[Wikipedia-l] bylaws part II

[Delirium]

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