ICANN has three Supporting Organizations that make appointments to the Board of Directors through an indirect election process. Each Supporting Organization's members first vote on representatives to a Council, which in turn votes on candidates for the Board. Through each stage of the elections, nominations are open to any individuals and Council members can not simultaneously serve on the Board. The Supporting Organizations choose three Directors that serve terms of different lengths ‚ a one year seat, two year seat, and three year seat.

Address Supporting Organization (ASO) Elections
The ASO reviews and recommends policies and technical structures for the system of IP addresses. The ASO consists of the combined membership of three Regional Internet Registries (RIR), the APNIC, the ARIN, and the RIPE NCC. Each of the Regional Internet Registries appoints three individuals to the ASO Address Council, whose members in turn elect three members of the Board of Directors.

(3) APNIC representatives
(3) ARIN representatives
(3) RIPE NCC representatives
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(9) Address Council Members elect (3) Board Directors.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICANN and the ASO, the Address Council representatives would be appointed by a public nominations process, followed by an "open and transparent" voting procedure:

• Each RIR will annually issue a public call for nominees to the Address Council at least 90 days before the RIR's policy meeting. Any individual can submit a nomination to the RIR by 30 days before the meeting.
• The nominees must be individuals and must not be staff members of any RIR.
• A list of all nominees who agree to run for the Address Council must be posted on the RIR's web page at least 15 days before the meeting along with a statement from each nominee who wishes to make one.

Once appointed, the Address Council conducts open nominations for the Board of Directors at least 90 days before the annual ASO General Assembly meeting. RIRs are also entitled to nominate candidates. The MoU does not specify the exact process that the Address Council should use to vote on these candidates.

On October 25, 1999, the Address Council chose the following individuals to serve on the Board of Directors:

1. Rob Blokzijl, Europe, 3 year term
2. Pindar Wong, Asia Pacific, 2 year term
3. Ken Fockler, North America, 1 year term

Protocol Supporting Organization (PSO) Elections.
The PSO oversees the assignment of unique parameters for Internet protocols, the technical standards that let computers exchange information and manage communications over the Internet. The PSO consists of the combined membership of four Standards Development Organizations (SDOs): the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Each SDO appoints two members to the Protocol Council, and these representatives then appoint Directors to the Board. Nominations are open to all members of the PSO General Assembly, and are then forwarded to the individual SDOs. The SDOs choose their own procedures for appointing representatives to the Protocol Council.

(2) IETF representatives
(2) W3C representatives
(2) ITU representatives
(2) ETSI representatives
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(8) Protocol Council Members elect (3) Board Directors.

Once chosen, the Protocol Council conducts an open call for nominations. SDOs and members of the public can nominate candidates for the Board of Directors. The Protocol Council will select the PSO nominees to the ICANN Board from among these nominees, by a process not specified in the Memorandum of Understanding between ICANN and the PSO. ICANN Directors selected by the Protocol Council may, but need not, be members of the Protocol Council or any SDO. No more than 2 PSO-nominated Directors may be residents of the same Geographic Region (as defined in the ICANN By-laws).

Current Protocol Council Members

On October 25, 1999, the Protocol Council chose the following individuals to serve on the Board of Directors:

1. Philip Davidson 3 year term
2. Vinton Cerf 2 year term
3. Jean-François Abramatic 1 year term

Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) Elections.
The Domain Name Supporting Organization advises the ICANN Board on policy issues relating to the Domain Name System -- the system of names commonly used to identify Internet locations and resources. Among the three Supporting Organizations, the DNSO has the most diverse membership structure, and perhaps the most complex elections process.

Names Council Elections. The DNSO consists of seven constituencies that each nominate three representatives to the Names Council, through a process determined by each individual constituency.

19 Names Council members are nominated by 7 Constituencies: (3 representatives each)

(3) ccTLD registries;
(3) commercial and business entities;
(1) gTLD registries (for now, only NSI)
(3) ISP and connectivity providers;
(3) non-commercial domain name holders;
(3) registrars; and
(3) trademark, other intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting interests
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19 Names Council members

General Assembly Nominations. The General Assembly, whose membership is open to any individual, nominates candidates for the Board of Directors. A candidate must have at least 10 nominations, also known as "supports," to be considered a legitimate candidate. Statements of support are submitted by email and posted on the DNSO website.

Names Council Voting Process to Elect Directors. The Names Council will elect three members of the ICANN Board. One of them will serve for a period of three years, a second one for a period of two years and the third one for a period of one years. After the elections, one Member of the Board will be elected every year to replace the member whose term has expired. A Names Council member can not vote for himself/herself as Director, and the three Directors must come from different geographical regions.

The Names Council members vote on candidates for the Board through a process of consecutive rounds of elimination. This process is meant to ensure that the candidates that are elected have a broad base of support within the DNSO.

• Round 1: Elimination
  - Each member of the NC cast 3 votes, for different nominees,
  19 voting NC members x 3 votes each = 57 total.
  - all nominees receiving zero or one or two votes are eliminated from the list
• Round 2: Three Year Director Slot
  - Each member of the NC votes for one nominee
  - the nominees are ranked by the number of votes received
  - the lowest vote-getting nominee is eliminated from the list
  - the procedure is repeated with the new (reduced) list
  - a winner is declared when a nominee receives 10 or more of the NC's 19 votes.
• Geographical Diversity (GD) Check:
  - After the election of the first candidate for 3 years term at the ICANN Board, the corresponding geographic region will eliminate some candidates from a list of nominees.
  - If the GD is not achieved, because there are no nominees from any other region who have received more than two votes in the preliminary round from the 57 possible, the NC will elect only as many ICANN Board members as possible, and the NC will issue an additional call for nomination for missing regions
  - If the GD is achieved, the second (and third) round takes place.
• Round 3: Two Year Director Slot
  - same process as above
• Round 4: One year Director Slot
  - same process as above

Non-Commercial Constituency Names Council Elections. The 3 NCDNHC Names Council members were chosen through a election process identical to the DNSO Voting Process. The candidate with the greatest number of votes was given the first slot, then the other two slots were filled by the candidates from other geographic regions that had the next largest number of votes. The candidates that did not receive positions on the Name Council are appointed as "Administrative Committee" members that assist the Names Council members in organizing the constituency.