‘How to make people vote’ - be different

Polly Toynbee writes in The Guardian today about ‘How to make people vote’ and it’s a question that the Union has pondered and no doubt the election candidates are pondering even more.

The main thrust of the article is that voters want a choice. Everyone’s competing for the politically correct middle ground, but actually if people had a clear choice turnout would go up. We don’t all want to vote for three Mr or Mrs X’s, we want a Y and a Z to pick from.

The lesson for candidates, pin your colours to a mast and make voters believe that you can climb to the top of it. Don’t just follow the herd.

Edwards withdraws from election

Mark Edwards has withdrawn from the race to be president.

Edwards is believed to have cited a build-up of university work and other personal reasons for dropping out.

The news leaves three candidates left in the race to be President: Sarah Edwards, Gavin Jones and Chris Ward. Edwards was running as part of a trio with Adam Slaughter and David Watters - we’ll see if they back another President candidate or stick as a duo. Edwards was expected to command the sports vote, but this could shift to Sarah Edwards who could expect to inherit voters who would have backed Mark Edwards.

Going on facebook group members the current favourite for President is Gavin Jones on 395 group members, Chris Ward is second on 149, while Sarah Edwards carries 89 members. Mark Edwards’ shared group with Slaughter and Watters currently has 112 members. But will facebook support translate into solid votes?

The Guardian: Ministers back voting reforms

With the news that the government is tabling a motion to switch to the Alternative Transferable Vote (ATV) election system, we’ll be taking a look over the next week at how the UCLan Students’ Union system of Single Transferable Vote (STV) works, the drama it’s caused in the past, and assessing whether it’s the best method available for student elections.

Why only one person stood for education officer

This is the most hotly contested election at UCLan Students’ Union for a long time, but there’s one position that hasn’t attracted the same level of candidates. The Union’s education officer has one candidate, so what happened? We spoke to Peta Carter, the current education officer to find out why she thinks this is the case.

Why do you think only one person stood for education officer?

Possibly because it is not seen as the ’sexy’ position or the position with the most fun.  But I have had so much fun, especially with course rep training and with course rep social events but also working with university staff with various issues that this is a misnomer.  Then again, some people think that ‘education’ is simply gaining a qualification and don’t see the wider enjoyment of learning and passing on these skills.  Others may see it as a position that only complains about things but it is also a position which encourages the university to continue good practice and consultation with students and also keeps the staff in contact with real student issues.  Students do not always come and simply complain, they often require assistance to channel their positive suggestions, and this role provides that.
 
Did the governance review get it wrong with the education position?

The Education Officer had to remain as a separate position as it encompasses a very wide range of skills and needs.  Any SU staff to support the position would be gratefully received.
 
Do you feel you’ve set the bar too high for others to follow?

I hope that I have set the bar high and for that I do not apologise, but no bar is too high for someone else to break that record.  I would prefer to say that I have helped established the continue way forward.  Every position must be aiming to improve the standards of student representation and support year on year so that no-one rests on the laurels of their predecessor and lets standards fall.
 
Is the education officer position outdated?

Absolutely not.  After all, education is what everyone came to university for, isn’t it?  The student perspective needs to be heard at all levels within the university; not so that we always get want we want, but to ensure that our needs are understood and open debate can take place to satisfy the needs of our education.  We have a very good course rep system here but it is not perfect and still needs progressing.  But recruitment, induction, progression and retention still need continual addressing, along with academic regulations, degree classification systems (or not), academic appeals, information sharing, academic penalties; student views to validations and departmental reviews are carefully listened to.  Whilst neither the students nor the institution are perfect, frank discussions need to be maintained to raise the attainments on both sides.  The Education Officer is the moral reminder keeping the university on its toes so that it is constantly improving, and trying to put pressure on the national scene to ensure that British education standards remain amongst the best in the world.  After they have canvassed actual students for their opinions, the EO often works more with university staff for positive and more permanent change.
 
Should the education officer position have been merged with something else?

Absolutely not.  There is too much to do.  See above.
 
Is the education officer not having a high enough profile, despite historically being #2 to the President?

Perhaps not in this institution, but it is not the celebrity of the person in the role that may need improving, rather it is their ability to quietly get the job done without shouting too much about it that hasn’t raised the profile enough.  
 
What should the priorities be for an incoming education officer?

Continue building up the status of course reps within the institution; encouraging students to register AND vote in the possible general election in 2009 considering the best candidates with respect to education proposals [demonstrating rarely changes opinions positively whereas voting really can make a difference]; positively working with NUS about the ‘lifting the cap’ discussions due to take place in late 2009; working more with part-time and postgrad students [as these groups are very difficult to engage]; ensure that the university continues in providing some of the best support facilities in the country; getting more faculties to have students on their validation panels for new courses; and… continue with everything that has been going on over the last 20 months.  Oh, and get another team together for University Challenge!

Electoral reform services: providing your election

Here’s an interview, unedited, with Christy Gerould who is the project manager from Electoral Reform Services who are providing the software for UCLan student elections.

How does the e-voting system work?

Well we setup a ballot paper format online and then we email out security codes for students to access that ballot paper. We could send out paper ballot papers with security codes but the Union has chosen to do the whole election online. The student can then log-in from their email using the security code and they’ll be taken to the ballot paper and the six different positions will be listed. They’d click the position they want to vote for and be taken through to a screen with the candidates information, they then select their preference. The voting is available 24-hours a day and is more flexible than a paper based system.

Can students trust e-voting?

We carry out elections for some very large trade Union’s and corporate clients, including companies like T-mobile. They come in and indepenetly assess our systems and they’ve always been happy with them, so I’d like to think that means we’re secure. The individual security code cannot be replicated either, once it’s been used it cannot be used again to vote for the same position. If someone votes, then deletes the email, and tries to claim they didn’t vote then we will have a record of their vote and not issue a new code.

Have other Union’s used your service?

Yes, some have. Reading Union were very pleased with our service, they found that the turnout went up. They kept the idea of a polling station though by having computers in their Union with internet access for people to come and vote. I think it’s good to keep that idea of a manual voting area as that’s what students are used to.

Does e-voting increase the turnout?

It varies, for student elections we’ve found that it does because with a paper vote you’re automatically isolating anyone who isn’t at that campus - with e-voting anyone at any campus can vote at anytime. Also, your electorate, the students, have easy access to emails and the Internet so it seems that turnout does go up.

What should students do if they delete or lose the email containing their security code?

The best thing to do is get in touch with the Union who will pass the query onto us and we can re-issue the email, as long as the security code hasn’t been used.

Are local and national elections likely to include an e-voting option?

I think it could be plausible, but I don’t know what the reservations are. I think a lot of people will have concerns about security, so many people still don’t trust online banking for example so I doubt they’d trust e-voting just yet. It may happen in the future.

BBC: vote fraud undermines democracy

Story on the BBC site this morning about vote fraud in an election in Slough, this was during a conventional paper election. It raises the question, could e-voting be the safest option to stop bent politicians getting into power? We’ll be interviewing someone from the Electoral Reform Service who are providing the system for the UCLan student elections to see how safe their system really is.

e-voting demo shows simplicity

You may/may not have heard that this year’s student election is going to be run online. It will be entirely e-voting. This is expected to change the entire nature of the elections as candidates will no longer just be able to stand in the Union/Foster building and know who has voted.

Votes can come at anytime between 9 AM Monday April 14 and 12 midnight on Thursday April 18, and they can come from anywhere. The ballot box is now any PC that has access to the Internet and someone who has a log-in and password for a groupwise email account.

You can take a look at a demo of what the e-voting system will be like on the electoral reform services site (you need to select the Single Transferable Vote option), obviously it doesn’t include the UCLan branding names etc but gives a good indication of how the system works.

The question is now, how do you campaign when your electorate are everywhere?

Activities and Participation race down to two candidates

From four to two in 24 hours. Siyan Chen has withdrawn as a candidate for the activities and participation officer position, this leaves current officer Kelly Burdett and Adam Slaughter to fight it out for the role. Considering that last year’s race between four candidates came down to just four votes we expect this year’s to be just as tight.

Campaigns officer proves most popular as candidates announced

The candidates for the 2008 UCLan Students’ Union elections have been announced and already it’s shaping up to be a hard fought contest. The most popular position is the newly created campaigns officer with five candidates putting themselves forward. Four candidates are down to stand for media officer and president. Activities and participation did have four but one candidate has already deemed to withdraw after failing to hand in a manifesto to meet the deadline set by the returning officer. Only one candidate put themselves forward for education officer.

Our candidates section has the list of those running, with a separate page for each candidate. Information about each candidate will appear soon.

Most candidates turned up to the candidate briefing where a lot of questions were asked, with plenty about the new e-voting system and how it will work. The battle has already commenced on facebook with campaign groups popping up left, right and centre - let’s just hope that people don’t burnout before they’ve even begun.

Pluto Issue 191 put back to allow election coverage

Due to the early falling of Easter and the term dates being structured around it then the next issue of Pluto, the student newspaper, has been put back until Monday April 21.

It was due to be released on Friday April 18 but with the election results coming out on that day it would mean one of the most important events on the Union calender would be missed. The election result is expected to run on the front page.

The usual coverage of candidates will be run via this blog and we’ll be keeping it regularly maintained in the build-up to voting week and of course during voting week itself.