Constitutional amendment approved: vacant seats now count as votes in favor of reelection

Gabriella439 · November 14, 2025, 5:29pm

constitution: count vacant seats when voting full reelection

main ← wolfgangwalther:constitution-reelection

opened 12:56PM - 04 Oct 25 UTC

The way the constitution is currently written, the SC can entirely deadlock, if …one seat is vacant and 50% of the remaining SC are calling for no confidence, while the other 50% disagree. The SC can neither be fully re-elected, nor make any other decisions with simple majority. <details> <summary>I also considered a few alternatives, which I have not taken for various reasons.</summary> ## 1. Flip to "vote of confidence" Change the above to: > Any SC member may call for a vote of confidence. If this vote does not pass with a simple majority, the entire SC will be reelected based on perceived loss of confidence. Pro: - Resolves the deadlock. Contra: - Creates a "pending" state for regular case without vacant seats, probably would need a clear deadline for votes. - Unclear what happens with special vs initial election. ## 2. Pass on ties Change the above to: > A simple majority within the SC may call a reelection of the entire SC based on perceived loss of confidence. A tie counts as majority. Pro: Contra: - Doesn't solve the deadlock, because 4 votes are needed anyway, so *there are no ties*. - Unclear what happens with special vs initial election. ## 3. Count vacant seats as reelection only Change the above to: > A simple majority within the SC may call a reelection of the entire SC based on perceived loss of confidence. Vacant seats count as voting for reelection. Pro: - Resolves the deadlock. Contra: - Unclear what happens with special vs initial election. </details> I thank @7c6f434c for helping with the wording here.

sokai · November 14, 2025, 6:06pm

Thank you @Gabriella439 .

Please let me kindly ask if this behaviour (just making some git commits and ref them in the Links category at Discourse) is the normal process to change the Constitution?

If I got something wrong, please help me out, I apologise in advance.

Thanks + KR

arianvp · November 14, 2025, 6:24pm

Yes the constitution is stored in git. I’m not really following what you’re exactly getting at.

sokai · November 14, 2025, 6:28pm

Thank you.
Well, let me rephrase: I thought/think that constitutional changes would be/are somehow announced.
Maybe from a community perspective, that would involved people more.(?)
BR

arianvp · November 14, 2025, 6:32pm

Might still happen. Note that Gabriella is not on the SC anymore. I assume she saw the change in git and decided to post it.

To change the constitution requires a 2/3rd majority vote of the SC. As explained in the document itself.

Given this change was made by an SC member. I assume such a vote passed.

sokai · November 15, 2025, 1:18am

FYI: there is more @GH, Add Vote #2 details to vote log for 2025-2026 by JulienMalka · Pull Request #4 · NixOS/steering-committee · GitHub
ty

cafkafk · November 15, 2025, 8:01am

We have a voting log here steering-committee/vote-logs/2025-2026.md at 11a88e6893fc4cd228a0832c9be6b66b960d0cf0 · NixOS/steering-committee · GitHub

However yes, posting in the discourse is something we want to do as an institution, not just on an individual basis, even if it’s excellent that the gap is being filled so far in a personal capacity until we get there. It’s also something we’ve decided to do as part of our decision process already steering-committee/docs/process/async-voting.md at 11a88e6893fc4cd228a0832c9be6b66b960d0cf0 · NixOS/steering-committee · GitHub.

Please bear with us for a bit more, as we’re still forming fully as an team this term, this is our second week and we’re still doing a lot of catch-up!

vcunat · November 15, 2025, 8:36am

I love the vote log

As for the announcements, etc… I’d say that changes to the constitution should not be taken lightly and thus they warrant wide publicity. (though arguably this particular change was nothing huge)