For those avoiding EN24, reddit, and the forums, Matias Otero; the Brave Newbies representative has been inactive for sometime, and has recently made his resignation from the position he held on CSM9 official.
Matias has issued an apology on reddit an extract of which is found below.
I’ve decided to resign from the CSM rather than let my seat go to waste. It was a difficult decision, as I felt that I could at least have spent some of my energy on the all-important issue of new player attraction and retention, but in the end I had to admit to myself that it wasn’t going to happen. …
With the decision of what do with the now vacant CSM seat on their hands, CCP have decided to enlist a new member to the council as a replacement, but how exactly? You may ask.
So lets look at the options https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By-election#In_multi-member_constituencies is a starting place.
The voting software that CSM used easily lends itself to excluding the failed candidate. This has the advantage of allowing voters, especially those who voted for the resigned representative, to still hold some influence over who replaces Matias.
If CCP were to choose this method, then Asayami Dei is to be elected, defeating Awoxing Pizza-Spymaster
McBlueshooter by (my count) of 181.
The (my count) qualification is that I used droop with the warren rules, which is probably not quite right. However Sephira Galamore on the forums posted that with CSM’s own voting software, we get the same result.
Most systems that perform this type of recount keep all incumbents in their seat and use the recount to fill the empty seat alone. (To address the concerns on the forums that the recount will effect remaining CSM members)
To do nothing is always an option, but not really one that benefits anyone. While the actual goals of what the CSM is for are perceived differently by some, fewer CSM members is only going to result in a lesser chance of these goals actually being achieved.
Many electoral systems will appoint a member from the same political party where available. Whether this appointment is done by a Governor or an elected body themselves, an effort is generally made in many systems to retain the existing balance by replacing ‘like with like’.
Eve does not (yet?) have formal political parties. We are close but not there yet so I do not see how this would work until we have tickets that formally acknowledging who belong to the same group.
This is the option that was taken by CCP in the interests of speed. No disrespect to Asayami Dei but please CCP, never do this again. This has the exact opposite effect of ‘replace with a similar candidate’ and generally will disenfranchise those that voted for the recently vacated representative.
For an example in the extreme. Take a common voting scenario
So on the initial vote (regardless of method) the right wing candidate is elected, and 1/2 way through their term resigns.
Under this method the left wing candidate would be elected, causing the right wing electors (with 63% of vote) to be disenfranchised.
The reason that Asayami is appointed under both this rule and recount method is that in the original count Asayami was only just excluded (80 votes).
Speed was not an issue. I found and installed and worked out how to drive similar software to perform a reasonable count within a couple of hours. Seripha found the software that CCP uses and re-ran the vote in the same amount of time.
To minimise accusations of favouritism and whim, I recommend that CSM ask CCP for a formal method of replacing candidates, and to formalise when a representative should be replaced of which my personal preference would be the recount method.
I think it is fortunate that Asayami managed to be elected on both the whim based ‘last candidate excluded’ as well as a more rigorous recount method.
Drool Warren Based on Original Vote
Original Vote Modified to Work with Drool
Drool Warren with Matias Excluded
Original Vote Modified to Work with Drool and then Matias Excluded
