ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a nonprofit corporation overseeing the technical management of the Internet previously carried out under the U.S. government through contractors. ICANN "keeps the Internet running" and assigns high-level domain names, and through registrars, e-mail addresses.

"There were challenges to an electoral process occurring almost entirely in cyberspace. Nonetheless, this experiment with direct elections via the Internet was unprecedented and has huge implications for the future development of a global public discourse and further potential uses of the Internet in public elections," said Charles Costello, director of the Carter Center Democracy Program, which observed the electoral process. "Subject to further review of the available balloting data, the vote tabulations appear to reflect accurately the expressed choices of the ICANN electorate in each region and properly identify the five winning candidates." A preferential voting system, with votes being cast for all candidates in a region by order of preference, first-choice, second-choice, etc., was used.

Of some 76,000 eligible voters, 34,035 voted. The size of the electorate was impossible to predict in advance, but ICANN established a minimum voter roll of 5,000 to validate the election and estimated a maximum of 10,000-20,000 votes. Some 158,000 people registered to vote online. Higher than expected number of registrants, especially late in the registration period, led to problems of access to the ICANN server. An undetermined number, quite possibly in the thousands, were unable to register. Of the 158,000, some 76,000 activated their membership and voting rights as required after receiving personal identification numbers (PIN) by regular mail delivery. In this stage as well, serious problems were encountered with receipt by mail of PINs, especially in countries where mail service is slow or unreliable. Initial registration far exceeded expectations, but final voter turnout was much closer to ICANN's planning estimates.

Technical difficulties on the morning of the first day of balloting also occurred but were corrected promptly, Costello said. In the last hour of balloting on Oct. 10, access to the server for voting was unavailable for approximately 30 minutes. Poll closing time was extended by some 40 minutes to make up for that time of unavailability. Vote tabulation was executed without technical difficulties within a short time after the closing of the polls, he added.

"Based on a limited monitoring of registration in cyberspace, member nomination of candidates, campaigning, and voting, all online, there were no identifiable patterns or deliberate actions evidencing attempts to disfranchise voters or manipulate voting and vote tabulation," Costello said.

In three regions (Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Africa) candidates nominated by the ICANN Nominating Committee won the election. In two regions (North America and Europe), the winners were member-nominated candidates. In four of five regions, the winning candidates received a majority of votes cast in the first tabulation. In the North America region, the winner was determined on the fifth round of redistribution of voting preferences. In the Asia/Pacific region, the winning candidate received an unusually large majority.

Carter Center representatives noted a few issues that should be studied and addressed. These include the need to reduce the digital gap between the developed world and the developing world; voter privacy and security issues; and campaigning in cyberspace.

"The concern with voter privacy and data security somewhat complicated voters' access to actual polling and candidates' access to the voters," said Yawei Liu, program associate of the Carter Center Democracy Program. "Meanwhile, campaigning in cyberspace is an urgent issue that warrants greater attention. This election demonstrated that voter outreach and media coverage in certain countries were clearly more extensive and organized than they were in others, and this, therefore, had an impact on electoral outcomes for regional representatives."

EDITORS NOTE: For more information on the final vote counts in each region and the preferential vote tabulation system, visit the "At-Large Membership" section of the ICANN website: www.icann.org.

Back To The Top

© 2000 ICANN. All rights reserved.