Permitting at-large members to vote could allow fraud, study finds.

ICANN_s plan to open up its membership is popular with Web surfers who want to help run the Net, but now the plan is drawing criticism. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers offers at-large memberships, which allow anyone with an e-mail address to vote for board members. But a new study of the proposal finds that the plan runs counter to the democratic process, could be subject to fraud or "capture" by special interests, and is generally fraught with problems. The three-month study, previewed on Friday, was conducted independent of ICANN by the Center for Democracy and Technology and by Common Cause, which are both nonprofit groups focused on educational and lobbying efforts. "Nearly every member of the Internet community with whom we spoke, as well as respected outside observers, identified fundamental problems with the current plan," according to the report_s executive summary. "These problems are compounded by the fact that most of the electorate envisioned by ICANN does not know what ICANN is or what it does." At-large members will choose 9 of the 19 ICANN board members, with the first such election expected by September. That election will be indirect, because the at-large membership will first choose a council that in turn selects board members. That situation could lead to "capture" by special interests or fraud, the study warns. The current ICANN board will consider and adopt policies for the composition and structure of the at-large membership, and consider rules to nominate and elect at-large council members at its meeting in Cairo, Egypt, next week. The election report also is slated for discussion.