In December 2004, the first annual election for the Arbitration Committee was held. Seven seats up for election: three Arbitrators, Martin Harper, Gutza, and Camembert, decided to stand down at the end of the year, and the initial terms of four more (James W. Rosenzweig and Mark, who were especially-elected, plus The Cunctator and James F., who were appointed by Jimbo Wales) expired at the end of December 2004.

When the Arbitration Committee was created [1], Jimbo intended that Arbitrators serve staggered three-year terms to provide continuity. In the December 2004 elections, arbitrators were entitled to run for re-election. The remaining appointed seats will be up for election when their terms expire. The seats held by Martin Harper and Gutza had two years remaining on their terms, and the seat held by Camembert had one year remaining, at the time of these elections.

All candidates ran in the same pool, rather than running separately for each seat. See the candidate sub-page for brief statements from each candidate who stood in these elections.

The election took place between December 4 and December 18. The vote was held using Special:Boardvote software (which uses approval voting). The newly elected Arbitrators were allowed to choose the length of their term after the election, in order of most votes received. All of the new Arbitrators will begin these terms on January 1, 2005, and end of term for each individual Arbitrator is noted in the election results.

Danny, Elian, and UninvitedCompany agreed to serve as an independent election organizing committee. In this capacity, they made procedural decisions about how the election was run, and announced the election results. They were not entitled to promote candidates or vote in the election themselves. For more information, see the organizers statement.

The election for Arbitration Committee was a tight race. Seven seats were up for grabs, and there were 34 candidates, all of whom had their supporters. With all 520 votes counted, we found only one person who actually broke the 50 percent barrier, and received more than 260 votes. Congratulations to Theresa Knott for succeeding in this.

Congratulations to all of the other candidates, both those who were elected and those who were not. You did a fine job, and we were happy to see the mood change once the voting began.

In the election results, we are going to add the percentage each of the winners received of the popular vote. This is intended to be a reminder that while you were elected, it was not with a vast majority. This is all the more reason for each of you to act fairly to represent not only the people that did vote for you but also the many that did not. --Danny, Elian and UninvitedCompany

The results are:

1. Theresa Knott 265 (51%) (term ends 31 December 2006)
2. Raul654 216 (42%) (term ends 31 December 2007)
3. Ambi 203 (39%) (term ends 31 December 2007)
4. Sannse 187 (36%) (term ends 31 December 2007)
5. Neutrality 171 (33%) (term ends 31 December 2007)
6. David Gerard 166 (32%) (term ends 31 December 2005)
7. Grunt 162 (31%) (term ends 31 December 2006)
8. Fennec 161 (31%)
9. Mirv 159 (31%)
10. Cecropia 159 (31%)
11. James F. 155 (30%)
12. Ed Poor aka Uncle Ed 144 (28%)
13. Hephaestos 140 (27%)
14. Charles Matthews 132 (25%)
15. 172 124 (24%)
16. The Cunctator 124 (24%)
17. Dante Alighieri 101 (19%)
18. Merovingian 98 (19%)
19. blankfaze 95 (18%)
20. Sam Spade 92 (18%)
21. VeryVerily 85 (16%)
22. Everyking 83 (16%)
23. Improv 74 (14%)
24. Johnleemk 69 (13%)
25. Anthony DiPierro 55 (11%)
26. Lir 42 (8%)
27. PedanticallySpeaking 41 (8%)
28. Plato 36 (7%)
29. CunningLinguist 36 (7%)
30. Librarian Brent 35 (7%)
31. Yoshiah ap (Josiah) 33 (6%)
32. DG 31 (6%)
33. Chuck F 30 (6%)
34. SPUI 29 (5.5%)

The seven candidates thus elected will serve with these continuing members of the committee whose terms did not expire this year: Delirium, Fred Bauder, the Epopt, and mav, as well as a currently inactive member, Nohat.