MARS vote declared null and void in dramatic day

In a day of dramatic twists, Chris and Daniel may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The 24 hours began at around 10pm London time yesterday, when Chris and Daniel posted their email correspondence with Ash; he had heavily criticised their behaviour over the affair. They thought that he was threatening to publish and acted pre-emptively. The emails included a statement that they would have preferred Ash to make the decision himself:

"If you could give a straight answer as the admin of your club, instead of putting it to vote, we could've gotten this done sooner, democracy doesn't always work and it isn't always the answer."

This caused several supporters to change their votes, the first being Silent Hunter who was on the site at that time.

Early this morning, Robert Longtin, Election Coordinator, decided that the two had changed the terms enough and did not want to run the vote every time, so issued the following ruling:

As Election Coordinator, given that the terms of the lease to be voted on have changed, I hereby declare this vote NULL AND VOID until such time that new terms are settled upon for a new vote. Any terms to be decided are to be processed by Robert Longtin - the Election Coordinator - to be put to a vote. Once the terms are decided, they are to be made available in full to all members and put to a vote.
Once a vote is opened, the terms of all items within a vote are considered legally binding for the purposes of a vote and if at any time changes to the terms are to be made, then the Election Coordinator is required to nullify and void any votes prior to the changes being made on any votes relying on the pending changes.
Once new terms are decided, votes dependent on those changes may be reopened for the same length of time given to the previous vote(s), starting with the date on which the vote(s) are reopened.

Ash later ended the vote and removed the poll: the "result" was 8-14-2, although two of those first votes were by Chris and Dan, who wished them to be discounted. With 22 out of 46 members participating, this was nearly a 50% turnout.

The state of play is now as follows: Ash and Euan will take to negotiate terms with Dan and Chris. If these are agreed, it will go to a vote.

It's been a very interesting 24 hours.