6.4. Core election
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## 6.4. Core election

Core elections are held at least every two years. [8] Nine core members are elected. New elections are held if the number of core members drops below seven. New elections can also be held should at least 1/3 of the active committers demand this.

When an election is to take place, core announces this at least 6 weeks in advance, and appoints an election manager to run the elections.

Only committers can be elected into core. The candidates need to submit their candidacy at least one week before the election starts, but can refine their statements until the voting starts. They are presented in the candidates list. When writing their election statements, the candidates must answer a few standard questions submitted by the election manager.

During elections, the rule that a committer must have committed during the 12 past months is followed strictly. Only these committers are eligible to vote.

When voting, the committer may vote once in support of up to nine nominees. The voting is done over a period of four weeks with reminders being posted on “developers” mailing list that is available to all committers.

The election results are released one week after the election ends, and the new core team takes office one week after the results have been posted.

Should there be a voting tie, this will be resolved by the new, unambiguously elected core members.

Votes and candidate statements are archived, but the archives are not publicly available.

Figure 6.6. Process summary: Core elections

Core announces the election and selects an election manager. He prepares the elections, and when ready, candidates can announce their candidacies through submitting their statements. The committers then vote. After the vote is over, the election results are announced and the new core team takes office.

Hats in core elections are:

- Core team

- Committer

- Election Manager

[FreeBSD, 2000A] [FreeBSD, 2002B] [FreeBSD, 2002G]

[8] The first Core election was held September 2000

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