Contents...

• Voting Process
• Election Results
• Structure Overview
  • Candidates Group
  • Election Configuration
  • Voting Configuration
• Set Up Instructions
  • Labels and Groups
  • Creating a New Election
• Labels and Groups Structure Summary
  • References

The voting system is used to create and manage elections, determine who is eligible to vote, and securely record votes.

Voting Process

• Only members of the organisation are eligible to vote
• Votes can only be registered whilst the election's status is Open
• Voting is conducted by ranking one or more candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3, etc.)
• Invalid or indeterminate votes are rejected, prompting the voter to try again
• Submitting a vote cancels any previous vote cast in the election by the voter
• [Not CqE] Election administrators can add proxy votes whilst it is open or closed
• [CqE only] Each voter must be a member of the Voting Members group
• [CqE only] For constituency-restricted elections:
  • The voter must have set their Voting Constituency in their personal details
  • A vote is rejected if the voter has already submitted a vote in a different constituency in an election that is still open

Election Results

• The Returning Officer, scrutineers, or organisation admin may download election results in CSV or BLT format
• Navigation through the app is restricted to admins, so the Returning Officer and Scrutineers must be provided with a direct link to the results page if they are not organisation admins
• Results include:
  • Who has voted
  • Votes cast
  • No personal link between voter identity and votes (i.e. anonymity is preserved)

Structure Overview

Candidates Group

Each election requires an active group whose members are the candidates standing for election.

The group's name is used as the election's title - including the year in the tag name makes elections easier to identify and maintain.

The group's Details field can be used for any additional election information, such as links to candidate statements, and is shown to voters when they cast their ballots.

[CqE only] The candidates group may belong to a constituency, restricting who can vote

Election Configuration

An Election Configuration defines an individual election. It includes the election's:

• Status (draft/open/closed)
• Closing date (the last day on which votes are accepted)
• Linked candidates group, which provides the list of candidates and other information about the election.

Voting Configuration

A Voting Configuration manages one or more election configurations. It defines:

• A headline describing the purpose of all the elections that it controls, such as electing officers or trustees
• The Returning Officer and any scrutineers, who have privileged access to the election setup and results

A single voting configuration may be sufficient to control all elections, ever. If necessary, create a new voting configuration by clicking the [New Voting Configuration] button.

Set Up Instructions

Any organisation officer can configure voting.

Labels and Groups

If you are not familiar with how labels and groups work and are configured, review the help.

To access and configure labels and groups, go to the Directory home page, and under My Admin, click Labels and Groups.

The organisation must have labels and groups set up to support voting as follows (refer also to the illustration):

• A top-level label (tab) called Voting
• For all-member voting, at least one label called Elections that is a child of Voting
  • The Elections label may be called anything that ends with Elections, e.g. General Elections
  • There can be more than one Election label, each used for a different purpose
• A group that is a child of an Elections label and to which the candidates are assigned
  • The group's name is unrestricted and is used as the election's title
  • Election candidates are made members of this group
  • When an election is open, voters see all members of the Candidates group listed as candidates to vote for, together with the contents of the group's details field, which can provide additional information and links
• [CqE only] Voting is restricted to members of the Voting Members group
• [CqE only] For constituency-restricted voting:
  • The top-level Voting tab must have a child label called Constituencies, which is parent to each constituency label
  • Each constituency label may have a child label named Elections whose child groups are the election candidates as above
  • Only voters registered in the relevant constituency are allowed to vote in those elections
  • Voting members may choose their Voting Constituency by updating their personal details
    • The Constituencies label's child labels form the Voting Constituency selection options for voting members

Creating a New Election

• First, in Groups and Labels, create the candidates group under an Elections label
  • The group's name is unrestricted and is used as the election's title
    • Tip: Including the year in the tag name makes elections easier to identify and maintain
  • [CqE only] If the Elections label is a child of a constituency label, voting is restricted to voters registered in that constituency
  • It is a group, not just a label, and its details field should contain whatever you need the voter to know about this particular election
  • Add the candidates to the new group
• Back in voting configuration, create a new election configuration under the relevant voting configuration and link it to the new candidates group
• Set the closing date and change the status to Open to begin voting
• The election automatically closes after the closing date (the last day of voting)

Labels and Groups Structure Summary

For simple organisation member voting, the label structure must follow this hierarchy:

In addition, Croquet England can configure constituencies and set up elections in which only members registered in the constituency may vote.

For constituency-based member voting, the label structure must follow this hierarchy:

References

• Details of how labels and groups work and are configured
• To access and configure labels and groups, go to the Directory home, under My Admin, click Labels and Groups