I've been asked by a fellow AB member for a report on my opinion of how the EC is operating, in hopes that I would be able to allay some concerns/fears regarding some of the rumors that are flying about. When the EC first convened, we all decided and agreed that the chairman would be the "public voice" of the committee, providing replies to questions after we had discussed them on our EC list. However, I have received Roger's OK to post this. My understanding is that Roger has never asked anyone to withdraw their candidacy. Jim's email to the BOARD-L (and elsewhere) seems to confirm that in his case. When there was a question of "good standing", it was because the EC was following the directions of the AB vote regarding the protest logos. There was nothing that the EC was unilaterally deciding there. We discussed it briefly, and the concensus was that we felt that it was an honest oversight on Jim's part. End of story. As you can see by Roger's recent post reporting the current candidate list, all candidates who have been nominated and have accepted the nomination (at the time of Roger's post) were listed. Regarding the 60-day eligibility period. That was one of the first things discussed, and the April 1st cut-off was also the consensus of the EC members. Someone here made a comment about that being a manipulation of the vote, and this perplexes me, personally. The cut-off date was established to *prevent* manipulation of the vote by making it impossible to pad voter lists by adding co-CCs in new states and regions, by taking on new counties only to gain voting eligibility in that region, or by establishing bogus identities with web-based eMail accounts. This prevents these attempts at manipulation by anyone, of any political stripe, not just one side or another. The EC is a group of USGenWeb volunteers who are, like you, trying to do the best we can by and for the Project. We civilly discuss how best to tackle the job at hand, and continue to discuss issues as they come up, along with completing our assigned tasks. We are committed to our goal, and that is a fair, accurate election. In the volatile atmosphere of the USGenWeb Project, we realize that our being on the EC makes us targets of innuendo and invective, and necessitates our having to tolerate rudeness, sarcasm, and accusations of corruption. Ain't that just so flippin' pathetic, though? Thank you, Shari Handley shari@tyaskin.com This is being posted to the BOARD-L list, but permission is granted to forward this message, in its entirety, to other USGenWeb lists.