Summary: Thanks to everyone who put yourselves out there and ran in this election and congratulations to our newest board member, Shyamala Rajaram! I’m certain you will use this power for good :-) I sat down with Michael “Schnitzel” Schmid in my office in Cologne to talk about the 2016 election for a Director at Large Drupal Association Board position. Schnitzel was a candidate and the election had just concluded when we spoke. As I did last year, I once again found a couple of aspects of the election challenging: There were a lot of candidates. I wasn’t up to properly informing myself, much less interacting in a meaningful way, with 22 candidates. I cast six votes, ranking people I felt know well enough want them to represent me on the DA Board. I suspected I didn’t really understand the nuances of Instant Runoff Voting (hereafter: “IRV”). Our conversation (audio and video) covers three main areas: From 1:50 to 13:06 in the video (3:07 to 14:23 in the audio version) we get clear on what IRV is and how it works. From 13:07 to ca. 25:00 (14:24 to ca. 26:17 in the audio version) in the video we go through the 2016 DA Board election round for round. Following the process in action improved my understanding of it and gave me more insights into things like the importance and value of my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and later votes in and IRV election. From roughly 22:00 to the end in the video (roughly 23:17 to the end in the audio version), armed with new insights, I think that understanding the system better should help me vote “better” in future IRV elections. However, being geeks, we can’t resist bike shedding! Schnitzel and I also talk about the specifics of how the DA elections have been set up and we propose a few potential improvements to DA/IRV elections. Our conversation - 33 min. Below, you'll find excerpts from the transcription of our conversation and some of our questions and other commentary. Congratulations, Shyamala! jam: Congratulations Shyamala Rajaram on winning the election. I’m really, really looking forward to finding out more about you and congratulations, and I know that you've got a lot of great ideas. I was personally extremely impressed by India and the Indian Drupal community when I was in DrupalCon Mumbai and if the Indian community is anything to go by, I think that we’re in for having a great board member. So, congratulations! Instant Runoff Voting - 1:50 to 13:06 in video jam: I, however, was one of many people who find the Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system confusing and I had a bunch of questions and a lot of people were asking you questions during the election because you were promoting yourself as a candidate and promoting the election itself. What kind of questions were people asking you that essentially were way off the mark? "Do I have to vote for everybody?" Schnitzel: So, one of the biggest questions that I got is that when people went to the voting and they saw the voting ballot, the biggest question is, “Do I have to go to him for everybody?” jam: So, we had 22 candidates running and if you voted, you’ll know that you hit a ballot which allowed you to put 22 candidates in an order of one to 22. Schnitzel: Correct. jam: So, do I have to vote for everybody? In Drupal, in our system, no. Schnitzel: You don’t have to, no. jam: In the way that we’ve implemented it, you don’t have to vote for everyone, but your later votes up until a certain point, can have an effect. "Can I vote for you 22 times?" jam: People also asked you if they could vote for you 22 times. Schnitzel: Yes, I had people coming to me and say like, “So, I got 22 votes. How do I give you all of it?” The answer is no. jam: So, I can’t vote for you 22 times. Schnitzel: No. What are later votes good for? jam: My later votes can have an...
