Team members suggest accounts, and at least 50% of the team needs to vote yes for the verification to take place.

Keep in mind there is still basic verification guidelines that team members are expected to acknowledge. They can't just recommend random people they have to be eligible.

The same voting procedure needs to take place when hiring/firing people. Though we reserve the right to kick people out of the team if they are inactive.

For obvious reasons Hive account@steemitqa and I can't be fired. As we host and develop the service.

Voting is a courtesy. We could've easily launched this service without relying on votes, but we wanted it to be a democratic and unbiased system.

The only time somebody is verified without voting is if they are an official Steemit, Inc. team member or a Steem Verify team member.