[Mailman-Users] Announce: Mailman 2.0.13 compatible eVote available

[Marilyn Davis]

An open source software utility, eVote(R)/Clerk, has been recently
enhanced to cooperate with GNU Mailman 2.0.13. The eVote code, now
available <http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/evote>, provides a
facility for taking polls among the subscribers of email discussion
lists.

The project's developer, Marilyn Davis, Ph.D., marilyn at deliberate.com
of California, http://www.Deliberate.com, has provided eVote with a
telnet interface since 1994; and since 1996 as an add-on utility to
the Majordomo listserve.

 FEATURES

   *  Enables any member of an email list to generate a new poll for
      the group.

   *  Polls can be:

         +  Public - where everyone can see everyone's votes, or
         +  Private - where no one can see anyone else's vote, or
         +  If-Voted - where everyone can see who voted, but not how
                       they voted.

         +  Numeric - where votes are from 1 to 10, or -10 to 10, etc., or
         +  Yes/No.

         +  Visible - where everyone can see the tally while the poll is
                      open, or
         +  Hidden -  where no one can see the results until the poll is
                      closed.

         +  Single item - or,
         +  Grouped items - where participants vote for one of a number
                      of choices, or for three of the choices, or they can
                      distribute their 100 vote points over the choices.

   * Supports petitions.  Petitions are generated and collaboratively
     administered by the members of a "petition" list.  Petition features:

         + Open for anyone to sign.
         + Supported in English, Spanish and French.
         + Can be:
             - Signature-only petitions
             - Petitions with voting items
             - Petitions with forms


The Linux Journal, <http://www.LinuxJournal.com>, the monthly magazine
of the Linux Community, is featuring an article about eVote in the
March, 2003 issue.  On the Linux Journal website, Don Marti, the
Journal's editor says:

"On page 72, Marilyn Davis explains that true democracy needs both
elections and deliberation. Most systems offer one or the other, but
not both.  However, Marilyn's eVote system makes it possible for any
user of a Mailman-based mailing list to start a wide variety of
single-choice or multiple-choice polls. After the initial setup,
there's no need for an administrator."