The annual Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) elections are now underway. Arbitration is the final stage of Wikipedia's dispute resolution process, and the members of ArbCom are typically experienced and respected project volunteers. The 2009 election will select as many as eight new arbitrators, who will begin their terms on 1 January 2010.
With voting commencing on December 1, this year's election sees the implementation of SecurePoll, based on consensus at this Request for Comment and positive feedback on the use of the system in the October 2009 Audit Subcommittee election. Following discussion, three Election Administrators and six Scrutineers have been appointed. The Administrators are tasked with setting up the voting pages text and appropriate links, as well as ensuring smooth running. The Scrutineers will certify the results.
At bot requests, Skomorokh has asked if a bot can be tasked to create an alphabetical, annotate-able on-wiki version of the list of votes cast. Given that this year's election is using SecurePoll, it has also been suggested that a bot notify every user who has left a comment about a candidate but is not in the voter log to use the secret ballot.
With nominations now closed, there are 23 candidates running. Since the last report, Chutznik has withdrawn their candidacy, while Secret came forward as the last candidate to announce a run. A comprehensive overview of each of the candidates can be examined at the General Summary page.
Individual questions could be asked of each candidate until 23:59 1 December 2009, on his or her "/Questions for the candidate" subpage. Editors were asked to keep questions succinct and relevant, and to ensure they did not overlap with a general question, or with an individual question that had already been asked of the candidate. Candidates were not required to respond to mass questions asked in the individual questions that are not individualised.
Questions could be asked by any editor who was eligible to vote. To vote, you must have an account registered with at least 150 mainspace edits before 23:59 UTC on 1 November 2009. This total includes deleted edits. You may use this utility to check your eligibility. If you have questions about the voting process, or to have an administrator verify your deleted edits, please ask.
Here are the important dates for the 2009 ArbCom elections:
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