Election Process Rules

When one of the conditions for GMs election is met (see the document about the Structure of the Guild) the Guild prepares to elect two new Guild Masters.

The process of the election of the Guild Masters in the Guild of Messengers is divided in two steps:

1. Nominations: during this phase there is the discovery of the candidates to the elections. Any Messenger can be a candidate, no matter how long he has been in the Guild or how many things he has done. The nominations are done publicly (usually on a thread on our public sections), and every Messenger can nominate as many Messengers as he wants (including himself). The length of the Nomination period is decided when the process starts, but usually is 1 week.
   A Messenger becomes a valid candidate for the elections when he collects at least one nomination from someone else and one nomination from himself (the order doesn't count).
2. Vote: Once the candidates are found the voting process can begin. The exact method used for voting is not fixed by this document, but in the past the Guild of Messengers have always used emails. One trusted external Explorer is selected to be the "Vote Collector" and all the Messengers send him an email containing their vote. At the end of the vote period (one week usually) the Vote Collector gives the results.
   Each Messenger can vote for only one candidate, and the two candidates that get the higher number of votes are elected Guild Masters of the Guild of Messengers.
   In case there are only two candidates the Voting phase is useless and they are automatically elected Guild Masters.

We know that someone could think that the nomination part may be too complex, but there are clear reasons because this was proposed:

• The requirement for the potential candidate to nominate himself is for making sure he accepts the nominations others have proposed for him. Potential candidates can nominate themselves before anyone has first nominated them to tell the Guild that they think they have the abilities to be a GM.
• The requirement to have at least one nomination from another Messenger is for making sure the potential candidates are wanted by at least one other Messenger. This is also a loose security measure in the (not rare) case that at the end of the Nomination phase there are only two candidates.