Elections Policy Committee

Voter Information

Send an email to the Executive Council
To:
- board@pirateparty.org.nz
Containing:
- subject line: Policy Committee Nomination
- the full name or alias of the person you are nominating (which may be yourself)
- your name,
- Whether you are also nominating that person for Campaign Manager and/or Policy Committee Chair (aka Head of Policy). (Note: candidates for these positions have an advantage)
There will be a topic on the forum for candidates to write in support of their candidacy
When you nominate someone for Policy Committee, please note that candidates for Head of Policy and/or Campaign Manager have an advantage. There can only be one person on the Policy Committee who is neither Head of Policy nor Campaign Manager.

In your vote, you will have 3 ranked lists for the 3 different positions:
- Policy Committee (3 seats) elected by STV
- Campaign Manager (1 seat) elected by IRV from within the Policy Committee
- Policy Committee Chair / Head of Policy (1 seat) elected by IRV from within the Policy Committee

Step 1 - voter verification
- Email the Membership Officer (verify@pirateparty.org.nz)
- send this email from your identifying email address
- include your anonymous email address in the body
- do not include your vote or number

Step 2 - voting
- Email the Returning Officer (vote@pirateparty.org.nz)
- send this email from your anonymous email address
- include your vote and number
- do not include your identifying email

In each ranked list, you can:
- Rank as many candidates as you like
  - Note that giving any candidate *a* ranking, even a low one, might get them elected when the position would otherwise remain vacant
- Leave some candidates unranked
  - This is effectively supporting the position remaining vacant instead of this candidate being elected

The Policy Committee are basically "Pirate Party MPs", who aren't actually MPs.
They are responsible for:
1. coming up with policy options (through the member-driven policy development process),
2. running election campaigns and dealing with the media,
3. appointing a Pirate Party Leader,
4. monitoring what happens in parliament.
It currently consists of three members:
1. the Head of Policy, i.e. chair of the committee;
2. the Campaign Manager, primarily responsible for coordinating Party Public Relations,
3. one more Committee Member.

The Membership officer will publish a list of valid anonymous email addresses
- You will be able to check that yours is on the list
- No one except you and the Membership Officer will know it belongs to you
The Returning Officer will publish all the votes along with the associated number
- You will be able to identify your own vote by the number
- No one except you will know it belongs to you
- You can check that your vote is correct
- Since you can see all the votes, you can check the calculation of the result

Select the 3 top candidates for the Policy Committee using STV
- The Droop Quota (1/4 of all votes) will be used
- The quota will not be reduced to compensate for exhausted votes
Out of those 3 candidates, select one candidate for Campaign Manager by IRV
- If the candidate appears on a majority of votes (i.e. is not unranked), they are elected. Otherwise they are eliminated and the IRV step repeated
Out of those top 3 candidates,s elect one candidate for Head of Policy by IRV
- If the candidate appears on a majority of votes (i.e. is not unranked), they are elected. Otherwise they are eliminated and the IRV step repeated

If there are not enough candidates for Campaign Manager and Head of Policy elected to the Policy Committee:
- Out of the 3 top Policy Committee candidates, excluding the successful Campaign Manager or Head of Policy, eliminate the one with the lowest vote surplus
- Out of those remaining in the top 3, and all original candidates for the unfilled position, Repeat the STV process until one candidate for the unfilled position reaches the quota.
  - If the candidate appears on a majority of votes for the unfilled position (i.e. is not unranked), they are elected. Otherwise they are eliminated and the STV step repeated.