Wikipedia:Administrator elections

The following is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, but is still in development and under discussion, and has not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, nor yet even as a proposal.

Shortcuts WP:ADE WP:AELECT

Administrator elections are a proposed process for selecting administrators – users with access to additional technical features that aid in maintenance. It is an alternative to requests for adminship (RfA), which has been the only way to become administrator on the English Wikipedia since 2003.^[1] The first trial election will be held in October 2024. After this trial, the community will discuss if and how to proceed with administrator elections.

The elections do not replace requests for adminship. Prospective administrators may freely choose which process to use.

• Oct 8 – Oct 14 - Candidate sign-up
• Oct 22 – Oct 24 - Discussion phase
• Oct 25 – Oct 31 - SecurePoll voting phase

Administrator elections are conducted by secret ballot using the SecurePoll software. A list of voters is available, but their votes are kept secret. The intent is to reduce the amount of contentious discussion amongst voters, thus making the process less antagonistic and increasing the number of candidates willing to volunteer to be administrators.

The number of requests for adminship declined year-on-year from a peak of 920 in 2007 to just 36 in 2016, and has since averaged around 23 per year.

The only formal prerequisite for adminship is having an extended confirmed account on Wikipedia (500 edits and 30 days of experience).^[2] To get an insight of what the community is looking for, you could review some successful and some unsuccessful RfAs, or start an RfA candidate poll.

The overall process lasts 10 days: an initial 3-day period for discussion and questions, and a 7-day period for a secret ballot vote. Candidates sign up by a specified date prior to the discussion and questions period.

Election cycles are advertised in advance, including watchlist notices. The process is managed by the bureaucrats, initially in concert with the WMF to set up the SecurePoll software.

During this 3-day period, the community can ask questions and raise issues, as well as provide positive feedback. Candidates are encouraged to participate in the discussion period, answering questions and responding to feedback. During this time, commenters must not indicate their support or opposition. Personal voter guides expressing opinions about the candidates are strongly discouraged.

Once the discussion period is complete, a secret ballot is held for 7 days, using SecurePoll. During this period, discussion is closed, and the page will be full protected. Candidates may be asked direct questions on their user talk pages, but they are not expected to watch their discussion page, nor the election page for the full period, to allow them a respite from community vetting.

Administrator elections use the Arbitration Committee Election suffrage requirements. To vote, an editor must meet the following criteria:

• registered over 2 months before election
• have 150 mainspace edits by 1 month before election
• have 10 live edits in the year running up to 1 month before election
• not be sitewide blocked during the election
• not be vanished
• not be a bot

At the end of Period 2, votes are scrutinised and tallied, results are announced, and new admins are granted administrative privileges. The pass threshold is 70% or greater. The vote tally is calculated by Support / (Support + Oppose) for each candidate.

No. The result of the corresponding request for comment discussion is The community supports trying this proposal for 1 election, after which it will be reviewed in Phase II. While there are concerns regarding the implementation details of this proposal, given this is a trial run, there is sufficient support to run the election as written.

Accordingly, one election will be held, with implementation details (such as scrutineering) worked out based on discussions on this page's talk page. After the trial, request for comment discussions will be held to discuss how to proceed, thus allowing the community to alter the process if desired, or choose not to continue.

If you'd like to receive a user talk message when important administrator election milestones are reached, such as when a date is chosen and when the "accepting candidates" phase opens, please add yourself to the mailing list.

• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2021 review/Proposals#Closed: 8B Admin elections – no consensus for admin elections
  • Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2021 review/Proposals/Admin elections – detailed proposal
• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase I#Proposal 13: Admin elections – consensus for a trial admin election