Elections Guide

This guide is intended to help the Chief Returning Officer (CRO), who is responsible for running the elections to select the club's executive officers.

Before reading this guide, please ensure you are familiar with the elections procedure outlined in the CSC Constitution. This guide will focus on suggested implementation details, and does not replace the official procedure documented in the constitution.

In-person Elections

Preparation

1. Decide on a date and a time for the elections meeting, preferably an evening on a weekday during the first week of lectures in the beginning of the term. Then, work backwards and outline a general calendar schedule for the event, keeping in mind the required lengths of time for nominations and the grace period.

2. Submit a WUSA club event form, and book a room for the elections. Make sure this is done at least two weeks in advance.

• Use exec@csclub.uwaterloo.ca when asked for the "Society/Club Official Email." Leave the alternative email blank.
• The name of the event would be CSC *TERM* Elections. For instance, the elections of the winter 2024 term would be CSC Winter 2024 Elections.
• One hour and 30 minutes should be enough for the event, though it is recommended to book for two hours just in case.
• For "Target Audience", select "restricted to society members."
• Select "yes" to "spending society funds" if you plan on purchasing snacks for the event.

3. Submit a design request and ask for a similar design to last term's elections. After the design is done, submit a marketing request for the design to be marketed on the major social media platforms (i.e., IG, Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn) on the first day of the nominations period.

4. Create a private Google Drive folder and prepare the following items

• Slideshow to present at the meeting, with a brief introduction to the club outlining the clubs visions, past events and initiatives, the office space, and what membership means for members.
• Absentee ballot email, similar to the following

Subject: CSC *TERM* Election Absentee Ballot

Hello,

This is your absentee ballot for the *TERM* CSC Election. Please do not share this link with anyone: *LINK TO ABSENTEE BALLOT*.

The form will open on *TIME* and will close on *TIME*. Please fill in the form within this window for your vote to be counted. Do not vote in person if you will vote through this form.

Nominee platforms can be found here: *LINK TO PLATFORM*

Please ensure your membership is valid for this term before you vote.  

If you have any further questions, please email cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

--

*CRO NAME* (*PRONOUNS*)
*TERM* Chief Returning Officer 
Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

4. Announce that nominations are open by sending an email following this template (approximately) to csc-general@csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Note that the email will have to be accepted by syscom before being sent out and will only contain plain text (aka, fancy formatting such as links and bolds will not show up).

SUBJECT: [TERM, eg. Fall 2022] Election Nominations

Hello everyone,

The Computer Science Club will be holding elections for [TERM] in person, on [DATE] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]. The president, vice-president, treasurer, and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected, and the sysadmin will be appointed.

If you'd like to run for any of these positions or nominate someone, you can send an email to cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca, or present them in-person to the CRO, [NAME], or write your name on the whiteboard in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037). Nominations will close on [DATE] at {TIME].

If you have any further questions about elections or nominations, please email cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

--
[NAME] ([PRONOUNS])
[TERM] Chief Returning Officer (CRO)
Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

Nominations should remain open for at least a week, as specified in the constitution.

5. Keep track of all nominations received during the nomination period, consolidating nominations from different sources if applicable. Ensure that nominees are actually eligible to run (ie. undergraduate students who are CSC members).

6. Decide on whether or not to offer food/snacks at the elections. We should receive a small recruitment budget from MathSoc (~$80?) that can be used towards this, though keep in mind that part of the recruitment budget may also be used towards other recruitment shenanigans like Club Fairs.

The Big Day

1. Count the number of eligible voters who come (eg. by asking people at the door) and ensure that quorum is met. Eligible voters are undergraduate students who have paid their CSC membership fee for the term. It is a good idea to have a setup by the door for people to become members/renew their membership.

2. Keep track of meeting minutes (or designate someone else to help track meeting minutes), noting down when the elections begin + end, and when each position is elected. Refer to the Spring 2022 Election Meeting Minutes for an example.

3. [Optional] Give a brief (2-5 minutes) introduction to CSC, or designate some other qualified person to do this, in case someone has wandered in with no idea what this club is about.

4. Preside over the elections for each position, as specified in the constitution. For each position:

• Clearly announce all candidates, verbally and/or visually (eg. by writing on the board or by screen-sharing an electronic document).
• [Optional] If there are several candidates, it might be helpful to have each candidate quickly (30 seconds) introduce themself and their reasons for running.
• Instruct voters to lower their heads, and then go through the list of candidates, counting and recording the number of votes (raised hands) for each. Note that the CRO may not vote except to break a tie, however candidates and already-elected execs are allowed to vote.
• Announce the winner, optionally revealing the numbers of votes for each candidate.

5. For taking nominations from the floor (ie. in the case that there were no nominations for that position during the nomination period), give people a few minutes to talk to the CRO to nominate themselves/others, then follow the same voting process as usual.

6. For ratifying the sysadmin, allow the elected officers to announce their choice, then follow the same voting process as usual.

7. After the elections have concluded, add the meeting minutes to the Wiki here: Meetings

8. Announce the results more broadly by sending an email following this template to csc-general@csclub.uwaterloo.ca, and/or by adding an announcement to the CSC website. Note that the email would have to be accepted by syscom before being sent out.

SUBJECT: [TERM] Election Results

[TERM] elections have concluded. Here are your executives for the term:

President: [NAME] ([USERID])
Vice-President: [NAME] ([USERID])
Assistant Vice-President: [NAME] ([USERID])
Treasurer: [NAME] ([USERID])
Sysadmin: [NAME] ([USERID])

--
[NAME] ([PRONOUNS])
[ROLE, eg. [TERM] Chief Returning Officer]
Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

Online Elections

Elections should only be held online if the University has suspended in-person activity for the beginning of a term, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nominations

Announce that nominations are open by sending an email following this template (approximately) to csc-general@csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Note that the email will have to be accepted by syscom before being sent out.

SUBJECT: [TERM, eg. Winter 2022] Election Nominations

Hello everyone,

Due to the closure of campus this term, the Computer Science Club will be holding elections for [TERM] virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer, and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected, and the sysadmin will be appointed.

If you'd like to run for any of these positions or nominate someone, please email cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will close on [DATE] at {TIME].

If you have any further questions about elections or nominations, please email cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

--
[NAME] ([PRONOUNS])
[TERM] Chief Returning Officer (CRO)
Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

Nominations should remain open for at least a week, as specified in the constitution.

Elections

1. Go to https://civs1.civs.us/ and press "Create a poll."

2. Name the poll following this template: CSC [TERM, eg. Winter 2022] Elections

3. The name of the supervisor should be the name of the CRO. The email address of the supervisor should be an email that the CRO has access to, ie. either cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca, or the CRO's personal csclub.uwaterloo.ca email.

4. Insert the date and time you plan to stop the poll. Note that this isn’t automatic - you'll have to manually stop it later on.

5. For the description section, follow this template:

This is the CSC Executive Election for the [TERM, eg. Winter 2022] term. We have [NUMBER] people running for four different positions. Rank the choices in order of preferences, and the top four non-conflicting options will be chosen. For example, if the aggregate results in order of votes are: Juthika for President, Nobody for President, Eric for VP, Nobody for VP, then both Juthika and Eric will be confirmed to their respective roles. Conversely, if the results in order of votes are: Juthika for President, Nobody for VP, Eric for VP, Nobody for President, then only Juthika will be confirmed and the VP position will remain unfilled.

6. For the names of choices, enter all the candidates in the order of President, VP, Treasurer, and AVP, following this template:

[NAME] for President
[NAME] for Vice President
[NAME] for Treasurer
[NAME] for Assistant Vice President
Nobody for President
Nobody Vice President
Nobody for Treasurer
Nobody for Assistance Vice President

7. For the number of choices will win, enter 4.

8. For the question "Do you want the poll to be private or public?", click on Public.

9. Under more options, check off "Present choices on voting page in exactly the given order."

10. Make sure that all of the dates and names are correct!

11. Click "Create poll."

12. The CRO should receive an email with a link to start and stop the poll, and a public link for voting.

13. Click the link that will allow you to start/stop the poll, and start the poll.

14. Using the script in CSC's repo, find out who are eligible CSC members for the term. Unfortunately, this may include some Alumni emails.

15. Copy and paste the list of eligible emails into the BCC part of an email, and put exec@csclub.uwaterloo.ca as the To part of the email.

16. Write the body of the email using the following template:

SUBJECT: Computer Science Club [TERM, eg. Winter 2022] Elections

Note: This email is intended for undergraduate members of the Computer Science Club. Please ignore it if you are not an undergraduate member.
 
Hello everyone,
 
CSC is currently having its elections for the [TERM, eg. Winter 2022] term, and would like to invite you to vote. You can vote at this link: [LINK]  
 
Voting will close on [DATE] at [TIME].

--
[NAME] ([PRONOUNS])
[TERM] Chief Returning Officer (CRO)
Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

17. Send the email to commence voting!

18. Close the poll at the specified time, and announce the results following the same process as outlined the #In-person Elections guide.