pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo — pull request #20 by bg002h (2014-07-28 13:51:52+00:00)
Title: Reduce quorum for membership votes from 2/3 to 1/2

SITUATION: The most recent election was not definitive in one round due to failure to achieve approval by a majority of a quorum.

BACKGROUND: Quorum for membership elections is two-thirds. The winner must achieve a majority of this quorum. Quorum serves two purposes: 1) establishes that a sufficient fraction of the membership have been reached with a ballot and 2) a sufficient fraction of the members wish the ballot to be brought for a vote.

However, in the past election we had several voters who wished for the election to be held but did not have a preference for any candidate. While blank ballots achieve establish quorum, blank ballots also raise the bar that a successful candidate must achieve. This is not what quorum is intended to achieve.

ACTION: This is the first of two pull requests. In this request, the quorum requirement is lowered to one-half. A subsequent pull request will describe a method for reducing the "majority of a quorum" requirement to better reflect a majority of a quorum of those that submitted a non-blank ballot.

RESPONSE: Pull request submitted for community and board discussion.