Ballot format

[Guest frank dale]

In election of a person to fill a blank space on and board/committee etc., in what order should the names be placed on the ballot. e.g alphabetically, order nominated, tradition of the body?

Frank

[Kim Goldsworthy]

In election of a person to fill a blank space on and board/committee etc., in what order should the names be placed on the ballot. e.g alphabetically, order nominated, tradition of the body?

A PRINTED ballot, pre-printed with names, is what I assume you refer to.

(A blank ballot is perfectly acceptable, and 100% unbiased; so if you seek an unbias method, you can't go wrong with blank pieces of paper, where the voter must write-in the choice.)

To answer your question:

RONR does not say. - RONR says that NOMINATIONS are done in a certain order. But a pre-printed ballot (wherein you list names of all nominees), also called an Australian ballot, has no Robertian rule.

• In order of of nomination is one fair way.

• Alphabetical order is not neutral, but does take away some bias from the order of nomination.

• Randomization of names is possible.

• Randomization where all ballots are rotated so that no name appears atop the ballot any more often than another name, is an attempt to strip the bias of straight randomization.

You'll violate no rule in RONR if you pick from those. Or pick an unnamed order, too.