Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

Home	Vote	Results	History	Contacts	Admin
	National Committee Voting

Login

Ranked Choice Vote Details

Ranked Choice Vote ID	399
Ranked Choice Vote	Straw Poll: Appropriate Threshold for Committee Rules
Type	Open Ballot
Number of Seats	1
Ranked Choice Vote Administrator	Phil Huckelberry
Phase	Closed - 1 Elected
Discussion	06-15-2009 - 06-16-2009
Voting	06-17-2009 - 06-19-2009
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Candidates	23 supermajority 501 majority

Background

Proposal 393, currently before the National Committee, seeks to make a number of clarifications and improvements to the procedures by which proposals are brought before the National Committee. One aspect of these procedures which has proven to be contentious is the matter of what the appropriate threshold should be for the passage of internal committee rules.

Proposal 393, as currently drafted, distinguishes between a committee's Mission Statement and a committee's Rules, with the Mission Statement defining the scope and powers of the committee and the Rules describing the committee's internal processes.

Existing GPUS Bylaws and Rules have been somewhat unclear as to what the correct threshold is for approving committee rules documents. A recent decision of the National Committee upheld a Steering Committee determination that a 2/3 supermajority is the correct threshold under existing rules, but numerous people, including some who voted to uphold the Steering Committee's decision, have argued that a simple majority should be sufficient and that this had also been the practice in earlier years.

The purpose of this straw poll, then, is to ascertain the National Committee's opinion on the matter of the appropriate threshold for committee rules. It is set up as an IRV vote so that people can register ranked choices. If there is a clear and strong first preference, that preference will be incorporated into the final version of 393. If there is not a clear and strong first preference but the results suggest that there is one option above all others which is acceptable to National Committee members, that preference will be incorporated into the final version of 393.

The use of a straw poll in this manner is new to the National Committee. It should be stressed that although this is being placed on the Voting Queue as a Proposal, it is merely an ADVISORY item, and the results are NOT BINDING. Since the vast majority of the National Committee does not actively participate on the listservs, it would simply not be possible to divine a strong sentiment by simply putting a question out on a list. The Steering Committee is trying this straw poll to, among other things, experiment with improving the ability to reach consensus and include the National Committee in the overall decision-making process.

If you have no real preference as to the appropriate threshold for proposals to amend Committee Rules, please ABSTAIN.

If you have a preference but would be fine with either option presented, please rank both in your order of preference. Your preferred choice would get a ranking of 1, your next-preferred choice a ranking of 2, etc.

If you have a preference and are only comfortable with that preference, please rank only the option which you prefer.

Candidate Information

23 supermajority
2/3 supermajority

501 majority
50%+1 majority

The voting software used by the Green Party of the United States is free software, licensed under the General Public License v2 (GPL).