At the Iris Festival, Baronessa Violeta and Praetoria Prima announced their intent to retire. Our Barony will need to select the new Baronage. The process, the requirements candidates must meet to serve as Baronage, and the requirements to be allowed to vote are outlined in Section V of the Barony Governance Policy document. Here is that document: https://debatablelands.aethelmearc.org/resources/policies-and-forms/downloads/BMDL_Governance_Policies_FINAL_Dec2023.pdf.
At the June 3rd business meeting the selection committee members were identified: The selection committee currently consists of the current Baronage, Violeta and Prima, myself, Hara, the Seneschal, the Knight Marshal, Patrokles, the Chronicler, Emilia, and the Exchequer, Forveleth. Depending on who is running for Baronage, the committee members may change. It may change if a committee member is running, is a partner or living with someone who is running, or has a teacher/student or belt relationship with someone who is running. At that June meeting, the committee voted myself, Hara Kikumatsu as Chairman of the Selection Committee.
Here are the steps for selecting our next Baronage and approximate timing:
1. Announcement of the upcoming election. It was announced at court at Iris Festival on May 24th
2. Approximately one month later, nominations – this has already been scheduled for Jul 12 at the garb swap.
3. Approximately one month later, acceptance of nominations.
3.a Ballots mailed to eligible barony citizens.
3.b Candidate town hall meetings ideally one in person and one online, for candidates to introduce themselves, and to answer questions from the populace.
4. Two month later, ballots counted. (Exact date and location will be announced once we have a better idea of whether the process in running on schedule.)
Note that nominations can be sent in writing to the Chairman of the Selection Committee. The written nomination must be received before the nomination meeting. Send a written nomination to Hara Kikumatsu: Mailing address: Sharon Booth, 1105 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. You can also send email to bmdl@aethelmearc.org. No text or social media requests please.
The requirements of the office: The Territorial Office of the Baronage, must meet the requirements stated in Corpora and Kingdom Law, be 18 years of age or order as of the date the votes are to be tallied, and must be a citizen of the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands. The Office of the Baronage of the Debatable Lands is not subject to a term limit.
Note: Individuals or couples may be nominated, but no individual can occur on the ballot more than once.
Eligible Voters: Any person residing the the zip codes of the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands who is 17 years of age or older, as of the date the votes are to be tallied, and is on the corporate membership list may vote or is a Non-Resident Citizen of the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands and has their contact information on file with the Offices of the Seneschal and Herald. Under exceptional circumstances,the Selection Comittee may consider a written request for a ballot from a person who would not otherwise receive one. Such a request must be received be the Chair of the Selection Committee by the date of the Nominating Meeting.
Send a written nomination or a request for a ballot if you would not otherwise receive one to the Chairman of the Selection Committee, Hara Kikumatsu: Mailing address: Sharon Booth, 1105 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. You can also send email to bmdl@aethelmearc.org. No text or social media requests please.
If you are not a current member, or your address is not up-to-date with Corporate, please correct that. If you are a non-resident citizen make sure your contact information is up-to-date with the Senechal and Herald. We will be requesting the list of members from corporate in early July before the nominating meeting.
After the nominating meeting, the chairman will notify the nominated candidates in writing within one week of the nominations. In order for the candidate to be considered, they must accept the nomination in writing to the Chairman of the Selection committee within one month of the nomination meeting.
Ballots will be mailed to eligible voters. There will be numbered ballots, and a record will be kept of the total number of ballots, but no record will be kept of which number was mailed to a voter. Voters are not required to put their name on the ballot. Voters can return in ballots by mail or in person to the Chair the the Selection Committee.
The ballot will contain a group status question that the voter must answer. The groups status question asks if the Barony should remain a barony. Then it will contain a list of candidates be ranked in order of preference with 1 being the favorite candidate. A voter can leave a candidate blank or unranked. A voter can also mark a candidate unacceptable, UA.
A duplicate, invalid, or missing ballot number will be considered invalid ballot and not counted. If the ballot doesn’t have unambiguous and legible ranking of candidates including UA and blank responses it will be considered invalid.
Any candidate receiving unacceptable, UA, votes from more than 33% of the valid ballots will be eliminated.
General Summary of Tallying. The voters rank candidates from most favorite to least favorite. Take the ballots and make a pile for each candidate, based on just the first-place votes (ignoring all the other rankings on the ballots). Then eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes and re-distribute those ballots to the other piles, using the second-place votes. Keep eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes until one candidate is left. This is a summary only. Please refer to the governance document listed at the beginning of this post