Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2021/Coordination/Instructions for scrutineers

Scrutineers will be made SecurePoll admins for the duration of the election.

The scrutineers-Stewards are responsible for enforcing and arbitrating on the validity of individual votes, and certifying the results of the election.

Technical background
SecurePoll adminship is restricted to a single election, and enables access to CheckUser-like data on each vote cast, and to other interfaces within the election. Because of this access to data covered by the WMF Nonpublic Data Policy, all SecurePoll admins must be identified to the Foundation.

SecurePoll admins have access to the behind-the-scenes stuff, which is accessible via https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll. This is an enhanced version of the public log, which can be viewed for comparison purposes by going to the same location while logged out. It also gives access to the [Translate] tab, which shows the raw election messages displayed on the voting page (https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll/vote/), along with the option of editing them.

SecurePoll admins can strike votes by clicking on the "Strike" button displayed at the voting page. JavaScript needs to be enabled to see this, because it is a toggle rather than a text message. Clicking on "Strike" changes the icon to "Unstrike", deletes the editor's votes, and adds a note to the associated Vote Log (accessible via the details button in the adjacent column). While all strikes are logged privately, the fact that a vote has been struck is publicly visible in the vote log; the record of who struck a vote is not public.

Account security
Scrutineers are highly encouraged to use a unique password and enable two-factor authentication on votewiki. This will help ensure the integrity of the election and protect the sensitive data of the voters.

Scrutineers' role
The primary role of scrutineers is to ensure that no abuse or technical error has occurred in the background of the election—for example, the striking of candidate votes or the changing of election messages to benefit or disadvantage a particular candidate (for instance, by swapping the names of two candidates partway through the ballot), by other SecurePoll admins. The scrutineers should verify that the tally has been counted correctly, by checking that the total number of votes cast (support + oppose + neutral) is the same for each candidate and agrees with the total number of votes cast.

The secondary role of the scrutineers is to enforce the suffrage criteria established by the enwiki community for voters. The canonical requirements are given on the election frontpage, but essentially boil down to:


 * 1) The user must have a registered account which was registered before 1 October 2021.
 * 2) The user must have a registered account which has accumulated more than 150 mainspace edits by 1 November 2021. A script has been run to create an eligible voter list of voters with at least 150 mainspace edits. While we hope that this should allow all eligible voters the ability to vote, we understand that computer scripts are not perfect. If there are any concerns about a user's ability or inability to vote, please feel free to contact the election commissioners with your concerns. The voter can either be struck from the record or manually added to the voter override list, depending on what is needed.
 * 3) The user must have made at least 10 live edits (in any namespace) in the one year prior to Monday 00:00, 1 November 2021
 * 4) The user must not be blocked at the time they cast their vote. This requirement disenfranchises banned users, and anyone voting from a sock where the main account is blocked at the time of voting. Partially blocked users are still allowed to vote, per 2021 RFC.
 * 5) The user must not be vanished at the time they cast their vote. This requirement disenfranchises those who have permanently left our community as part of our vanishing policy. Users whose names begin with "Vanished user" or "Renamed user" followed by a random string are ineligible.
 * 6) No individual may vote more than once. This disenfranchises alternate accounts, sockfarms, and accidental double-counting.  Scrutineers should note in particular that if a user votes from a staff or otherwise permitted alternate account, the system will not remove the earlier ballot, if this is identified, the earlier or staff vote should be manually struck.

Scrutineers are permitted to use CheckUser tools on enwiki to assist them in identifying votes which do not meet the criteria above. There are a number of enwiki CheckUsers who are able to share their experience of the more well-known enwiki sockpuppeteers, or to undertake CheckUser activities at the scrutineers' request.

Because the SecurePoll interface provides aggregate CheckUser data for all votes, the unfocused use of that data is against enwiki policy against CheckUser fishing. While scrutineers can and should make full use of the data within the confines of the election, they should not act on identified account abuse except to strike ineligible votes. They should pass on any appropriate data to the enwiki CheckUsers listed above, who will follow the appropriate enwiki policies and procedures for identifying and sanctioning editors, as necessary.

As much of the above tasks should be done during the voting period as possible, per 2015 RfC.

Scrutineers are welcome to ask for input from the electoral commission at the coordination page if desired; the decision of the scrutineers is final in all cases.

Reporting
Once the scrutineers are satisfied that all votes remaining in the ballot are valid, they should inform the WMF liaison, who will assist with tallying the results; complete the results table here, and each scrutineer should sign below to certify them. As a formality, they should post a notification to Jimbo Wales's talk page to inform him that the results are available.