Movement Charter/Supplementary Document/Ratification Methodology

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Movement Charter

Supplementary documents

Project

Community Consultation

Drafting Committee

Ratification vote

FAQ

The ratification process for the Wikimedia Movement Charter will be managed by a Charter Election Commission (CEC) appointed by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC).

Voter eligibility

• Individual contributors: Individual eligibility will be assessed in the same way as for Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections with the Charter Election Commission making any modifications as appropriate to the context of this vote. Contributors who do not meet these requirements, but have a proven track record of involvement in the projects, can apply for the voting right by emailing cecwikimediaorg to be considered.
• Affiliates: The voting group for Wikimedia affiliates is composed of Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and User Groups. All affiliates that are recognized by the Affiliations Committee and that are up to date with the Affiliations Committee’s requirements prior to the start of the ratification vote, are eligible to cast one vote on behalf of their group. The overview of affiliate reporting data, to help assess active status, can be found here.
• Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Members of the Board cast their vote using their normal decision-making procedure.

Who are the Voting Groups?	Who is eligible?	How does each Voting Group vote?	What is the threshold in favor of ratification?
Individual community members	Individual eligibility will be assessed in the same way as for Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections.	Individuals will vote through the standard SecurePoll/votewiki platform.	55% plus a minimum of 2% of eligible voters participating in vote
Affiliates	Wikimedia affiliates are composed of Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and User Groups. All affiliates that are recognized by the Affiliations Committee and are up to date with the Affiliations Committee’s requirements as of the start of the voting period are eligible to cast one vote on behalf of their group. The overview of affiliate reporting data can be found here, to help assess active status. Note: pilot Hubs are excluded from the affiliate voting group to reduce duplicate representation.	Each affiliate determines its method of deciding how to vote. Each Wikimedia affiliate will identify the individual authorized to report its vote, and will advise the CEC in advance of that person’s name and email address. The affiliate’s designated vote will cast their vote on a local SecurePoll ballot, which mirrors the individual vote’s ballot.	55% of participating affiliates plus a minimum of 50% of eligible affiliates participating
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees	Members of the Board may cast a vote.	The Wikimedia Board Board of Trustees will vote for ratification under their usual processes.	More than half (>50%)

Sequence of voting

Individual community members and Wikimedia affiliates voting groups will vote at the same time. Vote results from both groups are to be reported directly to the CEC and are not to be published openly (especially on-wiki) until all outcomes can be published at the same time.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will vote during the same voting period as the affiliates and individuals, and will publish the results of their vote after all voting has closed.

Quorum for voters

Based on the voter eligibility criteria for the ratification vote in June 2024, there are 117,275 eligible individual voters in the Wikimedia Movement: a quorum for the vote is reached when 2% or more cast their vote. Therefore, the quorum is set at 2346 voters or more participating in the vote.

Method of voting

Individual community members vote via SecurePoll. There are three voting options: “yes”,  “no”, and “--”. A “--” vote is not a vote for or against the Wikimedia Movement Charter, but will allow the voter to leave their feedback. The ballot will include a field for free-text comments. The comments will be public for all to see, but they are not attributed to the voter.

Each Wikimedia affiliate determines its method of deciding how to vote. The affiliate vote will take place using SecurePoll, and the ballot will be the same as the individual voter’s ballot.

• Each affiliate will identify the individual authorized to report its vote, and will advise the CEC in advance of that person’s name, Wikimedia username, and email address.
• Only the designated representative of the affiliate will have access to the SecurePoll ballot.

Non-vote feedback

Individuals may include feedback in the “Comments” section of the SecurePoll ballot. After the scrutinizing of the voting outcomes, the Wikimedia Foundation will dedicate staff support to provide a full, anonymized provision of all feedback comments. They can redact harmful or clearly inappropriate aspects of the comments (in part or in full) before sharing.

Affiliates may choose to include feedback when submitting their vote.

Publishing of results

Results of both the affiliate vote and the individual vote will be published on Meta-Wiki and other communication channels once vote scrutiny and verification are complete. For transparency, a list of the voters will be published. The list of voters will not provide information on the individual’s or affiliate’s voting choice.

A summary of the feedback received from individual voters, affiliates, and Meta-Wiki posts will be published after collation and analysis. To protect the privacy of the voters, the summary of comments will be anonymized. The same standard will apply to both the individual vote and the affiliate vote.

Ratification oversight

Charter Electoral Commission

• The CEC will consist of up to five election commissioners drawing from at least three different home projects to oversee the ratification vote. The CEC will be selected by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee.
  • The CEC candidates must demonstrate experience that would be beneficial in their role on the Commission.
  • The MCDC may also appoint an advisor to the CEC who has demonstrated experience in using SecurePoll at a global election level.
• Along with the rules contained in this document, the remaining rules of the vote will be decided by the CEC in consultation with the MCDC prior to the initiation of the ratification vote. The CEC can override these agreed-upon rules during the course of the vote only when significant harm would happen otherwise. Any overriding decision must also not negatively impact the overall ratification process. Once made, the reasoning behind the decision as well as the decision itself must be communicated publicly.
• To avoid potential conflicts of interest, as well as to mitigate against excessive work obligations, neither scrutineers nor commissioners should be selected from the current Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee.

Scrutineers

• There will be three or more scrutineers (who must not also be commissioners), selected from volunteer stewards. The stewards mailing list will be notified of the request well in advance. Instructions and purpose of scrutineers will be based on the process used by the English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee.

Support

• One member of the MCDC will be selected by a majority vote within the MCDC, prior to the commencement of the election, to be responsible for unlocking the voting results when the election is closed.
• Technical, Legal, and other relevant teams from the Wikimedia Foundation must give full support to both the CEC and scrutineers.
• In particular, during the ratification vote(s), the Foundation teams must share the names of the responsible staff members available to answer urgent queries and requirements. Teams should ensure that the work schedules of the named staff members permit this prioritization.
• The CEC, scrutineers, support teams, and interested voters can engage in a post-election review and lessons learned process. Issues (and utilized resolutions) should be documented on an ongoing basis throughout the process.

Notes