This repository contains OpenStack Elections reference documents and tooling to run elections.

Election Process

PTL Elections

Selecting Election Dates

Things to keep in mind when selecting election dates:

  • Election Dates must be as per the TC charter which is “The election is held no later than 2 weeks prior to each cycle final release date (on or before ‘R-2’ week)”

  • At least 48 hours in between email deadline and poll start

  • Consider extra-acs approval deadlines

  • Allow at least a week for nomination period

tox -evenv -- setup-election-config can be used to pick some possible dates that need to be checked by the election officials and TC. Once these dates are confirmed/merged election officials can create a change against the releases repo to include these dates in the development schedule. A helper tool tox -evenv -- update-releases-calendar will generate this change, but needs to be verified before publishing

Preparation

As early as possible but at least a month before election starts:

  • Edit elections details (timeline, cycle timeframe):

    • edit configuration.yaml

  • Prepare new election, e.g.:

    • tox -evenv -- create-directories

  • Commit to update website

  • Update Release Schedule

A couple of weeks before election starts:

  • Send PTL Election Season email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails election_season

PTL Candidacy Round

When PTL Candidacy start:

  • Send PTL Nominations Kickoff email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails nominations_kickoff

During the PTL Candidacy round:

  • Validate candidacy, e.g.:

    • tox -evenv -- check-all-candidacies, or

    • tox -evenv -- ci-check-all-candidate-files candidates/release/project/candidates, or

    • tox -evenv -- check-candidacy change_id

  • To +2 a candidate:

    • check commit link is indeed valid

    • check filename is email address

    • cursory check the candidacy statement

  • To +Workflow, checks the previous +2 details, find another commits using --limit 5 (optional)

  • Check candidate list and fix badly generated names through changes to the exception.txt file or requesting the candidate to update their OSF member profile.

Once the email deadline is reached:

  • Ask the TC chair to tag the governance repository

  • Generate the electorate rolls. This generates the rolls for all project teams even if they aren’t going to hold an election.

    • tox -evenv -- generate-rolls

A couple of days before the candidacy submission ends:

  • Render statistics and send Motivation call for PTL candidacy round, e.g.:

    • tox -evenv -- render-statistics

  • Send PTL Nominations Last Days email:

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails nominations_last_days

  • Optionally send direct PTL nominations Last Days email to the members of the teams with no PTL candidates proposed:

    • tox -evenv -- template-emails nominations_direct_reminder -p <project_name> -o <owners_dir>

When PTL Candidacy submission ends:

  • Send PTL Nominations End email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails end_nominations

  • When the tag is available, generate AC rolls, e.g.:

    • tox -evenv -- generate-rolls

    • Compare AC rolls with at least one other election official

PTL Election Round

Before PTL Election begins:

  • Send email to the mailing list or eligible electorates to opt in to CIVS voting system using their Gerrit email address in https://civs1.civs.us/cgi-bin/opt_in.pl

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_optin_civs

When PTL Election begins:

  • Create CIVS page

  • Upload rolls

    • CIVS has a maximum number of electorate emails you can upload at a time without crashing, limit to 500 at a time

  • Send PTL Voting Kickoff email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_kickoff

A couple of days before the PTL Election ends:

  • Send PTL Voting Last Days email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_last_days

When PTL Election ends:

  • Close the election and update the results:

    • tox -evenv -- close-election --round ptl

    • edit doc/sources/results/release/ptl.yaml and set election winners to true

    • NOTE: We no longer need document TC-APPOINTMENT or LEADERLESS as the update-governance step will communicate that to the TC and the process in that repo will set the project leader.

  • Commit the change and review the results

  • Send PTL Results email

    • This is doc/source/results/release/announce_ptl.rst generated by building the docs with tox -e docs after doc/source/results/release/ptl.yaml has been created and updated

  • Update governance repo:

    • tox -e venv update-governance -- --governance-repo ../governance/

TC Elections

Selecting Election Dates

Things to keep in mind when selecting election dates:

  • Election Dates must be as per the TC charter which is “The election is held no earlier than 8 weeks and no later than 2 weeks prior to each cycle final release date (between ‘R-8’ and ‘R-2’ week)”

  • Allow for at least 48 hours between email deadline and polling beginning

  • Allow at least a week for nomination and campaign periods

  • TC and PTL election can be held as combined election

setup-election-config can be used to pick some obvous dates that need to be checked by the election officials and TC

Preparation

As early as possible but at least a month before election starts:

  • Edit elections details (timeline, cycle timeframe):

    • edit configuration.yaml

  • Commit to update website

  • Update Release Schedule

A couple of weeks before election starts:

  • Send TC Election Season email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails election_season

TC Candidacy Round

When TC Candidacy starts:

  • Send TC Nominations Kickoff email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails nominations_kickoff

During the TC Candidacy round:

A couple of days before the candidacy submission ends:

  • Send TC Nominations Last Days email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails nominations_last_days

When TC Candidacy submission ends:

  • Send TC End Nominations email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails end_nominations

Once the email deadline is reached:

  • Ask the TC chair to tag the governance repository

  • Generate the electorate rolls.

    • tox -evenv -- generate-rolls

TC Campaigning

The TC election includes a period after the candidates are defined but before the election, for candidates to answer questions from the community. Open this with:

  • tox -e venv -- template-emails campaigning_kickoff

TC Election Round

Before TC Election begins:

  • Send email to the mailing list to opt in to CIVS voting system using their Gerrit email address in https://civs1.civs.us/cgi-bin/opt_in.pl

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_optin_civs

  • Create CIVS page

    • Title the poll: $RELEASE Technical Committee Election Poll

    • Enable detailed ballot reporting

    • Send to other officials to verify

      • Check number of seats

      • Check closing date

When TC Election begins:

  • Upload rolls

    • CIVS has a maximum number of electorate emails you can upload at a time without crashing, limit to 500 at a time* Send TC Voting Kickoff email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_kickoff

A couple of days before the TC Election ends:

  • Send TC Voting Last Days email

    • tox -e venv -- template-emails voting_last_days

When TC Election ends:

  • Close the election

  • Run: tox -e venv -- close-election --round tc

    • edit doc/source/results/release/tc.yaml setting the winners to true

    • Commit change and push review

  • Send TC Results email

    • This is doc/source/results/release/announce_tc.rst generated by building the docs with tox -e docs after doc/source/results/release/tc.yaml has been created and updated

  • Update reference/members in governance repository

    • Add new members

    • Remove chair and vice-chair from file

    • Commit change and push review

  • Update tc-election-summary.py with election statistics

  • Optionally send TC Election Statistics email