Election Buddy for Locals

ElectionBuddy is an online service for running elections and votes. UNA has an account for running the AGM 2021 elections and for Locals to run their own elections.

Initially UNA will be setting up and running the elections for the Locals but we will also be setting up Locals to run their own elections through our account.

Terminology

Election – Voting on one or more positions or questions. Voters will receive a single ballot.

Ballot – What is presented to the voter when they come to the site to vote.

Positions or Questions – A ballot may contain more than one position or question being voted on. Thus if the voters will be voting for both a President and a Vice-President both will appear on the ballot.

Voting System (each position or question may use a different voting system)

  • Plurality
    • Voters select one candidate or option from a list of available choices.
    • The candidate, or options, with the highest percentage of votes among the counted ballots, is declared the winner. For elections with 2 or more candidates, a winning a majority of the total ballots is not required to win.
    • When running a multi-seat election the candidate with the highest percentage will win the first seat, the second-highest percentage wins the second seat, and so on, until all seats are filled.
  • Preferential
    • Voters rank the candidates in order of preference, with “1” being the highest (most preferred) ranking. For example, if there are 3 candidates, the voter chooses 1 beside their first choice, 2 beside their second choice and 3 beside their third choice.
    • https://help.electionbuddy.com/en/articles/5146830-preferential-voting
  • Single Transferable Vote
    • A preferential system for voting on multiple vacancies.
    • The difference between a regular preferential vote and STV is the number of vacancies. The basic preferential vote has one vacancy (a single seat); when multiple vacancies exist, STV is used to tally the votes. With multiple vacancies, during the tally, surplus votes are “transferred”, based on the ranking assigned to the candidates at the time of voting, in order to ensure that all vacancies are filled. To transfer votes, ElectionBuddy uses the Meek’s STV Method.
    • https://help.electionbuddy.com/en/articles/5146823-single-transferrable-voting-stv

Ballot ID – A unique identifier assigned to voters. We will use Member ID

Voter Labels – Used to personalize ballots, typically the name of the voter. Does not need to be unique.

Voting Group – Voting groups can be used to categorize each voter to a group and allow groups to vote on specific positions/questions on the ballot. For UNA we will be using these on AGM ballots for district votes.

Voter List – The voter list should be a three or four column spreadsheet: Voter ID, Email, Label, {Voter Group}. This can be copy and pasted into the setup interface.

Information Required For A Vote

  • Title
  • Start Date and Time
  • End Date and Time
  • Position(s) or Question being voted on
    • Voting System
      • Plurality/Preferential
      • Approval (for questions)
    • Candidates
    • Question
    • Allow abstentions?
  • Notice Options
    • Email
    • Number of Reminders
    • Contact Person/email
  • Voter List
    • Excel format
    • Three columns: ID, Name, Email
  • Will the voter list be complete or might you need to add extra voters later?
    • If so approximately how many?
Tagged: