Just to put this into a real world perspective. I an a member of the Labour Party which gives me certain rights to vote. I've never once in 23 years been asked to provide evidence of who I am. In terms of entryism the Labour Party has had a long history and the problem is dealt with not with postcards or expensive credit checks or heaven forbid notorised copies of documents but with a simple acceptence that you abide by the constitution. If you don't you get kicked out and if you disagree you take the party to court at your own expense. For a post that has had so many contributions I haven't seen much justification for any change in what you do already. The fear of reds under the bed or freak cabals seems to more important that actually signing up members and supporters and bogging them down with what if requirements. Maybe an approach to another charity or the electoral reform society and ask how they deal with ghost members might be more enlightening, than throwing it open to a public mailing list.
On 19/11/2012, Katherine Bavage katherine.bavage@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
Hi All,
At the board meeting on Saturday a valid point was made that currently the verification process for membership applications doesn't really prove a barrier to fraudulent or duplicate applications.
I'd like to look at ways of improving this, so as we aim to expand our membership numbers we're also making sure fairness is enshrined in a checking process that means people can only have one vote.
If people pay their membership fee with Paypal, this isn't so much of a problem, as having a verified paypal account has already required this person to link their identity to their postal address - but we want to be as open as possible and so there will be people who give us 'a form and a fiver'.
What checking processes do we think would be acceptable without being invasive/onerous? At a basic level, we should be confirming that the applicant is the named person at the address given.
Please flag up concerns, suggestions for services or resources we can use, and so on. It may be that we can't completely eliminate the risk of fraudulent applications, but we can make it more difficult and provide a measure or reassurance that no individual has more power than any other by being able to vote twice etc .
Thanks!
-- *Katherine Bavage * *Fundraising Manager * *Wikimedia UK* +44 20 7065 0949
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