> Someone's just asked, on a list that I'm co-listowner of, whether you can
> use Listserv for a vote.  I don't think so, but rather than assume, here's
> the question. Is there such capability?  Thanks - Ian

I manage lists for the IEEE 802.1 standards working group, and we've been
running votes via lists for a very long time

The method we use is to have people send their votes through a discussion
list. Our ballots are complex: besides voting Approve, Disapprove, or
Abstain (for any of several stated reasons), people send comments, using a
standard-format spreadsheet. Because of the nature of our work, comments are
actually required as a basis for a Disapprove vote.

Some years back, dealing with the flood of ballots (especially Approve and
Abstain votes with no comments) became a hassle for many subscribers, so we
moved ballot-response traffic to a separate list. The people responsible for
compiling ballot results (and anyone else who wants) subscribe to that list;
the rest are happy to wait for a document reporting the vote and the
compiled comments. Ballots are announced on the main discussion list, and
ballots in progress are listed on a Web page and (very briefly) on the main
list's header, with a link to that page.

We don't use topics, because the discipline of getting everyone to provide
correct topic labels on their contributions was more than we could
reasonably ask of our participants. (If you're herding cats, it's important
to limit your fights to ones you can win.) We DO ask people to use certain
subject lines to identify which ballot they're voting on, and what type of
vote they're casting. Mostly, people now cooperate in sending the responses
to the separate ballot-response list--although one longstanding participant
suddenly cranked out a bunch of responses to the main list, just a few weeks
ago.


I don't expect many others to copy the details of our method. What I
recommend is that you figure out, based on your needs and your voting
population, a method that will work for your votes and a way of tracking the
results.

Email balloting certainly beats snail mail. (Our group goes back a loooong
way.) But it's got its own potential hassles, and thinking ahead is your
best defense.

Hal Keen



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