Alex T. wrote:
That process would seem to indicate that you could
require the application
to be
verified by a notary, thus ensuring that it is from a distinct individual.
That is usually
what NPO membership coordinators due is verify membership status, so it is
not
outrageous to ask someone to fill out a form, get it notarized and mail it
to someone
to be entitled to vote.
I personally don't like any notarization requirement, because not
everyone has easy (and certainly not free) access to a notary public.
In addition, I've actually never been a member of a NPO that required
this, and I've been a member of several organizations that had votes.
Perhaps it's different in the world of academic and professional
societies (Cognitive Science Society, Association of Computing
Machinery, IEEE, etc.), but they seem to consider the fact that they
snail-mail you the materials to be a sufficient safeguard--if you tried
to request 500 ballots to the same address, they'd notice and check into
it, and it's unreasonably difficult for most people to stuff the ballot
box by acquiring 500 different places at which they can receive mail.
About half also additionally require either a photocopy of an ID or in
the case of students or professors a letter from your institution saying
"this guy really is a [student/professor] here".
-Mark