Voting Procedure

One person from each organisation that has been a RIPE NCC member for longer than six months is entitled to vote at the GM. Votes can be cast by paper ballot or via the electronic voting system. Those who attend the GM in person can choose to vote with paper ballot OR via electronic voting.

Whether you attend the GM in person or follow remotely, the process for registering to vote is quick and easy.

NOTE: All votes cast at the GM, whether in person or electronically, are completely anonymous.

Registering to vote with paper ballot

Only those attending the GM in person can vote using paper ballots.

To attend the GM in person, you need to complete the registration form. Simply follow the link to the registration page and ensure the checkbox is selected that allows you to choose to be the voting representative for your organisation. If you represent more than one RIPE NCC member, choose to add the RegIDs for all the member organisations you represent.

On the day of the GM, you can pick up your voting ballot slip at the GM Registration Desk.

Registering to vote electronically

You can vote electronically at the GM whether you attend in person or follow remotely.

On 27 February 2014, all RIPE NCC member contacts will receive an email inviting them to register for electronic voting with BigPulse, the independent third party system the RIPE NCC has contracted to carry out its online voting.

When you receive the email invitation to register for electronic voting, you just need to click the link in the email and select the organisation(s) you will vote for. You then need to click Confirm to complete the registration process. This registration process should take less than a minute to complete.

Note: Unlike in previous years, there is no requirement to send identification to the RIPE NCC. This requirement was removed following the members' approval of a resolution to simplify the registration process in October 2013.

The deadline to register for electronic voting is 13 May 2014 at 12:00 UTC.

A demonstration video showing the registration process is available.

Casting your vote at the GM

The Chairman of the RIPE NCC Executive Board will open voting during the GM on Wednesday, 14 May.

Instant run-off voting is the voting method used for Executive Board elections. Voters rank candidates in order of preference (first, second, third, etc.). If no candidate achieves an absolute majority (majority from remote and onsite voters), the candidate with the least number of votes is dropped and the next preferences of all ballots assigned to that candidate are added to the other totals. The process continues until a candidate achieves an absolute majority. The voting process is repeated for the second and third seats without previous winning candidates. In this way, all seats are filled with one round of voting.

Resolutions require a majority vote to be approved. If you are voting by paper ballot, you simply mark one box beside YES, NO or ABSTAIN for each resolution and hand your ballot to the assigned vote collector.

If you are voting electronically, you use the link on the email you received to access the BigPulse voting pages. There, you select YES, NO or ABSTAIN for each resolution and click Submit.

Members can cast their votes electronically until 14:00 (UTC +2) on Thursday, 15 May.

Results of the Voting

At 14:00 (UTC +2) on 15 May, independent observers will oversee the process in which the paper ballots are added to the electronic votes.

At 15:45 (UTC +2) on 15 May, the Chairman of the RIPE NCC Executive Board will announce the results of the Executive Board elections and the voting on the resolutions. This announcement will be webcast for remote participants in the GM.