8 Voting

Sometimes things are best decided with a vote. This section describes how these votes are to be held.

Who may participate in a vote? Anyone subscribed to the SXEmacs Developers’ mailing list, sxemacs-devel@sxemacs.org.

Who may call a vote? The SXEmacs Project Lead, Steve Youngs. Of course anyone may ask the Project Lead to call a vote.

8.1 Mechanics of the Vote

1. The votes will be cast via email on the SXEmacs Developers’ mailing list, sxemacs-devel@sxemacs.org.
2. The ballot paper will have the email subject [Vote] Subject of vote. The body of this email will contain the details of the ballot. The actual questions or points that make up what is being voted on should be in a form that makes it easy to respond to. In other words they should be either multiple choice or yes/no type questions.
3. Each person wishing to participate in the vote will simply reply once to this email. The reply or vote must come to the mailing list.
4. Anyone wishing to abstain need not do anything. Just don’t reply to the ballot email.
5. There will be a time limit restriction on voting on any matter. This time limit will be a minimum of one calendar week from the time the vote is declared open. The vote is declared open with the posting of the initial ballot email (with the subject prefix of [Vote].

8.1.1 Deciding the Outcome

As soon as practicable after the vote closes (when the time limit has expired) the SXEmacs Project Lead will tally up all the votes and post the results to the SXEmacs Developers’ mailing list, sxemacs-devel@sxemacs.org. This post will have the email subject [Vote Results] Subject of vote.

The issue will be decided by simple majority. For a hung vote (no side has a majority) the Project Lead will either decide the outcome, call a postponement, or even call another vote.