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. Submit a WUSA club event form, and book a room for the elections.

2. 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. 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.

3. 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).

4. 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

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.