[gnso-osc-ops] Absentee Voting an Abstentions
GCOT Members: After digesting the feedback to my earlier attempt at rationalizing absentee voting and abstentions holistically, I would like to reconstitute my original presentation and, in the process, correct certain mischaracterizations. As your primary Staff support on these matters and, having drafted much of the content, my objective is to assist the GCOT in ensuring that the entire set of procedures maintains integrity and that related sections (e.g. 3.8, 4.4, and 4.5) complement and support each other. The following points are provided in an effort to examine the role of absentee voting in the larger context of the team's work on abstentions. 1) I believe that two key principles underlying the GCOT's Abstentions procedures are: a) Wherever possible, SG/Cs should not lose opportunities to have votes cast by their Council representatives. b) No provisions have been approved for altering voting denominators; therefore, if a Councilor is not able to exercise his/her vote, a remedy should be available to SG/Cs, whenever practicable. [KB Note: In my earlier message, I was trying to reflect broad principles versus rules. I acknowledge that there is an entire class of circumstances for which remedies cannot be exercised practically. According to Section 4.5, remedies for abstentions require advanced notification to work properly. Any time a Councilor does not vote and the circumstances are not known and announced ahead of time, an abstention/remedy is infeasible. For example, assume a Councilor actually attends a teleconference and, just before a vote is taken, all of his/her connections are severed and not restored until after the meeting adjourns. Although there may have been an intention to vote, circumstances abruptly prevented it. In that case and many others I can conjure up (e.g. personal injury, accidents, forgot the meeting, overslept, etc.) a Councilor would neither attend nor vote; but, because they were not planned events, there would be no opportunity to register an abstention in advance and seek a remedy. The only option that is currently provided, in such unforeseen instances, is absentee voting; otherwise, the vote is simply not cast.] 2) The procedures in 3.8 and 4.5 now cover the following categories that have been identified thus far: . Volitional and Obligational Abstentions . Absences: Incidental and Long-Term . Vacancies [Note: As a result of rethinking certain aspects of incidental absence, I drafted additional changes to Section 3.8 (attached KBv4) that now deal specifically with planned vs. unplanned instances. Also, Ron Andruff's earlier suggestions relating to this section, discussed via the email list, have been made in this version.] 3) As the procedures are currently drafted (and they can, of course, be changed), a case of planned incidental absence is handled in one of two ways: (1) absentee voting within the time limit or (2) registering an abstention and seeking a proxy or TA remedy. For unplanned absences, Section 3.8 now provides: (1) absentee voting within the time limit or (2) the vote is not cast and no voting denominator adjustments are made. 4) Based on recent GCOT list emails, interest has been expressed in restricting absentee voting to a narrow set of conditions that might include important GNSO votes and, possibly, hardship cases. In keeping with the principles in #1 and earlier GCOT decisions, it makes sense to me that abstentions and appropriate remedies would be permitted for planned absences. If not, then each time a Councilor anticipates being absent, his/her vote would not be cast and the SG/C's voting opportunity would be lost, which seems inconsistent with principle #1a. In essence, a new "gap" could be perceived to exist in that a class of missed voting opportunities (planned absences) would (a) not be remediable and (b) the voting denominator would also not change. For unplanned absences, abstentions/remedies are not plausible because there would be no advanced knowledge and corresponding opportunity to apply a remedy. 5) Assuming, then, that abstentions/remedies would be allowed for planned incidental absences, is there a net gain or improvement to the GNSO using this mechanism vs. absentee voting? Analysis: one concern expressed thus far is that absentee voting may tend to promote intentional absence vs. attending meetings in person. Assume that a hypothetical Councilor is inclined not to attend a session because absentee voting is perceived to be a convenient alternative. Is it that much more difficult to register an abstention and ask the SG/C to apply a remedy? The Councilor could easily send an email to the Secretariat with a copy to the SG/C to this effect, "I cannot attend Council meeting on [date] due to [reason]; therefore, please register my abstention for all votes taken. My SG/C will decide and notify you if they wish to invoke any voting remedies in these matters." Since abstaining is, arguably, no more difficult than absentee voting, there may be no material effect on in-person attendance. On the other hand, if only an abstention is available as the sole remedy, it may be perceived as increasing the amount of work that SG/Cs are asked to do in processing incidental absences that could otherwise be handled by a simpler and more efficient absentee balloting method. 6) The importance of Councilor attendance, in person, is emphasized in Sections 3.8.1 and 4.5.1. I appreciate various team members' thoughtful responses to my earlier memo. Those engagements have helped clarify my own thinking about the differences between planned and unplanned absences. I hope that this edited rationale and the new revisions in Section 3.8 are helpful in the team's continuing deliberations on the proper role of absentee balloting within the GNSO. Ultimately, if the GCOT elects to recommend constraints to absentee voting (Section 4.4), I stand ready to assist in drafting suitable language and to ensure that other related sections of the procedures are appropriately amended for consistency. Ken Bour Attachment:
Section 3.8-Absences (KBv4-RAv1).doc |