Everything you need to know about voting week

Voting week officially begins on Monday 23 March at 10amOctober. This is when voting opens and students can begin to cast their votes. Remember to cast your own votes (yes, you are allowed to vote for yourself!). Voting closes on Thursday 26 March at 4pm.

The voting period is your final chance to convince students to vote for you, so make sure to plan your campaign to reach as many students as possible during this time. You’re allowed to campaign until the very last second of voting, and every vote counts.

All Queen Mary students can vote in the elections, and voting takes place online at qmsu.org/elections. To vote, you will need to log in to the website using your university username and password.

The voting system the Students’ Union uses is called Single Transferable Vote (STV). Under STV, voters are asked to rank the candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3, etc). You can include as many or as few of the candidates as you like, but you can’t give more than one candidate the same ranking. For each election, there is also the option to Re-open Nominations (R.O.N.) - you can select this in your ranking if at any point you do not think any of the remaining candidates should be elected and think that nominations should be reopened.

Once voting has closed, the votes are counted in stages. At each stage, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated and the votes for that candidate are transferred to their voters’ next preferences. This happens until all votes have been reallocated and a winner is elected. In order to win an election, a candidate must win over 50% of the vote.

You can learn more about STV and how votes are reallocated here.

If a student changes their mind after they have voted, they can log back in and change their vote up until the end of the voting period.

Voting from mobile devices (e.g. phones, tablets or laptops)

Students are able to use their phones, laptops and other devices to vote. When they do this, their device technically counts as a polling station. As stated in the election rules, candidates and their supporters are not allowed to campaign near a polling station, so if someone is using the mobile device to vote, you should step away and allow them to vote without interruptions.

Thursday 26 March is the final day of voting, and when voting closes at 4pm, the Deputy Returning Officer will oversee the count of the votes. The count is done electronically, and the results are then prepared for the Results Party.

The results will be announced in person in the SU Lounge at the Mile End campus on Thursday 26 March at 7pm.

All students can attend the Results Party, and you’re encouraged to bring your supporters and friends along.

The results announcement marks the end of the voting week. Regardless of the result, we recommend that you plan some self-care time in the following days. You’ve worked hard, so take some time to relax and reflect on your experience. The staff team are always happy to schedule a call if you need a debrief – email us on su-elections@qmul.ac.uk to schedule a call.

We know voting week can be a very intense experience for candidates. You’ll probably be campaigning intensively, there are lots of events and activities going on, and waiting for the results to be released can feel very nerve-wracking.

While it is to be expected that you’ll have plenty to do and think about this week, it’s also important to look after your wellbeing. To make the experience as stress-free as possible, we recommend that you:

Plan ahead

Get your campaign plan for the voting period ready well in advance, so you have a clear plan for what you need to do every day. Think about whether there are any tasks that can be done before campaigning starts, so you can get them out of the way early.

Delegate to your supporters

Once you’ve made your plan for voting week, it’s a good idea to think about the things you’ll need help with. Talk to your supporters ahead of the voting period, so they know what you would like their help with.

Don’t forget about your other commitments

You may still have academic commitments, family commitments and maybe paid work or volunteering. If you can, it’s a good idea to consider what you can prepare before the voting period – for example, you may want to get an early start on your academic work, so you don’t have to write essays and prepare for assessments during the voting period. It’s also a good idea to inform those around you about the voting period, so they know that you may take longer to respond or may not be available to help. You can also consider if you can move your shifts at work or volunteering.

Make time to relax

It may seem unnecessary to schedule time to relax, but it can be helpful to have set some time aside to relax at the end of the day. Everyone needs a break once in a while, so allow yourself some time to do something you enjoy and find relaxing.

Reward yourself and your supporters

Even if you don’t win the elections, you’ll have achieved a lot. You’ll have challenged yourself and learnt new skills, and that is something to be proud of! A simple way to recognise this is to schedule a social with your supporters. Remember to thank them for their help.

Seek support

The Elections Team is here to help, so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need some support. You’re also welcome to contact the current Executive Officers. All of them have run in the elections before, so they have first-hand experience of what it’s like to be a candidate.

With everything that’s going on during voting week, it can be extra stressful to deal with problems and issues, so we’ve put together a quick troubleshooting guide to help you if you run into some of the most common problems.

• If you speak to any students that have technical problems when voting, please tell them to email su-elections@qmul.ac.uk with a description of the problem and their student ID.
• If you speak to any students that want to change their votes, they can log in and change their vote until the end of the voting period. They don’t need to contact the Elections Team to do this – they just need to log in and change their votes. · If you have a question or you’re unsure about something, please email su-elections@qmul.ac.uk or book a drop-in with the Elections Team. The Students’ Union Reception Team isn’t able to help with elections queries, so the quickest way to reach us is via email or drop-in.
• If someone has broken the elections rules, you can submit a formal complaint by filling in the complaints form. If you would like to discuss the situation with a staff member before submitting a complaint, you are welcome to contact us on su-elections@qmul.ac.uk, but we are unable to accept complaints that aren’t submitted through the complaints form. If someone tells you about an elections issues, please tell them to fill in the complaints form, as it’s easier for us to take investigate and take action if we can get a first-hand account of the issue.
• If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed or want a chat with a staff member, you can book a drop-in. Staff can listen, give you advice and information about the elections, and If needed, signpost you to other forms of support.