[Tagging] Tagging Digest, Vol 125, Issue 38

[Paul Allen]

On Thu, 6 Feb 2020 at 17:09, Peter Neale via Tagging <
tagging at openstreetmap.org> wrote:

>
> "abstain  /əbˈsteɪn/
> verb
> [...]
> Powered by Oxford Dictionaries"
>
> So an abstention is NOT a vote
>

I thought I gave a link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstention
but I must have forgotten.  I'll include the relevant parts here.

*Abstention* is a term in election <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election>
procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on
election day) or, in parliamentary procedure
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_procedure>, is present during
the vote, but does not cast a ballot.[1]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstention#cite_note-1> Abstention must be
contrasted with "blank vote <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_vote>", in
which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by marking it wrongly
or by not marking anything at all. A "blank (or white) voter" has voted,
although their vote may be considered a spoilt vote
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_vote>,

So what we have in the approval process, despite being called an abstention,
is NOT an abstention.  It's a blank vote, aka white vote, because a ballot
has
been cast.  The wiki confuses the terms "ballot" and "vote" in places, as
well
as misusing the term "abstention."

Also,
Abstentions do not count in tallying the vote negatively or positively;
when members abstain, they are in effect attending only to contribute to a
quorum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum>. White votes, however, may be
counted in the total of votes, depending on the legislation.

The "legislation" (in this case past consensus of how things operate) was
that
blank/white votes ARE counted in the total of votes.  Whether that should
be the
case going forward is something we could vote on.  After we've voted on the
rules for voting.  After we've voted on the rules for voting on the rules
for
voting.

-- 
Paul
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