SMSU AGM 2016 – 28 April 2016 4:30pm Motions MOTION 1 - Move SMSU Elections Voting Online PROPOSER: Hester Benham (VP Sports and Societies) SECONDER: Ryan Dowsett 1. Present voting system 1.1 SMSU has been holding paper ballot Elections throughout its history. Up until last year,, these have so far been very successful with notably high turnouts (an average of 23% over the last 5 years) when compared to other universities. Our Friday ‘Voting Day’ and ‘Results Night’ are also events that have an incredible atmosphere which is almost unrivalled elsewhere. 2. National Context 2.1 With internet voting becoming an increasingly popular and beneficial method for other Students’ Unions, (with at least 75% of other SU’s conducting online elections)SMSU have come to realize that it’s an option that should be looked at here at St Mary’s. A number of other universities have experienced increased turnout from putting their elections online –for example, Salford SU experienced a 40% increase in participation in their 2016 elections. . A higher turnout means a fairer, more representative election! 2.2 SMSU believe that it would be possible to integrate an internet voting system with the current Friday Voting Day by using devices /tablets in the SU Lounge and still all of the candidates running for Election access to stalls on the SU courtyard. Doing this would keep the Friday ‘Voting Day’ atmosphere, and would increase our turnout in the process. 3. SMSU Voting System – Post 2016 3.1 SMSU currently operates an email voting system and believes it is currently too complex. Every year, SMSU receive a number of email votes which have to count as ‘spoilt’ because students have misunderstood how to vote, and a lot of the votes that come through only vote for one candidate. Although a lot of people intentionally vote like this, SMSU believes that some students do not realize that the SU elections use a transferable voting system where students can vote for more than one candidate. An online system would outline the full voting procedure. 3.2 SMSU has seen a dramatic rise (50%) in the number of email votes received over the past two years, which indicates that more and more students are opting for an online system. 4. How online voting would work 4.1 SMSU would utilize the current web platform (NUS Cloud) to run the Elections. The process would run as follows:
SMSU AGM 2016 – 28 April 2016 4:30pm Motions 4.1.1Candidates would log into stmaryssu.co.uk and nominate themselves for a role during an allocated nominations period prior to voting week. 4.1.2 Once this closed, our nominated candidates would be briefed on the rules and regulations of the elections. 4.1.3 The elections period would begin. 4.1.4 Students would be able to vote online at any point within the elections period by logging in and casting their vote with the click of a button. 4.1.5 When nominations close, the system would automatically count the ballots and SMSU could announce the result. 4.2 SMSU realizes that there have been problems with the login system on the website this year, and with this in mind, the login and membership section of our website is being rebooted this summer. As of September 2016, the login system will be coordinated with the University’s own system. University usernames and passwords and the stmaryssu.co.uk username and password would be the same, so there should be no issues with logging in. 5. Benefits of moving the Elections Online 5.1 The first benefit to online voting is convenience. Students will be able to vote from anywhere, so no journey to campus is necessary for off-campus students. This will result in increased participation from students such as those on placement, distance learners, those living off campus and parents. 5.2 Holding elections online will give SMSU more information on who is and isn’t voting. This allows SMSU to try and find out why certain students aren’t getting involved, so SMSU can improve communication. This will result in a better Union that caters to more of its students. Using paper ballots, SMSU cannot capture any accurate data on which students are voting. 5.3 In an online election period, SMSU could expand the voting period. There is not enough staffing to run voting for this period of time with a paper ballot system. It should be noted that Voting Day on Fridays will stay in place whether or not voting goes online. 5.4 Online voting reduces the risk of fraud or deception. All votes are protected via the online system and anomalies can be identified quickly. 5.5 An online election system would be far better for the environment – at present, SMSU provides approximately 2,000 paper voting packs including 4-5 different slips. This obviously isn’t good for our planet!
PROPOSED OUTCOME: Move elections online for all Officer positions of SMSU.
SMSU AGM 2016 – 28 April 2016 4:30pm Motions