Well, there are 3 things:
a) people not interested by the matter – they leave it up to the
majority – it’s their choice (just as Bruce just said)
b) people not able to vote because in vacation or so – this is
why we need to give enough time
c) Blank vote – I did not see this option on this referendum. I
find important to be able to vote blank, saying “None of these options
suit me. Please rephrase” (=please give me other candidates in an
election).
I am a very strong supporter of the blank
vote. I think that it needs to be added to every poll and election, and be
treated as another candidate or option, meaning that if more people vote blank
than for a candidate or an option, things must be re-shuffled.
Nico
From: Mark Antell, editor CitizenPowerMagazine.net [citizenp(at)citizenpowermagazine.net]
Sent: dimanche, 3. juin 2007 22:27
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Proposal
M. Kolar wrote:
Mirek
By abstaining in a vote either explicitly or implicitly (by not participating
at all), this member states that (s)he leaves the decision in this matters to
others who are participating in the vote, and that when a decision is
made, (s)he will accept the decision made by others and not object to its
implementation.
this would be the best incentive for everybody to participate if they have any
opinion on the matter.
Hmmmm.
Offhand my reaction is that one should have the right to abstain without any
implicit message. I mean otherwise we'd sort of condition/modify people's
right to say nothing. I like the proposal without this new
language.
Mark
-------------------------------------
All:
One more clarification of my previous post/proposal: It should be also
made clear that by abstaining in a deliberation/voting, either explicitly (in
our voting system, you can choose to select not a single alternative in
majority votes, or vote N on some/all alternatives in range voting) or implicitly
(by not voting at all), one states that (s)he will leave the decision in this
matters to others who are voting, and that when a decision is made, (s)he
will accept this decision and not object to its implementation. this would be
the best incentive for everybody to participate if they have any opinion on the
matter.
So in order that my proposal will not be lost at the end of the previous
message, I write it again here separately with the above included:
I propose to the Board to put this on agenda for decision: to add explicitly to
WDDM charter or rules this rule:
When a decision is to be made, every
member must get all the information about an issue, and be informed that a vote
will be held well in advance. Everybody can freely participate in all the
deliberations and in the vote. If a member chooses not to participate in a
vote, it will be deemed that (s)he abstained in this particular vote. By
abstaining in a vote either explicitly or implicitly (by not participating at
all), this member states that (s)he leaves the decision in this matters to
others who are participating in the vote, and that when a decision is
made, (s)he will accept the decision made by others and not object to its
implementation.
this would be the best incentive for everybody to participate if they have any
opinion on the matter.
Mirek