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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	188
Proposal	Co-chair Election Cancellation
Presenter	Green Party of California
Floor Manager	Jake Schneider
Phase	Closed - Adopted
Discussion	10-16-2005 - 10-19-2005
Voting	10-20-2005 - 10-23-2005
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Consens Quorum	Two Thirds of Yes and No Votes

Background

For multi-seat co-chair elections, there are two different methods of
counting the votes that are valid under our current by-laws. For the
co-chair elections held at the Tulsa 2005 national gathering, one such
method yielded Tom Sevigny as the winner, while the other valid method
yielded Kristen Olson as the winner. (The three other co-chair seats
that were filled by the Tulsa election yielded the same three winners
regardless of which vote-counting method was used. Also, three other
seats, out of the seven total co-chair seats, were not up for election
in Tulsa).

After much discussion of this issue, 3 proposals were put forward to
fill this "7th co-chair position". On Sunday, Sept. 11, voting on these
3 proposals was completed. The results were #170 (To seat both Tom
Sevigny and Kristen Olson): 48 Yes, 37 No, 6 Abstain; #173 (To seat
only Tom Sevigny): 39 Yes, 45 No, 8 Abstain; and #174 (To hold an
election to fill the seat): 24 Yes, 57 No, 11 Abstain. Although #170
received a majority of Yes votes (56.5%), it did not cross the 2/3
threshold required for passage. #173 (46.4%) and #174 (29.6%) both
received less than a majority of Yes votes.

The Steering Committee then called for an election to fill the "7th
co-chair position". The notice of that election, entitled "SC Co-chair
Vacancy/Call for Nominations" was posted to the "usgp-coo" listserve on
(or around) September 16.

Finally, on (or around) Monday, Sept. 19, Tom Sevigny posted a joint
proposal from Kristen Olson and himself regarding how to fill the "7th
co-chair position".

ANALYSIS

The first sentence of Article V of our By-laws reads, "The National
Committee shall strive for consensus in decision making."

In view of the results of the Tulsa election, the percentage votes on
the 3 proposals that were completed on Sept. 11, and especially the
joint proposal submitted by Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson, we believe
that our consensus-seeking process now requires us to consider, discuss,
(amend if necessary), and decide-upon Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson's
joint proposal first -- before holding any "new" election for the seat.
We believe that the spirit in which Tom and Kristen created and
presented their proposal is in keeping with our consensus-seeking
process. Therefore, in order to respect their proposal (and the work
that they put into it), and to follow our consensus-seeking process, we
believe that we need to now cancel the election for the "7th co-chair
position" until we can first work with Tom and Kristen -- to see if we
can together find a way to adopt their proposal.

Because it will take time to "work out the details" of their joint
proposal, right now we are only proposing that the "election for the 7th
co-chair position" be cancelled -- so that we can have the time to
discuss (and modify if necessary) the six points of their joint
proposal. If the National Committee agrees that this is the proper
thing to do, then member(s) of our delegation will commit to promptly
initiating the discussion on their six points, if others do not act
before we do. We believe that the entire process (including NC approval of a
specific proposal based on the original joint proposal submitted by Tom Sevigny
and Kristen Olson), should take less than 2 months, and as an impetus to prompt
action, we have included that 2 month deadline in our formal proposal, below.

Note: In cancelling the current election for the "7th co-chair position", our
proposal does not take any position whatsoever on the appropriateness of the
past decision of calling for that election. Our proposal is only intended to
now move us forward in considering the joint proposal submitted by Tom Sevigny
and Kristen Olson -- and in order to properly do that, we believe that as
a "practical matter", that the current "7th co-chair position election" needs
to first be cancelled -- but in so doing, we do not imply any criticism at all
of any person or group involved in the process of calling for, or implementing,
that election.

Proposal

Proposal to cancel the co-chair election until the Green National
Committee first makes a decision on the Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson
joint proposal:

Full Title:
Proposal to cancel the co-chair election until the Green National Committee
first makes a decision on the Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson joint proposal.

Because Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson have submitted a joint proposal on
how to share the "7th co-chair position", the election to fill that "7th
co-chair position" is hereby canceled until the Green National Committee
is able to first use its consensus-seeking process (as specified in
Article V of the By-laws), to make a decision on the joint proposal that
Tom Sevigny and Kristen Olson have submitted to the Green National
Committee. The Green National Committee shall have two calendar months to act
on the Sevigny/Olson joint proposal. A new election to fill the "7th co-chair
position" can be held following this two month period, if the Green National
Committee fails to pass a proposal based on the Sevigny/Olson joint proposal by
that date.

Resources

CONTACT: Greg Jan

References

None

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