User:Mz7/Running Arbitration Committee elections

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

On the English Wikipedia, the members of the Arbitration Committee are appointed by an annual election process organized and run by the community, not by the Committee itself, in accordance with Wikipedia:Arbitration/Policy#Selection and appointment.

The Arbitration Committee was first established in December 2003, and since then there have been elections every year. In each election up until 2017, community members have tried to observe how past elections were conducted, with experienced editors passing down institutional knowledge of how elections were conducted in the past. However, the process was never really written down in a tangible form. The goal of this page is to provide a central location that describes how English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee elections are normally conducted, so that the election process can be smoother for all participants.

Rough timeline

September: Pre-election request for comment
October: Appointment of the Electoral Commission
Mid-November: Self-nomination and questioning period for candidates in the election
Late-November to early-December: Voting period – eligible editors may vote in the election through the SecurePoll interface
Immediately following the voting period: Scrutineering period – scrutineers, consisting of stewards whose main wikis are not the English Wikipedia, will check the votes (e.g. for duplicate, missing, and ineligible votes), and compile a tally of the results.

Instructions

Set up the core election pages

When it is time to begin the election cycle (around the end of August), we have to set up the main election pages. For this year (2024), we need to create the following pages.

Main election page: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024
General discussion page: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024
Header: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Header
Redirect the shortcut WP:ACE2024 to the main election page.
Navbox: Template:ACE2024

This is really all that's needed in early September. Later on, around mid-October, when it comes time to prepare for the self-nomination phase, we also need to create the following pages.

Candidate statement page: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Candidates
List of candidate question pages: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Questions
List of candidate discussion pages: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Candidates/Discussion
Candidate guide: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Candidates/Guide
Coordinators page: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Coordination
Coordinators' noticeboard: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Coordination
Scrutineer instructions: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Coordination/Instructions for scrutineers

Finally, on Template:ACE candidate page, update the timestamp (e.g. for 2020, it is the line beginning with {{#ifexpr: {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} > 20201108000000) to the date when the nomination phase begins.

Pre-election request for comment

Ideally starting on the first day of September, a month-long request for comment (RfC) is typically held to give the community the opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of that year's Arbitration Committee election. For this year (2024), the request for comment should be held at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024. See Category:Wikipedia Arbitration Committee elections requests for comment for past RfCs.

Examples of pre-election RfC discussion topics

Number of arbitrators to appoint in the election^[1]
Eligibility criteria to stand as a candidate in the election, beyond the ones specified by Wikipedia:Arbitration/Policy#Selection and appointment^[2]
Eligibility criteria to vote in the election^[3]
How should the election be advertised to the community^[4]
The authority of members of the Electoral Commission^[5]
Other procedural questions affecting the election process

Example navbox code

Create the navbox for this year at Template:ACE2024 using the format below. Fill in the fields as necessary, using the example from 2017 as a guide. There is also documentation for the parameters at Module:Arbcom election banner.

Blank template

{{#invoke:Arbcom election banner|main
| name          = 
| electionpage  = 
| nomstart      = 
| nomend        = 
| votestart     = 
| voteend       = 
| beforenomlink = 
| nomlink       = 
| votepage      = 
| votelog       = 
| contact       = 
| discuss       = 
| cguide        = 
| cstatements   = 
| cquestions    = 
| cdiscuss      = 
<!-- Add candidate guides here. -->
| guide1        = 
| guide2        = 
| guide3        = 
| guide4        = 
| guide5        = 
}}

Example from 2017

{{#invoke:Arbcom election banner|main
| name          = ACE2017
| electionpage  = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017|2017 Arbitration Committee Elections]]
| nomstart      = 00:00, 12 November 2017
| nomend        = 23:59, 21 November 2017
| votestart     = 00:00, 27 November 2017
| voteend       = 23:59, 10 December 2017
| beforenomlink = [[Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017|2017 ArbCom Election RFC (ended 30 September)]]
| nomlink       = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_December_2017/Candidates|Nominate]]
| votepage      = [[Special:SecurePoll/vote/400|Vote]]
| votelog       = [https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll/list/673 Voter Log]
| contact       = [[Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Coordination|Contact the coordinators]]
| discuss       = [[Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017|Discuss the elections]]
| cguide        = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Candidates/Guide|Candidate guide]]
| cstatements   = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Candidates|Candidate statements]]
| cquestions    = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Questions|Questions for the candidates]]
| cdiscuss      = [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Candidates/Discussion|Discuss the candidates]]
<!-- Add candidate guides here. -->
| guide1 =  
| guide2 = 
| guide3 = 
}}<!--Template:ACE2017 --><noinclude>{{Documentation}}[[Category:Wikipedia Arbitration Committee Elections 2017]] [[Category:Wikipedia Arbitration Committee Elections voter guides]]
[[Category:User essays on arbitration]]
</noinclude>

Electoral Commission selection

The Electoral Commission is selected via request for comment with the following timeline:

Nominations: 0:00 on the first Saturday in October until 23:59 the following Friday (UTC)
Evaluation period: 00:00 Saturday as soon as the nomination period ends until 23:59 the following Friday (UTC)
Commission selection: completed by the next Friday at the latest

For this year (2024), the selection is held at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Electoral Commission.

Scrutineer selection

After the Electoral Commission is selected, the first order of business is for a member of the Electoral Commission to post a message at meta:Stewards' noticeboard, calling for volunteers to scrutinize the election. Examples: [1][2][3]. The role and responsibilities of the scrutineers should be documented at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2024/Coordination/Instructions for scrutineers. Any steward who does not edit the English Wikipedia as their primary wiki is eligible to serve. Usually there are three scrutineers. Once the Electoral Commission decides who the scrutineers will be, they will pass the names to the Arbitration Committee, who will pass a motion granting them temporary checkuser rights on the English Wikipedia for the purpose of scrutineering.

Monitoring candidate question pages

In 2020, the community placed restrictions on what content is allowed and not allowed on question pages. Prohibited content may only be removed by the Electoral Commission.^[6] Decisions by the Electoral Commissions on content disputes is final.

Content explicitly prohibited from questions to candidate pages

Statements of policy, philosophy, opinions or other general comments
Analysis of candidates, questions or answers
Endorsements or disendorsments of candidates
Reference to other candidates, except as necessary context for a question, answer or clarification request.
Personal attacks or aspersions
Adverts for voter guides or similar pages.

Content explicitly permitted on questions to candidates pages

Questions to the individual candidate
Responses to questions by that candidate (including answers, requests for clarification, etc)
Reasonable follow-up questions^[7]
Responses to requests for clarification
Short responses to answers by the person asking the question (e.g. thanks)

Notes

^ During the pre-election RfC, the community may decide to adjust the size of the Committee by appointing more or fewer arbitrators. Currently, the community tries to appoint however many arbitrators needed to have 15 members of the Arbitration Committee (was changed from 15 to 13 in WP:ACERFC2018 and back to 15 in WP:ACERFC2019). However, the arbitration policy does not prescribe any maximum or minimum number of arbitrators that may sit on the Committee in a given year.
^
Currently, the community has adopted the following criteria from past pre-election RfCs. An editor is eligible to stand as a candidate if the editor:
1. has a registered account and has made at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November in the year of the election
2. is in good standing and not subject to active blocks or site-bans,
3. meets the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public data, is willing to sign the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement, and
4. has disclosed any previous or alternate accounts in their election statements (legitimate accounts which have been declared to the Arbitration Committee before the close of nominations do not need to be publicly disclosed).
^
Currently, the community has adopted the following criteria from past pre-election RfCs. An editor is eligible to vote if the editor:
1. has registered an account before 00:00, 28 October in the year of the election
2. has made at least 150 mainspace edits before 00:00, 1 November in the year of the election and,
3. is not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote.
^ From past-election RfCs, the following practices have been adopted: watchlist notices, notices on village pumps and other highly visible noticeboards, mass-message to all eligible candidates who have made at least 1 edit in the 12 months preceding the election, publicity in the Signpost. Candidate-specific "ads" are disallowed.
^ According to the 2017 selection process, "The mandate of the Electoral Commission is to deal with any unforeseen problems that may arise in the 2017 Arbitration Committee election process, and to adjudicate any disputes during the election. However, members of the Election Commission should intervene only when there is a problem that needs resolving, and either discussion is not working, the rules are unclear, or there isn't time for a lengthy discussion."
^ WP:ACERFC2020#CandidateQs4
^ Editors suggest WP:RFA's limit exception as a good way to interpret reasonableness, though discretion is ultimately left to the Electoral Commission. See WP:ACERFC2020#CandidateQs1b

[1] During the pre-election RfC, the community may decide to adjust the size of the Committee by appointing more or fewer arbitrators. Currently, the community tries to appoint however many arbitrators needed to have 15 members of the Arbitration Committee (was changed from 15 to 13 in WP:ACERFC2018 and back to 15 in WP:ACERFC2019). However, the arbitration policy does not prescribe any maximum or minimum number of arbitrators that may sit on the Committee in a given year.

[2] Currently, the community has adopted the following criteria from past pre-election RfCs. An editor is eligible to stand as a candidate if the editor:
has a registered account and has made at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November in the year of the election
is in good standing and not subject to active blocks or site-bans,
meets the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public data, is willing to sign the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement, and
has disclosed any previous or alternate accounts in their election statements (legitimate accounts which have been declared to the Arbitration Committee before the close of nominations do not need to be publicly disclosed).

[3] s a registered account and has made at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November in the year of the election

[4] s in good standing and not subject to active blocks or site-bans,

[5] ts the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public data, is willing to sign the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement, and

[6] s disclosed any previous or alternate accounts in their election statements (legitimate accounts which have been declared to the Arbitration Committee before the close of nominations do not need to be publicly disclosed).

[3] Currently, the community has adopted the following criteria from past pre-election RfCs. An editor is eligible to vote if the editor:
has registered an account before 00:00, 28 October in the year of the election
has made at least 150 mainspace edits before 00:00, 1 November in the year of the election and,
is not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote.

[8] s registered an account before 00:00, 28 October in the year of the election

[9] s made at least 150 mainspace edits before 00:00, 1 November in the year of the election and,

[10] s not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote.

[4] From past-election RfCs, the following practices have been adopted: watchlist notices, notices on village pumps and other highly visible noticeboards, mass-message to all eligible candidates who have made at least 1 edit in the 12 months preceding the election, publicity in the Signpost. Candidate-specific "ads" are disallowed.

[5] According to the 2017 selection process, "The mandate of the Electoral Commission is to deal with any unforeseen problems that may arise in the 2017 Arbitration Committee election process, and to adjudicate any disputes during the election. However, members of the Election Commission should intervene only when there is a problem that needs resolving, and either discussion is not working, the rules are unclear, or there isn't time for a lengthy discussion."

[6] WP:ACERFC2020#CandidateQs4

[7] Editors suggest WP:RFA's limit exception as a good way to interpret reasonableness, though discretion is ultimately left to the Electoral Commission. See WP:ACERFC2020#CandidateQs1b

[15] s a registered account and has made at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November in the year of the election

[16] s in good standing and not subject to active blocks or site-bans,

[17] ts the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public data, is willing to sign the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement, and

[18] s disclosed any previous or alternate accounts in their election statements (legitimate accounts which have been declared to the Arbitration Committee before the close of nominations do not need to be publicly disclosed).

[19] s registered an account before 00:00, 28 October in the year of the election

[20] s made at least 150 mainspace edits before 00:00, 1 November in the year of the election and,

[21] s not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote.

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