method when there is one seat.
Choice voting is the standard for a fixed number of
seats, all equal.  But we have multiple unequal seats.
I don't know of any precedent for this.

I assume that voters would get 1 ranked ballot each,
but I don't know yet how to count the ballots.
Maybe:
- for Regional Rep use IRV
- for 1st Alternate use IRV with the elected rep
   "disqualified"
- for 2nd alternate use IRV with the rep and 1st
   alternate "disqualified"


Your thoughts?

Gerry