What happens after the polls close....

[Rose Springvale]

Whenever the SC announces that they have the votes tallied, it is our tradition to gather in the Thermae for the announcements, drink champagne, splash in the water and just .. commune. We won't have a time until after the polls close, but most likely sometime between 2 pm and 6pm. Watch for blue notices!

[Claude Desmoulins]

Exactly when this will happen depends on whether the certification of election results requires an in world meeting. RL schedules of the members of the SC mean that the earliest a quorate in world meeting could occur would be c. 7ish PM SLT on Sunday (depending on RL travel delays). If the certification can be done w/o an in world meeting, things could happen sooner.

[Rose Springvale]

hmm. Can you explain what might cause that? Hard for us here in the US who are used to knowing even before elections close, with a few more voters to understand why we would need a certification meeting to know the outcome of voting. Do we not get the raw data?

[Jamie Palisades]

There's been a traditional CDS habit of hanging out in the CN Thermae, to watch for poll results later on the day polls close, as I am sure many in CDS recall. I'm mildly disappointed that this wasn't sorted out in advance, but of course, sometimes people in good faith do not have control of their schedules either. In any case, as a courtesy, we should cancel it explicitly. I will request that Claude as our SC Dean confirm whether we should try to hold the informal Thermae on Sunday at a fixed time, in reliance on a likely meeting and result, or cancel it. Regards JP

[Claude Desmoulins]

Jamie,

I'm consulting w/ the rest of the SC as to their comfort level with releasing unofficial results if need be so the Thermae event can go forward.

[Jamie Palisades]

Claude, thanks, but personally, I see no point to an unscheduled release of informal results at 8 PM SLT on Saturday.

The traditional Thermae event would have been this afternoon. Declaring it now when no one in Europe is awake seems faintly unfair to those asleep. The RA does not need this data to act tomorrow. Your original plan was late Sunday; if you move it up, you'd need to have declared a new time in advance, in order to facilitate any attendance. As the original announcement (that the results would be moved a day) came rather late in the game, I think we've lost the chance to make an event of it.

For now, you've already announced a time for the results' release, on Sunday; my advice would be either to stick with it, or announce a different time in advance, and stick with that. What people want is predictability. For future election cycles, perhaps we should look again at the structure for election timing.

Regards JP

[Sonja Strom]

Because of the tradition and in case there would be an announcement, a few of us were in the Thermae today from 2-3pm SLT. As we can see, no results were announced.
That was OK, but yes, in the future it would be nice to know better how to plan.

Probably Desmond's announcements of election results in Caledon go much more smoothly than ours...

[Timo Gufler]

It's understandable that RL schedules constraint SL ones for most of us, including me. Still it would be nice to have some kind of backup plan in case when a key person is not available for of his/her SL duties. Also I agree with Jamie that the schedule should be planned and announced beforehand and take care that it fits into diurnal rhythm of both Americans and Europeans.

Let's hope some one is able to work out this confusion...

[Pip Torok]

It's understandable that RL schedules constraint SL ones for most of us, including me. Still it would be nice to have some kind of backup plan in case when a key person is not available for of his/her SL duties. Also I agree with Jamie that the schedule should be planned and announced beforehand and take care that it fits into diurnal rhythm of both Americans and Europeans.

Let's hope some one is able to work out this confusion...

I had expected this:

-- someone in the SC (backed by an understudy) would be inworld and on-hand to verify and accredit the results.

-- from polls-closing time all the rest of us would be "lounging" in the Thermae, waiting.

--- the announcement would be made.

-- the romp would begin.

What we got was a damp squib.

So IMO it's down to the SC. And time is of the essence.

[Arria Perreault]

I agree with the fact that we should better fix the different milestones of an election. Several people are involved: candidates of the different factions who make their campaign and have meetings with citizen, people from the executif branch who organize events, Jon Seattle who is responsible for the voting machines and the software which runs behind, finally the SC who must approve the results before their publications.
I consider that it is not normal that the results are not yet published, for two main reasons. First: candidates and their faction have spent time and energy in the campaign and they should know as soon as possible if they succeed or not. Second: the publication of the results of an election is a public event in any democracy. If we had a schedule, people will meet to get this results being together and to talk about them, to celebrate their victory or to be consolated in case they don't get the expected result. A safe democracy need a community and a strong community feelings.

I see two solutions to organize the publication of the results as soon as possible after polls are closed:

1). Results are published in the hour after the poll closes, without SC approval, but with a clear indication that they are provisory until SC approval. It is so in many RL democracies. Provisory results (often based on surveys) are published and the responsible minister or council confirm them late in the night.
2). The SC organize itself in order to make the approval in the hour after the poll closes.

[Rose Springvale]

I agree completely Arria! I think the delay takes away our chance to convene and bond as a community, to say nothing of driving our poor candidates crazy!

While we are waiting, and chatting about the scheduling, I want to propose that we MOVE the elections a month forward. Our winter elections get lost in the December holidays... this year candidates had to declare by December 26! That's just not realistic for many people. But if the deadline had been January 26, (or even January 6!)our people could focus, our sitting RA would have time to complete business that went inquorate in December, AND we could enjoy the holidays without politics.

Summer elections run into someone's holiday time no matter which month we use... so i'd look at what is important for the community. What i see is that SL comes back to life in September after slower summers (many rl businesses and families find this to be true too) Holding our July Election in August lets CDS mirror that fresh start, and would let the new RA kick off with Oktoberfest, which would begin mid to late September. Our Inauguaral Ball could be actually be combined with the CDS anniversary!

Just something to consider if you fiddle with dates.

[Cindy Ecksol]

It's understandable that RL schedules constraint SL ones for most of us, including me. Still it would be nice to have some kind of backup plan in case when a key person is not available for of his/her SL duties. Also I agree with Jamie that the schedule should be planned and announced beforehand and take care that it fits into diurnal rhythm of both Americans and Europeans.

Let's hope some one is able to work out this confusion...

I had expected this:

-- someone in the SC (backed by an understudy) would be inworld and on-hand to verify and accredit the results.

-- from polls-closing time all the rest of us would be "lounging" in the Thermae, waiting.

--- the announcement would be made.

Sorry, folks, but two of the three SC members are traveling and unable to review the results file. This is not new news, has been known for a week, so I'm not sure why things weren't better communicated. As it happens, I will be the first one back, and barring travel delays ought to be able to do my part around 7pm SLT. Not exactly Euro-friendly, but as we say in the software business, "You can have it good, fast and cheap -- but you only get two out of the three on any given project." On this one it'll have to be good and cheap....

-- the romp would begin.

What we got was a damp squib.

So IMO it's down to the SC. And time is of the essence.[/quote]

[Arria Perreault]

as we say in the software business...

I don't think that CDS can be compared to a softwate business. Election's dates are predictable. And the SC has to look at the results. There are a lot of technologies that can be used to make this validation.
Several people were yesterday at noon in the Therms. Several came also to CN today at 9 AM.
I suggest that we publish the provisory results - as provisory - today, early enough so european people can read them. Then the SC takes time to validate them ... before first RA meeting of the new term.

[Sonja Strom]

I would like to thank everybody who participated in our community by voting.

I would like to give special thanks to those who chose to support the DPU and me personally for community leadership. Thank you for your trust, and for your understanding of what had us want to be in the elections in the first place.

Pip and I, as the two elected DPU Representatives, will do our best for you.

[Timo Gufler]

Do we not get the raw data?

Rose asked this question some time ago but it seems nobody has answered her. What is our policy regarding raw elections data? Some statistics based on the results have been published in this forum but shall we all see the anonymized original data someday? It would be assuring to check your voting row has passed the technical layers without malfunction and to derive your own statistics from the raw numbers.