Importing the list of eligible voters can be done right now. Sunfyre has run the query and I am attaching a clean version of the output.

Please create the election, and give me temporary admin rights to the election so I can translate it to Persian. I can also import the list myself (but if James or someone else imports it is equally good).

I have already contacted @jrbs asking him to create an account for @revi on votewiki as the scrutineer of the elections and to unblock my own account there. I will serve as the coordinator and I need to double check everything myself. Last year, when I was partially absent, vote page was in a mess (at least in the first day of voting period).

Sounds good.

@4nn1l2 @Huji @jrbs I've found another scrutineer for you who wants to help: @alanajjar

Working on unblocking etc. accounts now.

Please give updates on this thread about how the work is progressing. Note that the intent is to keep all of the communication publicly on this task.

@jrbs can you please give me (and 4nn1l2) permission to edit the election?

@jrbs The right to edit the election should also be given to the scrutineers. Huji and I will remove ourselves as admins of the election before voting starts, but scrutineers will obviously keep the right.

SecurePoll:689 should be configured just like SecurePoll:663. There are 8 candidates just like the previous year.
And finally please change the language of votewiki to Persian (fa) during the elections. @Jalexander did this for the 2016 elections. This should be done because Persian is written right to left, so keeping the votewiki in English will make many problems.

@Huji If there is similar patches for old elections. I can take care of it.

Sweet; I will submit a patch by the end of the day.

Change 470526 had a related patch set uploaded (by Huji; owner: Huji):
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Changing the language of votewiki to Persian (fa)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/470526

In T207560#4699017, @Huji wrote:

@jrbs can you please give me (and 4nn1l2) permission to edit the election?

In T207560#4699615, @4nn1l2 wrote:

@jrbs The right to edit the election should also be given to the scrutineers. Huji and I will remove ourselves as admins of the election before voting starts, but scrutineers will obviously keep the right.

SecurePoll:689 should be configured just like SecurePoll:663. There are 8 candidates just like the previous year.
And finally please change the language of votewiki to Persian (fa) during the elections. @Jalexander did this for the 2016 elections. This should be done because Persian is written right to left, so keeping the votewiki in English will make many problems.

I've created the election and granted you access to edit it.

I will say that it would be ideal to get more lead time in future for these elections, since we have to move things around to make time for it. :)

In T207560#4705281, @jrbs wrote:

I will say that it would be ideal to get more lead time in future for these elections, since we have to move things around to make time for it. :)

We will make sure to have at least one week for configuring the SecurePoll in the future.

I configured SecurePoll:689, added scrutineers to the list of admins, and imported the list of eligible voters as an include-list rather than a need-list. We had imported them as need-lists in previous years (2016 and 2017), and while they did work, include-list seems more sensible to me. Here are the definitions:

• The Eligibility list [need-list] is a list of voters who are allowed to vote, if they also meet the basic requirements defined above. This list is often populated automatically.
• The Override list [include-list] is a list of voters who are allowed to vote regardless of the basic requirements or the eligibility list.

Since we have not defined any requirements, and instead have created the list by running a query, include-list seems more logical to me.

@Huji, please check everything independently and critically.

Change 470526 merged by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Changing the language of votewiki to Persian (fa)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/470526

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2018-10-30T11:59:52Z] <ladsgroup@deploy1001> Synchronized wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php: SWAT: [[gerrit:470526|Changing the language of votewiki to Persian (fa) (T207560)]] (duration: 00m 48s)

The votewiki is Persian now.

@4nn1l2 can you explain to me (and probably @revi) our turn?

Please note that both of us (Alaa and me) are completely new to SecurePoll stuff! Tho I don't expect this to cause any delay if we're educated.

@alanajjar and @revi, we need you to look at the list of voters carefully after voting period ends. As admins of the election, you can see the IP address and user-agent information of voters. You should be vigilant of any suspicious activity, and strike votes if necessary. We, coordinators, may also ask you to strike some votes in exceptional situations (such as votes by blocked users). Then, you should tally the results by visiting https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll (last item), give us the results to publish them at Persian Wikipedia, and finally, you should certify the results by signing at the results page (example). There is also a verbose guide page at the English Wikipedia. Thank you very much for your service.

In T207560#4705784, @4nn1l2 wrote:

In T207560#4705281, @jrbs wrote:

I will say that it would be ideal to get more lead time in future for these elections, since we have to move things around to make time for it. :)

We will make sure to have at least one week for configuring the SecurePoll in the future.

I configured SecurePoll:689, added scrutineers to the list of admins, and imported the list of eligible voters as an include-list rather than a need-list. We had imported them as need-lists in previous years (2016 and 2017), and while they did work, include-list seems more sensible to me. Here are the definitions:

• The Eligibility list [need-list] is a list of voters who are allowed to vote, if they also meet the basic requirements defined above. This list is often populated automatically.
• The Override list [include-list] is a list of voters who are allowed to vote regardless of the basic requirements or the eligibility list.

Since we have not defined any requirements, and instead have created the list by running a query, include-list seems more logical to me.

@Huji, please check everything independently and critically.

Everything checks out. Using the include-list is as good as using the need-list in our case, since we are not using the "Basic Options" part of the form to impose limits. Our list does not include bots, and we will have to manually rule out votes placed while the user is blocked (which would be rare).

@jrbs At this point, you can remove me from the election admins. You can also remove 4nn1l2.

In T207560#4707056, @Huji wrote:

@jrbs At this point, you can remove me from the election admins. You can also remove 4nn1l2.

Removed. Your accounts are still open if you want to make more changes to the votewiki interface.

At this point, there is no reason for our accounts to be open either; please block them.

I just checked the election and voted myself, and everything looks perfect.

Change 473148 had a related patch set uploaded (by Huji; owner: Huji):
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Revert the language of votewiki to English (en)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/473148

@revi and @alanajjar the voting period ends in about 21.5 hours from when I am writing this (i.e. exactly at Nov 14, 00:00:00 UTC). At that point you have THREE DAYS to review the votes and look for potential socks. You can see the list of voters on the votewiki, and along with it, you can see their IP address and UA string. If necessary, we can also run additional CU queries for you (I am a local CU), or you can run it yourself (by promoting yourself as a temporary local CU).

In the same 3-day period, @4nn1l2 and I will also look for any other possible violations (some accounts are known legitimate socks, and at least one account was blocked for parts of the voting period, so we will make sure no violation occurred). If we do find a violation, we will let you know here so you can scratch the related vote(s).

@jrbs the above does not have to take three days; if we all do our job on Nov 14th, you can run the tally that day as well. As usual, you have to run the tally via the CLI. I am also aware that ENWP Arb Com elections are coming up very soon (Nov 19th, to be exact). So I have already submitted a patch that would revert the language of votewiki back to English. I am expecting that @Ladsgroup will merge it tomorrow once the election is over.

@Huji As far as I know the election was not encrypted, so scrutineers can also tally the results. Am I right?

Furthermore, @revi and @alanajjar can change the default language of votewiki while logged in through their preferences, so I don't think that changing the language of votewiki back to English is a priority. However, I agree that it should be done as soon as possible because 2018 English ArbCom Elections will be held soon.

@4nn1l2 there is no way for us to know if the election was encrypted or not (because our election admin access was removed, appropriately, prior to the election being finalized). But I assume that ALL elections are encrypted by Joe or James. Once the election is complete, they can run the tallies for us.

Language change is not a priority; it is just the right thing to do, and there is no reason to delay it :)

@jrbs Please enlighten us whether or not the election was encrypted. I personally think that encryption is NOT a must for fawiki elections.

In T207560#4743329, @4nn1l2 wrote:

@jrbs Please enlighten us whether or not the election was encrypted. I personally think that encryption is NOT a must for fawiki elections.

This election was not encrypted.

In T207560#4742653, @Huji wrote:

@4nn1l2 there is no way for us to know if the election was encrypted or not (because our election admin access was removed, appropriately, prior to the election being finalized). But I assume that ALL elections are encrypted by Joe or James. Once the election is complete, they can run the tallies for us.

Language change is not a priority; it is just the right thing to do, and there is no reason to delay it :)

I think you can find out by doing a "dump" of the election data (which you don't need rights to do)

Huh! @Bawolff I think you just revealed a security issue; let me create a non-Public task for it.

Change 473148 merged by jenkins-bot:
[operations/mediawiki-config@master] Revert the language of votewiki to English (en)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/473148

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2018-11-14T12:35:56Z] <ladsgroup@deploy1001> Synchronized wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php: SWAT: [[gerrit:473148|Revert the language of votewiki to English (en) (T207560)]] (duration: 00m 55s)

In T207560#4746054, @Stashbot wrote:

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2018-11-14T12:35:56Z] <ladsgroup@deploy1001> Synchronized wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php: SWAT: [[gerrit:473148|Revert the language of votewiki to English (en) (T207560)]] (duration: 00m 55s)

This is weird. It's pretty plainly still in Persian so not sure what happened with this patch?

In T207560#4751142, @jrbs wrote:

This is weird. It's pretty plainly still in Persian so not sure what happened with this patch?

It was fully English when I deployed the change. Something bad happened between the deployment and now. I think l10n caches stuck there but not sure.

It's varnish: https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?ll

In T207560#4751192, @Ladsgroup wrote:

It's varnish: https://vote.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?ll

Ah perfect, thanks for having a look :) Seems like it's in English now.

Edit: I realise my original comment could be read as rude, sorry about that. Not intentional :)