Voronwe - I thought I'd be back earlier but on my way home from an appointment in a nearby town I got sucked into a used bookstore.
Here is the actual text based on voting results. You can move this to the first post if you wish, for people to approve before I move it into the charter.
Article 4: Office of the Mayor
¶4: Elections
Elections will be held once a year according to the following schedule:
• On July 24, the current Mayor will post an announcement that the nomination period will begin in 30 days.
• On August 23, a 10 day nomination period will begin, extending until September 2.
• When the nomination period concludes, an election committee will be convened and a ten day voting period will begin.
• The voting will conclude on September 12.
• The new Mayor will be inaugurated on September 22.
During the nomination period, an individual member may nominate or second one candidate only.
The Election committee will be a three-person committee headed by the current Mayor. The current Mayor will select two individuals that she or he believes to be reliable, and together they will oversee the voting process, including counting the votes and announcing the results. No one who is a candidate for Mayor may be a member of the committee. One Ranger will assigned to the committee to facilitate processes requiring access to the administrative panel; but the Ranger will not participate in committee proceedings.
The vote will be conducted by secret ballot submitted by PM or email, using instant runoff format if there are more than two candidates and with each voter listing their top three choices in order of preference. The current Mayor will vote first and conveys his/her vote by PM to any Ranger who is not him/herself a candidate, so that in the event of a tie the vote already cast by the Mayor will count a second time as the deciding vote.
Members serving as Rangers at the time of the election may run for Mayor, but must resign as Rangers if they are elected.
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Amendments to Article 4:
¶1: Term of Office, Eligibility, and Selection
To be eligible, a candidate must be
18 years of age or older, a registered member for six months, and be nominated
and seconded by two other members.