Article 21 – Voting
Section 21.1 - Online Voting
At the discretion of the Executive Council, the Voting Committee may conduct secret balloting using an online voting system.
21.1(a) 21.1.1 The system shall be secure, confidential, verifiable, and accessible to all GEU members, and
21.1(b) 21.1.2 For each question,
The system shall guarantee that voters rank all options (to prevent ballot exhaustion) and answer every question.
For each voter, system shall randomly choose a permutation of options to initially display, to avoid any bias from display order.
Section 21.2 - Ranked-Choice Voting
21.2(a) 21.2.1 For all questions, a voter specifies a total order on all options for each question, from most preferred to least preferred. To prevent ballot exhaustion, ballots that do not rank all options will not be counted. This requirement will be clearly stated on any ballots where it is possible to not rank all options.
21.2(b) 21.2.2 For each question all options are initially under consideration, and
21.2(b)(1) 21.2.2.1 The Voting Committee counts all votes for options under consideration. If an option receives a majority of most preferred votes, that option wins.
21.2(b)(2) 21.2.2.2 If no remaining option under consideration receives a majority, the last place remaining option is removed from consideration, and then votes are counted again in Step 1 in a new round.
21.2(b)(3) 21.2.2.3 If there is a tie for last place (among a set of tie options), then:
21.2(b)(3)(i) i. If it is the first round for this question, a random tie option is removed from consideration (if counting is conducted manually, the committee members must all bear witness to a fair random elimination) and the committee performs Step 1 in a new round,
21.2(b)(1)(ii) ii. Otherwise, the remaining option under consideration with the fewest most preferred votes in the previous round is removed from consideration. If there is a tie for fewest most preferred votes in the previous round, the committee searches back through prior rounds from most to least recent for a single remaining option under consideration with the fewest most preferred votes. If this search fails, the committee eliminates a random option from consideration from the last place tie, then performs Step 1 in a new round.
Section 21.3 - Ranked Ranked-Choice Voting
During voting, an option may appear in multiple questions (e.g. a candidate running for multiple officer positions). If so, the Voting Committee will use the following process to decide the outcome of the election.
21.3(a) 21.3.1 Before voting: Any option (e.g. a candidate) that appears in multiple questions (e.g. is running for multiple positions) will rank those questions from their most to least preferred. The option will appear on the ballot for each such question.
21.3(b) 21.3.2 After voting: Ballots will be run through the Ranked Choice Voting procedure in
21.3(c) 21.3.3 If no option wins multiple questions, voting is complete. For all options that win multiple questions, the Voting Committee will:
21.3(c)(1) i. Identify the most preferred question that the option won. Remove that option from other questions which the option has won (keep the option in any other questions that it did not win).
21.3(c)(2) ii. Once this adjustment has been made for each option that won multiple questions, run step 21.3(b) 21.3.2 with the updated ballots.
Section 21.4 - Elections with no Candidate or Winner
If there is no clear winner for a position, or if there are no candidates for a position, the Executive Board has the authority to appoint a member to fill the duties of that position until the next election.
Section 21.5 - Voting Committee
When elections or referenda are to occur, the VP of Operations will assemble a committee of no fewer than 5 GEU members to serve as the Voting Committee. This committee shall be convened before the first date of the nomination period, as described in Section 20.1, or upon knowledge or receipt of one or more petitions for referendum under Section 6.4. The Voting Committee will issue the call for nominations and notify members that petitions have been submitted, solicit information from nominees and petition supporters and dissenters, disseminate information provided by nominees and petition supporters and dissenters to the general membership by email and any other means deemed appropriate by the committee, conduct all voting processes, and inform the general membership of voting results in a timely manner. Should there be a challenge to voting results, the Voting Committee shall inform members of the need for a recount or another vote, and reconvene to conduct the appropriate process.
The Voting Committee will oversee all elections under Article 20 and referenda under Section 6.4. This committee will exclude nominees and petition and referendum supporters and dissenters. It is the duty of this committee to verify membership of voters and count and tally ballots. If in-person secret balloting is being conducted, it is the duty of this committee to set up a polling area and guard ballot boxes. If online secret balloting is being conducted, it is the duty of this committee to monitor and administer the online voting system. The VP of Operations will ensure ballots are kept in GEU records for a period of no less than one year, and GEU will retain any online ballots and other digital records pertaining to the election indefinitely.