Mea Culpa - IMPORTANT re: Election

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Callipygian
I need a hobby
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Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:25 pm

Mea Culpa - IMPORTANT re: Election

Post by Callipygian »

Well. One little error on the calendar, along with an out-of-town and off-grid weekend and you delay an election :(

My profound apologies to all of you, and especially to Lilith whose hair (what she didn't tear out!) has no doubt turned grey over this. No matter the reasons, this has caused delay that I am truly sorry for - and thank goodness our system does have some built in time buffers that still allow the polls to run the required time and voting be completed before the new RA needs to be sworn in.

Apologies made on to the not -so-great news - the list of emails I just sent to Lilith is only 25 names long - that means only 40% of the possible voters are actually registered ( and a third of these came in *after* the polls should have opened!)

Since I believe Lilith plans to open the polls this coming Saturday, so that it is a poll running like all others, but delayed for a week, here is one last call for you to submit your-email to me, Callipygian Christensen, inworld on a notecard, before midnight SLT on Wednesday November 13th.

If you are thinking 'But Caaaaaaalli, I sent it in LAST time..and the time before..can't you SC people keep a simple list???' let me explain why it needs to be sent in for *each* election.

On the practical front, a bounced e-mail means the potential of you disenfranchising yourself if your e-mail is now out-of-date and you don't realize you haven't received a voting link. Fixing that if you DO notice is additional work for the person managing the election.

More importantly, the need to log in and send your e-mail recognizes an important tradition and principle of our democratic practises. We are a virtual democracy, and it has always been felt to be necessary that voting require a citizen to be 'present' in the SL world to cast his or her vote. Before using OPA, voters came into SL and actually went to a voting booth which registered who they were, checked they were eligible to vote and linked them to the web to cast their vote from within SL. We no longer have the software to run our polls in that manner, so coming inworld to 'register to vote' by submitting your e-mail is the equivalent - it means you have been present inworld to register, it allows us to check that you are eligible to vote, and it ensures an up-to-date address for OPA to send to.

So, enough history, let's think about the future - not often you get a second chance where voting is concerned, so get your e-mail in to me right away if you are eligible and wish to vote in the upcoming polls.

Once again, my apologies to all of you for causing this delay in the polling.

Calli

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote -- a very different thing.

Walter H. Judd
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