Wikipedia:Elections

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

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In general, Wikipedia operates based on consensus, and voting is discouraged as a method of settling content disputes (though well-designed surveys can be useful to gauge and develop consensus). However, in order to fill certain specific functions in the community, there are a few instances in which we use or have used elections to select individuals for particular positions.

Arbitration Committee

Members of the Arbitration Committee are elected annually in the first week of December. Arbitrators currently serve two year terms, meaning only about half of the seats on the committee are open in each election. The committee may also call interim elections in extraordinary circumstances – but this has only happened once, for the first election in June 2004.

The first twelve arbitrators were directly appointed by Jimmy Wales in December 2003. The first regular election took place in December 2004 and has been held annually thereafter. Historically, Arbitration Committee elections were considered advisory and arbitrators were still formally appointed by Wales. He had stopped doing this by 2017 and his 'reserve powers' over the committee were formally removed by the community in 2023.

Administrator elections

Administrator elections is a process, pending a trial run, by which the Wikipedia community decides who will become administrators through a secret ballot vote. It is an alternative to the Requests for Adminship process.

Discontinued elections

The coordinator of the Association of Members' Advocates (AMA) was the first elected position on Wikipedia. Two elections were held: one in 2004 and one in 2006. The group was wound down in 2007.

The Mediation Committee, which was created at the same time as the Arbitration Committee but is now defunct, was not elected. It did elect a chairperson internally.

Checkuser and oversight

Checkuser and oversight permissions are handled by the Arbitration Committee. In 2009 and 2010 the committee tried direct elections for the selection of checkusers and oversighters. There were three such elections:

February 2009 election: three users (Kylu, Lucasbfr, and Versageek) were granted the checkuser permission; four users (Daniel Case, EVula, Luna Santin, and Mailer diablo) were granted the oversight permission.
August 2009 election: three users (Brandon, Hersfold, and J.delanoy) were granted the checkuser permission; nine users (Avraham, Dweller, Howcheng, Keegan, Happy-melon, Hmwith, Mr.Z-man, Nishkid64, and Thatcher) were granted the oversight permission.
May 2010 election: one user (Amalthea) was granted the checkuser permission; no users were granted the oversight permission.

Due to the lack of positions filled in the May 2010 election, the committee reverted to appointing checkusers and oversighters directly, following a period of community consultation.

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Arbitration Committee

Administrator elections

Discontinued elections

Checkuser and oversight

See also