[Foundation-l] Future Board election procedures and guidelines

[Jimmy Wales]

On Jul 16, 2007, at 1:43 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:
> It was luck. It's simply a result of which people happened to vote. If
> you get a large enough turnout, the error caused by the people voting
> not being a representative sample of the whole electorate becomes
> insignificant. We didn't get a large enough turnout.

I think that luck is one interpretation.  Another interpretation is  
that a large number of people who only know the candidates by general  
reputation thought they all sounded fine, and voted for this group,  
and that people closer to the community actually did have a  
preference and expressed it.  The general public votes more or less  
washed out, due to lack of information, and the "insider" votes  
swayed the election.

OR

The insider votes were swamped by noise from outsiders, or by non- 
rational preferences based on order on the ballot or whatever.

We just don't know.  I think it is not safe to assume either luck or  
expression of preference.

--Jimbo