This is the First written Specification for Electronic Voting Systems used by the University of Warwick Students’ Union.
2003-2004 was a difficult year for the Elections Group as the Group had no prior experience of running elections, 2003-2004 was only the second academic year in which online voting was used. The Group were let down by poor IT provisions, for example students were unable to vote in both for over twenty hours in the Autumn Elections and the Primary Elections. We are writing this handover document in the hope that some of the problems we have experienced can be avoided.
Recent changes to Election Regulations stipulate that:
“The Elections Group will publish a Specification Document to which any Electronic Voting System provided must be fully compliant. “
The essential points of the case for this motion were as below:
This version was produced after extensive consulation with the Union Information Technology Department and the Finance and Internal Affairs Officer. A number of compromises were made by the the Elections Group. Mixed Voting is no longer a three star requirement but the Group was assured that a suitable alternative contingency would be put in place. It was agreed that this contingency would be based on an extended version of the proxy voting provision used in previous elections.
* Suggested (The Group submits this clause as an idea to be considered by the relevant Union Officers)
** Recommended (The Elections Group Requests and Recommends this feature/property is part of the System)
*** Required for Compliance (i.e. if this is not met then a Breach of Elections Regulations as occurred.)
Where a section heading is labeled this label will hold for the whole section. Whilst compliance during Elections and referenda periods is essential the EVS should meet the Specification at all time.
It is hoped that a copy of each new edition of this document will be given to:
1.1. The Returning Officer will be the section monitor for this section.
1.2. The System will conform to (in order of precedence)
1.2.1. The Education Act (1994)2.1. The Chair of the Elections Group will be the Section Monitor for this section.
2.2. The Electronic Voting System will be designed and developed with reference to the following aims:
2.2.1. The ballot will be Secret3.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.
3.2. The system will be fit for the purpose of conducting free and fair elections.
3.4. All errors and deficiencies reported by the Elections Group will be resolved promptly.
3.5. There will be extensive provision for the Elections Group to test the System, including the ability to run complete test Elections.
3.6. There will be no adverts on the Voting section of the Union web site.
4.1. The Returning Officer will be the section monitor for this section.
4.2. There will be an Electoral Register.
5.1. The Returning Officer will be the Section Monitor for this Section. ***
5.2. Each Full Member of the Union having registered on the Union Website will have a voter profile which they can view. ***
5.3. The profile will include:
5.4. Members will be able to use their voter profile options to register an interest in positions with self-defining eligibility. ***
5.5. Elections Group will be able to contact these interest groups by email. **
5.6. The Voter Profile will include an explanation of how the data will used and how it can be corrected. ***
6.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.***
6.2. The Elections Group will be able to publish and edit instructions about the voting system. ***
6.3. There will be prominent links to the above information in the voting area. **
7.1. The Returning Officer will be the Section Monitor for this Section. ***
7.2. The system will generate a nominations form to be printed off. ***
7.3. Instructions to the affect that the form must be printed off and handed in will appear prominently on the relevant page. ***
7.4. Each Nominee and candidate will have a Candidacy profile. ***
7.5. The Elections Group will have the capacity to send a single email to all nominees. ***
7.6. The Elections Group will have the capacity to send a single email to all candidates. ***
7.7. Each full member of the Union will be able to stand for those positions for which they are entitled to stand and no others. ***
7.8. Members will not be able to propose or second themselves and if they attempt to do so they will be alerted as to why. ***
7.9. The Proposer of a Candidate for a given position may not be the candidate’s Seconder for that position. ***7.10. Nominees will only become candidates after the Returning Officer has approved their nomination. ***
7.11. The Elections Group will be able to run Elections where a Proposer and Seconder are not required, such as the Undergraduate First Year Councillor Elections. ***
7.12 No Undegraduate student will be able to stand for a Postgraduate position.
7.13 No Postgraduate student will be able to stand for an Undergraduate position.
7.14 No student will be able to stand for a Faculty position unless they are a member of that faculty.
8.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.***
8.2. There will be provision on the system for Full Union Members to join referendum groups. ***
8.3. There will be a Group for and against each motion. ***
8.4. The Elections Group will be able to appoint a leader or leaders to each Group. ***
8.5. The Leaders only, will have the ability to edit the appropriate Referendum Argument. ***
8.6. The Elections Group (on behalf of the Composite Working Group ) will have the ability to load motions, and financial plans to the system. ***
8.7. There will be no links to empty arguments, or empty financial plans. ***
9.1. There will be equal provision for each candidate for each position to create an electronic manifesto, during a period indicated by the Elections Group, and at no other time.
9.2. These manifestos will be displayed to all voters during a period specified by the Elections Group, and at no other time.
9.3. The Elections Group will be able to indicate to candidates the Paper Manifesto Deadline.
10.1. The System will enable the Elections Group to publish the date and time from which the campaigning period begins.
10.2. The System will enable the Elections Group to publish the date and time from which publicity is allowed in the Union Building.
11.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.
11.2. Each member will be able to vote once and only once for each position for which they are entitled to vote. ***
11.3. Each eligible member will be able to vote at any time during the polling period but at no other time. ***
11.4. Members will not be able to cast Electronic votes after the close of Polling, even if they started completing the ballot form before the close of Polling. ***
11.5. The Elections Group will be given administrative tools to create, delete and edit posts, posts descriptions and post restrictions (including self-defining posts). ***
11.6. The order of the voting screens will be agreed with the Elections Group. ***
11.7. Re-Open Nominations will automatically appear in every Election and will be automatically identified by the Counting Programme. ***
11.8. The Elections Group will have the ability to edit the explanations of Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N.) and No Further Preferences (N.F.P.). ***
11.9. The Elections Group will be able to edit the rubric at the top of the Ballot Forms. **
11.10. Below the rubric the candidates will appear in a psuedo-random order whereby each candidate has equal probability of appearing in any given position on the list. ***
11.11. In the row immediately below the list of candidates “Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N.)” will appear. ***
11.12. In the row immediately below “Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N.)” “No Further Preferences (N.F.P.)” will appear. ***
11.13. To the right of each candidate there will be a clearly labelled link to the candidate’s online manifesto where one is submitted, and not otherwise. ***
11.14. To the right of Re-Open nominations there will be a clearly labelled link to the Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N.) Description. ***
11.15. To the right of No Further Preferences (N.F.P.) there will be a clearly labelled link to the No Further Preferences (N.F.P.) Description. ***
11.16. There will be a text input field of the same size next to each candidate; Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N.) and No further Preferences (N.F.P.). ***
11.17. At the foot of the Ballot Paper there will be an appropriately labelled submit button. ***
11.18. Voters submitting an empty form will be referred back to the ballot paper after an appropriate and descriptive error message. ***
11.19. Voters submitting values other than positive integers will be referred back to the ballot paper after an appropriate and descriptive error message. ***
11.20. Voters submitting non-sequential Preferences will be referred back to the ballot paper after an appropriate and descriptive error message. ***
11.21. The Elections Group will be able to edit the terms and conditions for voting. **
11.22. It will be made abundantly clear to voters that they may not edit or withdraw their vote once it is cast. **
11.23. There will be security measures in place to ensure that no one other than a given member of the electorate voter may cast their vote (except in the case of authorised proxy and postal voting).
11.24. After Members will be directed to a page promoting voting in referenda, (unless they have already voted for all motions for which they are eligible to vote.) ***
12.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.
12.2. Each member will be able to vote once and only once on each motion for which they are entitled to vote.
12.3. A vote will either be For the motion, against the motion or an active abstention.
12.4. There will be security measures in place to ensure that no one other than a given member of the electorate voter may cast their vote.
12.5. After voting for all motions for which a member is eligible they will be redirected to a page promoting voting in elections.
12.6. No one may vote after the close of polling under any circumstances.
13.1. The Chair of the Elections Group will be section monitor for this section.
13.2. There will be provision for the Elections Group to generate Ballot Papers suitable for printing.
13.3. There will be provision for the Elections Group to offer paper and Electronic Voting in the same election.
13.4. This provision will include the facility for Elections Group to type votes cast on paper into the Elections System.
13.5. This provision will also include the facility for Elections Group to verify that the input is correct by entering each paper again in the same order.
The System will alert the Group immediately if the second input of a vote differs from the first.
14.1. The Chair of The Elections Group will be Section Monitor for this Section.
14.2. There will be an email alias elections@sunion.warwick.ac.uk. ***
14.3. The Chair and Returning Officer only will receive emails sent to the above alias. **
14.4. This address will be publicised at the point of voting as a feedback address on the voting process. ***
14.5. The address will also be published on the Union Website Homepage during the Main Elections/Referenda Periods.
***14.6. The voting Support Team will consist of The Elections Group, the Democracy Committee and such others as the President deems necessary.
14.7. There will be a voting support forum where members of the voting support team can discuss the Electronic Voting System. ***
14.8. The forum will include an feedback log. ***
14.9. The feedback log will be retained for future reference. ***
14.10. The feedback log will be archived annually. ***
15.1. The Chair of the Elections Group will be the Section Monitor for this section.
15.2. Only current members of Elections Group and permanent full time employees of the Union Information Technology Department will be given administrative rights to the System.
16.1. The Returning Officer will be the Section Monitor for this section. [rofficer@sunion.warwick.ac.uk] ***
16.2. Re-Open Nominations will automatically appear in every Election and will be automatically identified by the Counting Programme. ***
16.3. The Counting Programme will not begin counting an election until it has correctly identified a Re-Open Nominations (R.O.N) Candidate. ***
16.4. Subsequent Re-Open Nominations Candidates will appear automatically. ***
16.5. There will be provision to deal with withdrawn candidates in accordance with 2.4 of Document A. ***
16.6. There will be provision to conduct recounts with some or all previously withdrawn candidates re-instated and/or with some additional candidates withdrawing. ***
16.7. For each Election the system will generate a Results Sheet and Count Control Form. ***
16.8. For each candidate (including Re-Open Nominations Candidates) in each Election the system will generate a Candidate Vote Record. ***
16.9. For each Exclusion that occurs during a count the system will generate a complete and correct Exclusion Form. **
16.10. For each Surplus that is transferred during a count the system will generate a Surplus Form. ***
16.11. For each batch of papers transferred during the Count the programme will generate a Counting Slip. *
16.12. All the Counting Stationery generated will be correct and complete. ***
16.13. The requirements for each item of stationary are specified in ERS97. ***
16.14. The Results Sheet will include: ***
16.15. The system will generate for each Election a statistics table including the number of distinct voters, the number of votes cast for each position and the quorum for each position. ***
17.1. The Returning Officer will be Section Monitor for this Section.
17.2. No information related in any way to the expected or actual turnout the Election/ Referenda (excluding general site traffic statistics) will be obtained or released without the prior permission of the Returning Officer or the Chair of the Elections Group.
17.3. No information related in any way to the expected or actual results of the Election/ Referenda will be obtained or released without the explicit prior permission of the Returning Officer.
17.4. There will be provision to display, edit and remove a disclaimer associated with results.
17.5. There will be provision to remove results from view.
18.1. The Elections Group Equal Opportunities Officer will be the section monitor for this section.
18.2. There will be an Equal Opportunities form for each candidate.
18.3. There will be an Equal Opportunities form for each voter, to be completed after they have voted for all positions and motions for which they are entitled to vote.
18.4. These forms will be produced in consultation with the Elections Group and the Welfare and Equal Opportunities (Sabbatical) Officer.
18.5. The Elections Group will be given tools to generate useful statistics from these forms.
19.1. The Chair of the Elections group will be the Monitor for this section.
19.2. No data with regard to Elections/ Referenda will be released to anyone or obtainable by anyone without the prior written permission of one of the following:
19.3. The following data will be readily available to all members of the Elections Group.
19.3.1. The Number of registered students for which the University has supplied data to the Union.20.1. The Returning Officer will be Section Monitor for this Section.
20.2. A Portable Document Format (PDF) document will be available to the Elections Group containing all votes cast in an election or referenda.
20.3. There will be provision for the Elections Group to print all the votes cast in a given election/ referendum at any time.
20.4. The Papers will be printed in a form suitable for a manual count.
20.5. The Portable Document Format (PDF) documents will be archived annually along with the Count Programme on a Compact Disc (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or similar machine readable medium.