Election Instructions

Who Can Vote

Any Member of WPLUG who has voting rights on the day of the election meeting may cast a valid vote. If you do not know whether you are listed as a Member on the rolls and paid up through the election meeting, please contact the current Secretary.

Voting Procedure

On the ballot, you rate the nominees for the WPLUG Board of Directors. You can rate as many of the nominees as you like, and it's best if you rate them all. Give 3's to the people who you think are best suited to serve on the board. Give 2's on the next best group of nominees, and 1's to people you've only just heard of that you think would at least serve competently.

These points will be added up, and the nominees with the top point ratings will be elected to the Board. Ties will be broken by counting the total number of 3-point ratings; whoever gets more 3-point ratings will win the tie-breaker. (If they tie on 3-point ratings, we'll use 2-point ratings. If they tie on 2-point ratings, we'll use 1-point ratings. If they tie on 1-point ratings, then the winner is chosen at random.)

Note, though, that if a nominee doesn't get a rating on 50% or more of the ballots cast, then they can't be elected. For this reason, you shouldn't skip over anybody's name on the ballot or assign a 0 unless you seriously disapprove of that person. Lines with no number circled will be counted as zero. Any other marking such as an X, a check, or a dash will also be counted as zero.

If there's an un-nominated member who you think should be elected, you can simply write their name in and give them a rating, just the same as if they had been nominated. Write-in candidates must still get ratings on over 50% of the ballots to be considered eligible for election, though. Only members of WPLUG may take office.

Example ballots

	Arthur Ashe
	Barbara Bush
	Charlie Chaplin
	Donna Dixon
	Ernie Els
	Fannie Farmer
	Gary Gygax
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)

Here is a sample ballot containing 7 candidates running for three board positions. There are spaces for three write-in candidates, but you are allowed to write in as many candidates as you wish.

	Arthur Ashe
	Barbara Bush
	Charlie Chaplin
	Donna Dixon
	Ernie Els
	Fannie Farmer
	Gary Gygax
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)

Now say that I think that Arthur and Fannie would be part of my WPLUG board dream-team so they get 3s, that Barbara and Charlie would do a good job so they get 2's, Donna and Gary I approve of but don't really know so they get 1's, and I know that Ernie would be a disruption to the people running WPLUG so he gets a big fat zero. My ballot would look like this:

	Arthur Ashe
	Barbara Bush
	Charlie Chaplin
	Donna Dixon
	Ernie Els
	Fannie Farmer
	Gary Gygax
	Herbert Harris (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)

Now, Vikki Hoover has different ideas on who she thinks is best for WPLUG. She thinks that Arthur, Donna, Ernie, and Fannie are all great, so they get 3s. She doesn't like Barbara and Charlie, so they get zeros, and is indifferent about Gary, so he gets a 1. Vikki also thinks that Herbert Harris would be a great leader. So he gets written in, and scored with a 3.

	Arthur Ashe
	Barbara Bush
	Charlie Chaplin
	Donna Dixon
	Ernie Els
	Fannie Farmer
	Gary Gygax
	Herbert Harris (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)
	_______________ (write-in)

And finally Fannie Farmer has her ballot. She thinks she'd do a great job (of course), along with Arthur and Donna, so they all get 3s. She thinks Barbara and Charlie would do an OK job, so they get 2s. She's lukewarm about Gary, he gets a 1. And she thinks Ernie is a disaster in waiting, so he gets a 0. Herbert lobbied Fannie for a write-in vote, and she thinks Herbert would do a pretty good job, so he gets a 2.

Results of the Example Ballots

So, with these three ballots, here's what things look like vote-wise:

Candidate	# ratings	Strong rating (3)	Moderate rating (2)	Weak rating (1)	Total points
Arthur Ashe	3	3	0	0	9	elected
Barbara Bush	2	0	2	0	4
Charlie Chaplin	2	0	2	0	4
Donna Dixon	3	2	0	1	7	elected
Ernie Els	1	1	0	0	3	no majority
Fannie Farmer	3	3	0	0	9	elected
Gary Gygax	3	0	0	3	3
(write-in) Herbert Harris	2	1	1	0	5