it sometimes happens that multiple sets of people in one year actually want to become swil president. when this happens, there can be bad feelings and unpleasantness. fred bush '98 was put in charge of a contested election at the end of his presidency, and sent me the following suggestion of how to minimize badness in such an election. we implemented (most of) this in the fall 1999 multiple candidate election, and it seemed pretty successful, so here it is:
``Most SWIL elections recently have had only one `major' candidate competing against many `silly' candidates. In this case, good fun should be had by all, and goddamn the rules, full speed ahead.
However, in the case where there is more than one serious candidate for SWIL president, special care should be taken to avoid bruised feelings.
My suggestion for the procedure [feel free to go over this with others before enacting it as semi-policy]:
If there is an outgoing president who is not running for re-election, that person should meet with all the candidates who are running. If there is no outgoing president, the candidates should meet among themselves. The outgoing co-president should then get all sides to agree on one person5 to conduct the election. The assent of the salt and pepper shaker, and all fictional entities, shall be assumed.
The person who has been chosen to run the election, the ``electionmeister'', should send out an email the week before the election. That email will announce the time of the election. The email will announce the manner in which the election will be conducted, the method of voting, the number of rounds of voting, etc.
If any SWIL non-member has a pressing engagement (final exam, death in the family, sordid rendezvous with galactic high lord) at that time, they must notify the election administrator immediately.
The electionmeister then will collect platforms for the election. The platforms will be due the day before the actual election.6
The electionmeister will then email all of those SWIL non-members who have previously said that they will not be able to attend the meeting, but still wish to vote. They will receive the platforms over email. They will then be able to cast their votes.
Email votes will be due at 11:00 a.m. on the day of the election. The only email votes that will be accepted are those that come from people who previously said they wish to vote electronically. If any of them show up to the meeting after already having voted, they are to be flayed with live eels.
At the election SWIL meeting, the electionmeister will take sole charge of the election, the tallying of votes, and the handing out of paper. No paper will be used that has not been checked for purity by the electionmeister. Also, each piece of paper will be numbered.
After the ballots have been received, the electionmeister will first check and make sure that no ballots are missing. Then there will be a count. If the results are clear, the electionmeister can announce the findings. If the serious candidates are close (within 6 votes), then there must be a recount.
The electionmeister should keep the ballots for a week. If anyone wishes to protest the results of the election, they will be ceremonially disemboweled and their innards examined by a trained wizard. Then their protest will be ruled on. Then they will be drawn and quartered, boiled, and staked on a fire ant pit.''