A political race is about to commence in New Eden, the campaign to select the next members of the 8th Council of Stellar Management, or CSM8. CCP are changing up the process of previous years by asking that prospective candidates make a formal application to CCP before they can even be considered for the pre-election ballot and the election itself is moving to single transferable vote system.
More detail on the new system is below, as is the schedule of the election.
Previously, the council were selected through a ‘like’ system, anyone could submit their name for the vote meaning that the candidacy list was long and votes were scattered in small numbers all over the place. Feasibly, to make up council numbers, CCP may have had to appoint someone who had very few votes and only fringe support, simply because more popular candidates had drawn all the attention creating a vote-famine for the other prospective members.
This new system, that sees prospective candidates submitting an application to CCP before being submitted to a pre-election ballot should change that. It will mean fewer names on the pre-election ballot (needing to formally apply will likely put off a number of potential candidates), and at the pre-election ballot the candidates need to secure at least 200 votes before getting to the actual election ballot.This change is to ensure that any voice on the council has at least a modicum of support within the game. If fewer than 28 candidates meet this number, CCP admit they will let in the candidates closest to 200 until they have at least 28 names on the ballot list.
Another change is that the election system will be employing the single transferable vote system. British readers will recognise this as the AV system which was shot down a couple of years ago. Essentially, each EVE voter selects their top 14 choices. If your number one choice doesn’t have enough votes to be elected then your vote goes to the number two candidate. If that doesn’t work either then it continues down the list. Simples.
You can read the details of how this will all work over on this EVE blog post.
Here is the announced schedule:
- 21stof February: announcing the CSM8 elections and the updated rules
- 12th– 20thof March: candidacy application period
- 22nd– 29thof March: Pre-Election
- 3rd– 17thof April: Announcement of final ballot and Election
- 27thof April: Election result announcement