SU Elections

Voters’ Guide to the SMSU Elections

Manifestos
Read each candidate’s manifesto – find out what they have to offer you and the SU. Are their promises realistic? Do you agree with what they have to say?

Hustings
The hustings take place on Wednesday 30 March 2011 at 6pm in the SU Hall. Each candidate will make a speech and present their manifestos. This is your chance to ask the candidates questions and assess their answers.

Election
Elections take place on Friday 1st April 2011 — voting takes place in the SU Hall between 9am and 6pm. Proof of identity and regnums will be required in order to be able to vote. The results are announced on the night of the election.

The voting process
The election will be overseen by the Returning Officer: NUS London Regional Organiser, Matilda Von Sydow.

Transferable voting
SMSU uses the transferable voting system which isn’t as complicated as it sounds. STV is a system of preferential voting designed to minimize wasted votes. Each voter ranks all candidates in order of their preference, eg number 1 for their favourite choice, number 2 for their second best choice, number 3 for their third choice, number 4 … etc, etc, etc.

For example:
Joe Bloggs’ ballot paper
Oranges 4
Strawberries 3
Apples 5
Chocolate 1
Crisps 2
RON

So, Joe Bloggs would prefer Chocolate to win and the candidate he least wants to win is Apples. Once the number of ballot papers, ie the number of people voting, has been counted a quota is established. This is the total number of ballots halved plus 1:

Total No. of ballots = 1000
Quota = 501

To win outright a candidate would have to get 501 votes. If there is no outright winner in the first round, the candidate with the lowest number of votes has to be eliminated. However, the votes of all those who chose the eliminated candidate as their first choice will not be wasted because their second choices on their ballot paper will be counted up in the next round. This ensures that a greater proportion of the total vote is used to elect the successful candidate who should, therefore, be more likely to represent the views of the majority of students.

On the first count of the votes the results were:
Crisps 401
Strawberries 200
Oranges 131
Apples 139
Chocolate 130

None of the candidates reached the quota. Therefore, because Chocolate got the lowest number of votes it is eliminated and the second choices of those who voted for it are redistributed and counted up.

Although Joe Bloggs will be disappointed that Chocolate did not win the election because it got the lowest number of votes and was eliminated in the first round, all is not lost for Joe because there’s still a chance that his second choice, Crisps, might go on to win.

Out of the 130 people who voted for Chocolate as their first choice, 105 had voted for Crisps, 14 for Strawberries, 9 for Oranges and 2 for Apples as their second choice. The results of the second round were therefore as follows:

Crisps 506
Strawberries 214
Apples 141
Oranges 140

At the end of the second round, Crisps reached the quota and was
confirmed as elected, making a further round unnecessary.

By using this system all voters can make the maximum use of their vote and ensure that they can still influence the final outcome by ensuring that the most favoured gets elected and the least favoured does not.

Where there is more than one seat to be filled, ie the Executive Committee elections, once the first winning candidate has got enough votes to get elected, the votes for the second choices on the ballot papers showing them as the first choice will then be counted up in the next round, and so on.

Re-open nominations (RON)
You are entitled to vote for/include among your choices Re-open nominations (RON) ie, if you have no faith in any of, or in the remaining candidates on your ballot paper and wish the election to start again with the opportunity for new candidates to be nominated. This choice is equivalent to the formal vote for any candidate and may be included in your preferences.

Voting procedures
• all students may vote, providing they produce a valid St Mary’s student ID card
• each voter’s ID card will checked against the list of students registered at St Mary’s before being issued with a ballot paper
• each voter receives a ballot form on which the name of each candidate shall be displayed alongside the position they are nominated for
• the ballot paper will clearly describe the method by which the voter may express their vote
• completed votes are placed in official SU, sealed ballot boxes
• voting is by secret ballot and will be conducted according to the most recently published edition of the rules for the operation of the transferable voting (STV) system as recommended by the NUS
• any incorrectly marked ballot papers will be deemed as invalid
• postal/email/telephone votes will be available to any student unable to attend on election day in person with a reasonable reason for absence due to illness or placements, etc.

The deadline for postal/email/telephone votes is Thursday 29 April 2010. Please
email carneys@smuc.ac.uk or telephone 0208 240 4131 to make
your postal/email/telephone vote.

Counting of votes
• The counting of votes will be undertaken by the administrative and returning officers and any other people co-opted to assist by the returning officer on the close of the ballot boxes on election day
• the count will start at 6pm on 30 April and will continue until a result is reached. The returning officer will then publish the result on the evening of the count and declare the number of votes in favour of each candidate.