[GSC-Diversity-All] Secret Ballot Voting

[Elizabeth Margarette Clay]

FYI- the discussion between me and the GSC President and former President about
the secret ballot

----- Forwarded message from barunio at gmail.com -----
    Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:46:27 -0500
    From: Barun Singh <barunio at gmail.com>
Reply-To: Barun Singh <barunio at gmail.com>
 Subject: Re: draft GCM agenda
      To: Eric Weese <weese at mit.edu>

The GSC has closed-ballot voting every year for elections. In the case of
Officer elections, this is required by the Bylaws, but in terms of the
committees, there is no such requirement.  Committees have often voted just
by raising hands, and it has happened many times that someone has instead
requested a paper ballot.  The reasoning is simple: if the winner of an
election learns who voted against them, it is possible that they won't favor
their proposals of those who vote against them, or that it will create bad
blood in between the two individuals, causing some degree of personal harm
to the voter.  We have had paper ballot voting for other sorts of
resolutions as well, but very rarely, and I can't remember particular
instances of it off the top of my head.  In this situation regarding the
diversity committee, though, it is very clear that the same reasoning for
having closed-ballot voting in elections applies equally strongly.  There
are many people who feel the repercussions of having their votes known in
public because they don't want to be called racists (I know this because at
least some of those people have told me this explicitly).  Whether or not
they should be afraid of such recriminations is irrelevant -- the fact that
they are afraid is sufficient to unfairly influence their votes.

The GSC has never denied a paper ballot when requested, as far as I know.

-Barun


On 2/27/07, Eric Weese <weese at mit.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Elizabeth -
>
> I don't think we've done anything other than the standard "raise your
> hand" voting this year.  Last year, under Emilie, there were very few
> resolutions.  I don't know anything about years before that, but
> Barun (cc-ed on this email) seems to have some knowledge of GSC
> history.  He might be able to fill us in...
>
> In any case, here's what Robert has to say on the subject:
> "A member who believes that a secret vote will give a truer
> expression of the assembly's will on a pending motion can move that
> the vote on the motion be taken by ballot" (RONR 10th ed. p. 274...
> available in the GSC office for further consultation - just ask Emmi
> to find a copy for you)
>
> The motion to vote by ballot is undebatable, but if you're interested
> in discussing it, we can certainly talk about it at excomm.  We could
> also email out some information to reps in advance, so that they
> could consider how they would vote on such a motion, if someone were
> to make it.
>
> Anyways, let me know if you've still got questions...
>
> On 27-Feb-07, at 9:40 AM, Elizabeth Margarette Clay wrote:
>
> > Eric,
> >
> > I am curious about other cases where a secret ballot vote has been
> > used for
> > amendments to bylaws or other non-election votes in the GSC recent
> > history.
> > Could you tell me about those, by email or at ExComm?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Elizabeth
>
>


-- 
http://barunsingh.com


----- End forwarded message -----


Master of City Planning Candidate, 2007
Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Co-Chair, Diversity Committee, GSC
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

617.699.1514 (Mobile)
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