Elections - how to run them
Elections - how to run them
ACBS is willing to run your first election for you, if that is helpful. We would just do it via a surveymonkey.com (a free account), which you could do as well.
The Survey Monkey free account allows a maximum of 40 submissions. So, if you anticipate more than 40 people voting, then you can also run your elections using Google Forms. Google Forms doesn't limit the number of submissions like surveymonkey does and is a survey tool housed in the Google Drive (which can be accessed through Gmail). Users completing the survey are not required to have a Gmail account. More information on this service can be found here.
You would put a call out for nominations from your group, then collect nominations (nominating self, or nominating others... but then of course you'd have to confirm they were willing to run).
If you want to collect bios or platform statements from the nominees you can. It depends on your group as to how much info you think you need. (We do this for ACBS elections.) You may choose to add this information to your section of the website as a child page, so that you don't have to include them all in your email about voting... up to you.
You then draft a letter, with subject line, noting the available positions, and the candidates for each position, and giving an end date for voting (I suggest 7-14 days after the ballot is sent out).
ACBS (or you) would create a ballot in surveymonkey.com and include that link at the bottom of the email.
The "letter/ballot" can be distributed via your listserv or if you prefer, ACBS is happy to send it to everyone that has indicated SIG/Chapter membership on our ACBS website. (Or we can give you those contact emails so that you can send out the message. You can request these emails at any time, like prior to the call for nominations.)
When the election is complete (if ACBS did it), we'll email you and one other person from your chapter/sig the results (so that you have a second person verifying).
Then you would email those elected and those not (thanking them), then notify the chapter members of the results.
(SIGS may choose a less formal method of election, but Chapters should create a formal procedure and refer to their by-laws.)
Running Election Basics
Running Election Basics
- First, you will need to have an updated membership list with email contact information for everyone in your group. If you have this already, that’s great. If your group is a chapter, ACBS could provide you with a list of ACBS members living in your chapter’s geographic area.
- Once you have that list, you will send an email to your group asking for nominations. You will want to note that self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. Be sure to list out the position titles in the email, and set a clear deadline for receiving nominations.
- Once nominations have been made, contact each nominee to determine their willingness to run (except for the self-nominated individuals). Sometimes, you may have too many nominees for one position and not enough for others. For example, you may have six nominees for president and only one for treasurer. In such a case, you may ask people if they would be willing to consider running for another position. In addition to assessing people’s willingness to run, you may also want to request from them a brief biographical statement and platform statement that will be used to inform your group of the nominees (this is not always required... it depends on the group). If you do this, be sure to give people clear word limit guidelines, and set a deadline for their response.
- Next you will want to compose your ballot. It can be useful to do this with a free online service (such as surveymonkey) in which you can create online voting forms. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will complete this step for you if you let us know the nominees).
- Once this is done, compose an email to notify your membership that the election is occurring. It can be useful to list the candidates in this email, along with their bios/platform statements. Be sure to give a clear deadline for voting, and send this email only to those individuals who are eligible to vote. We recommend a voting window of 7-10 days. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will send the email for you if you let us know the nominees, the voting deadline, and email addresses of eligible voters).
- When voting is complete, the nominees should be notified of the results first. Then, email your group members with the results. (NOTE: If this is your group’s first election, ACBS will notify you of the results).
Note: ACBS is willing to run the actual voting of your first election to ensure that the first board is created impartially (and to give you some time to get organized). We indicate in bold text below how this will work. In the future, it may be useful for your board to identify one of your board members as responsible for running the election. Alternatively, you could appoint an election committee consisting of board members and/or other group members to manage the election process.