Guild Wars Wiki:Elections/Draft 4

The only regularly scheduled elections are to fill bureaucrat seats, who generally have a term length of 6 months. The process here is an advisory election based on approval voting mixed with disapproval voting. Any special elections or elections with deviations from these rules should first have an explicit community consensus.

Stage 0: Preparation
An election subpage should be created (by anyone) at Guild_Wars_Wiki:Elections/_ , e.g. "Guild Wars Wiki:Elections/2007-06 bureaucrat election". This subpage should be added to the list at the bottom, and should contain the following information before any stages start:
 * The number and types of positions to be filled.
 * Starting and ending term dates for each position.
 * The rules used in the election (generally a link back to this page and explanations of any deviations).
 * A list of stages, with start and end dates/times for each.
 * A section titled "List of candidates" (initially empty). This list is to be kept in alphabetical order.

All dates/times should be given in UTC (and interpreted as UTC if left ambiguous). Whenever a stage end date is changed to arrive sooner (through consensus), it should generally be set at least 3 days later than the time of that decision.

Stage 1: Nominating candidates
Any registered user may be nominated as a candidate by creating a candidate subpage at Guild_Wars_Wiki:Elections/ /  and adding a link to the list on the election subpage. Self-nominations are allowed. The form and updating of this page is mostly up to the candidate, and might contain a candidate statement, Q&A, etc. General discussion should go on its talk page.

These are not allowed (and should be removed):
 * IP accounts running as candidates
 * New candidates after this stage

Candidates who are nominated by another user are urged (but not required) to indicate a clear acceptance or declination before stage 2.

This stage should normally be set to last 7 days.

Stage 2: Voting
Regular editors who have made at least 100 edits (excluding the Guild and User namespaces) under a registered account can add one approval vote or one disapproval vote for each candidate they support by signing their name on candidate subpages. Signatures should form a list within a section named "Supporting votes"/"Opposing votes" (to be created if necessary) at the end of each candidate subpage.

These are not allowed (and should be struck out or removed):
 * General comments (whether supporting/neutral/opposing..keep these to the talk page)
 * Duplicate votes
 * Votes from IP accounts
 * Votes from registered user accounts that have not made more than 100 edits before this stage.
 * Proxy votes (your vote submitted by a friend, etc).
 * Votes made before or after this stage
 * Votes of partial support

All other votes are generally allowed. These are also explicitly allowed:
 * Voting for yourself (if otherwise eligible).
 * Users changing/withdrawing their own votes during this stage (but not after).

The basic support one can give directly to a candidate is to sign a vote onto the candidate's subpage (and perhaps give a convincing positive argument on the candidate's talk subpage). To directly oppose a candidate, one can file an opposing vote and give a negative argument on the candidate's talk subpage (but avoid personal attacks; consider simply giving links to evidence, if necessary).

This stage should normally be set to last 7 days.

Stage 3: Deciding winners
The winner(s) are decided through the following method:
 * The eligible supporting and opposing votes for each candidate are tallied.
 * The opposing vote totals are subtracted from the supporting vote totals.
 * The candidates are ranked from first to last according to net votes, if two candidates have an equal number of net votes, the candidate with a lower number of opposing votes is ranked above the candidate with a lower number of opposing votes.
 * The candidate(s) with the highest ranks are winners.
 * In the event of a tie, the bureaucrats may break the tie by simple majority vote.
 * If the term lengths are unequal, the longest term goes to the highest ranking winning candidate.
 * If any additional seats become available between the end of stage 0 and the end of this stage, the term length for those seats is the same as the shortest term length among those outlined in stage 0.

This stage should normally be set to last 3 days.

Vacated seats
If a bureaucrat seat is empty, the remaining bureaucrats may unanimously choose to fill the seat with one of the candidates from the most recent election. If so, the following proccess occurs:
 * The bureaucrats decide on a time window for volunteering.
 * Announcements are made on Guild Wars Wiki talk:Community portal and the talk pages of all eligible candidates, stating that a decision has been made to fill the vacant bureaucrat seat, as well as stating the date and time for the end of the volunteering window, which must be at least 72 hours after the announcement has been made and all eligible candidates have been notified.
 * Candidates from the most recent election who had positive vote balances may accept or decline the invitation. Candidates with neutral or negative vote balances are ineligible, as are any candidates who served as bureaucrats after the most recent election, but resigned or were removed through arbitration.
 * If the highest ranking eligible candidate (or, in the event of a tie, all highest ranking eligible candidates) among those candidates who have not declined has already accepted, the volunteering window may be ended prematurely.
 * At the end of the volunteering window, the highest ranking eligible volunteer becomes a bureaucrat, ties are resolved by bureaucrats in the same manner as in elections.
 * The new bureaucrat's term expires at the end of the next election.