Modules/Elections

The elections module is designed to handle both general poll requirements, and election of commitees. By default, all elections are handled as secret ballot. This can be disabled on a per-election basis.

An Election is a member of an "election group". Typically, these would be used to group together things "Election of 2020-2021 committee" and similar, however, there is no requirement for this. Each election in the group can have its own timetable, and its own results dates.

Every election goes through 4 distinct phases:

• Preparation
• Nominations
• Elections
• Results

Preparation

During the preparation phase, you can set up the election parameters and prepare questions to be answered by candidates during the nominations phase.

When you create the election, you are asked to set the dates and times that nominations open and close (Nominations From and Nominations To). You are also asked to set the voting dates and times (Elections From and Elections To), along with an "Announce Results At". You must also select a security group that is allowed to vote in the election.

By default the Anonymous Voting option will be turned on. This will prevent any record being kept of which Votes are made by which Voter Record (similar to how the UK votes in General Elections).

The final option (Permit RON) provides an option to allow people to vote for "Re-open Nominations" - this can be deleted if needed.

Once the Election is created, you have an opportunity to create questions that Users must answer as part of the Nomination process.

To view a worked example of an election, please take a look at our examples:

• Worked Example: Committee Election

Nominations

During the Nominations phase of the election process, all eligible users (as specified by the security group set in Preparation) on the site can submit themselves for consideration. They will have to have to answer the questions you have set for them as part of the preparation of the election. These answers will be made public to the voters.

The Nominations phase opens at the point that the local timezone in the local site passes the date and time set in "Nominations From" and runs until the date and time set in the "Nominations To" fields of the election.

Elections

During the Nominations phase of the election process, all eligible users (as specified by the security group set in Preparation) are permitted to vote for the Candidates they wish to choose.

During the elections you can see how many people have voted in the election, but not the results of that election

The Elections phase opens at the point that the local timezone in the local site passes the date and time set in "Elections From" and runs until the date and time set in the "Elections To" fields of the election.

Results

At the time specified by the Announce Results At parameter, the election results will be displayed both publicly and in the control panel.