Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-11-10/ArbCom elections

This week, nominations for this year's Arbitration Committee elections opened. The nomination period continues through 24 November. In order to qualify, candidates must be at least 18 years of age and of legal age in their place of residence, have at least 1000 edits, and should self-nominate with a statement of 400 words or fewer.

As of press time, nominations have been submitted by nineteen candidates: Bishzilla, Carcharoth, Charles Matthews, Cool Hand Luke, Coren, Fish and karate, George The Dragon, Hersfold, Jdforrester, Jehochman, Justice America, Phil Sandifer, Privatemusings, Rlevse, Sam Korn, SirFozzie, Vassyana, White Cat, and Wizardman.

There are at least seven seats to be filled in this year's elections. The terms of four arbitrators (Charles Matthews, Jdforrester, Morven, and YellowMonkey) all end this year. The other three seats stem from the resignations of Paul August and UninvitedCompany earlier this year, and the resignation of Jpgordon (effective December 31).

Two of the four arbitrators whose terms expire this year (Charles Matthews and Jdforrester) have nominated themselves for re-election. Morven has stated that he will not be seeking another term, while YellowMonkey has not made a definitive statement on-wiki as to whether he will be running.

Along with nominations, questions are also being accepted for the candidates. As in previous years, each candidate has a questions page, where questions will be accepted until the opening of voting on 1 December. However, this year, a general questions page has also been added, for the convenience of users who would like to ask each candidate the same general question(s). These questions are being accepted until 17 November, at which point the general questions will be transcluded on each candidate's individual questions page, and they can answer (or choose not to answer) each question at that time.

Voting will run from 1 December through 14 December this year. Upon the close of the elections, Jimbo Wales will make his choices for the Committee. In previous years, Wales has had the option of selecting any candidate with at least 50% support, but he has generally picked largely in line with the community's most favored candidates.