Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-23/ArbCom election

The Arbitration Committee elections concluded this week, with voting ending late Sunday. On Monday, Jimbo Wales announced that he had appointed 11 arbitrators to the committee, increasing the committee size to 15.

In a mailing list post, Wales explained that he appointed the top 8 vote-getters by percentage to the existing open positions, and created three new positions for the three arbitrators running for re-election, all of whom had received over two-thirds support from the community, but failed to reach the top 8.

Joining current arbitrators Raul654, Neutrality, The Epopt and Theresa Knott are the following users:


 * Filiocht
 * Support percentage: 92.62%
 * Rank: 1st
 * Term ends: December 2008


 * Mindspillage
 * Support percentage: 92.57%
 * Rank: 2nd
 * Term ends: December 2008
 * Previous term: Served October 2005-January 2006


 * Charles Matthews
 * Support percentage: 89.40%
 * Rank: 3rd
 * Term ends: December 2008


 * Morven
 * Support percentage: 87.73%
 * Rank: 4th
 * Term ends: December 2008


 * James F.
 * Support percentage: 75.42%
 * Rank: 9th
 * Term ends: December 2008
 * Previous terms: Served 2004, July 2005-January 2006


 * SimonP
 * Support percentage: 86.57%
 * Rank: 5th
 * Term ends: December 2007


 * Dmcdevit
 * Support percentage: 81.94%
 * Rank: 6th
 * Term ends: December 2007


 * Fred Bauder
 * Support percentage: 73.61%
 * Rank: 12th
 * Term ends: December 2007
 * Previous terms: Served 2004-January 2006


 * Sam Korn
 * Support percentage: 78.48%
 * Rank: 7th
 * Term ends: December 2006


 * Mackensen
 * Support percentage: 76.87%
 * Rank: 8th
 * Term ends: December 2006


 * JayJG
 * Support percentage: 69.75%
 * Rank: 15th
 * Term ends: December 2006
 * Previous terms: Served July 2005-January 2006

During the week, only one candidate withdrew (RomaC), and voting proceeded smoothly throughout the week.

Of current arbitrators, only Raul654, Neutrality, Theresa Knott, and The Epopt did not face re-election or did not resign. Of the five arbitrators who ran for re-election (Fred Bauder, Jayjg, James F., Kelly Martin, and Mindspillage), only Kelly Martin was not reappointed to the Committee (Martin withdrew from consideration early in the vote and resigned from the committee shortly thereafter, citing personal reasons.)

Wales' decision to raise the number of seats was not a complete surprise; discussion had been raised on vote-related pages over whether an increased number of arbitrators would help to expedite cases. Of the remaining candidates who were not selected, they may still have a chance of being appointed to the committee in the case of resignation. Wales stated prior to the election that candidates that met the requirements but were "above the number of seats on the ArbCom [may] go into a pool of reserves."

At the end of the elections, 22 candidates finished with greater than 50 percent approval, while 32 finished with more opposition than support. 14 candidates also withdrew before the conclusion of the race. Of the 22 candidates, only two had greater than 90 percent support: Filiocht and current Arbitrator Mindspillage. Four (Charles Matthews, Morven, SimonP, and Dmcdevit) had greater than 80 percent approval (and less than 90 percent), and eight had greater than 70 percent approval (and less than 80 percent). Five of the candidates had 60 to 69 percent approval, and three had between 50 percent and 59 percent support.

Full tallies of the elections can be found at both User:Mathbot/Results and http://tools.wikimedia.de/~interiot/cgi-bin/arbcom. All eleven arbitrators have taken office as of Jimbo's post.