Frequently asked questions?

Can you provide online candidate registration facilities?

Yes, this is part of our standard service. The candidates register all their details using this service and then provide the necessary documentation (signed proposal form, manifestoes and photos) directly to your election office. You will provide us with a validated list of candidates for each post for loading into the election software.

How do we, and our university colleagues, know that the students e-mail addresses are secure?

Student Union Surveys is a division of Survey Innovation Ltd. We have been providing secure online surveys using client e-mail addresses for more than five years. We have handled thousands and thousands of e-mails for many organisations around the world ranging from small companies, Local Authorities and even for America On Line. We abide by all the requirements of the Data Protection Act, if we did not then we would be out of business and very quickly.

We are happy to give you an assurance statement of our compliance with the Data Protection Act. We undertake to destroy all personal information after the election when requested by your Returning Officer. 

How do we know the right person has voted?

Our system issues invitations (and up to two reminders) by e-mail directly to the e-mail address that you have specified. This is as secure as the way in which the individual looks after their e-mail box password. Whilst not 100% secure, what is? , it is more secure than most of the manual methods for validating students identity that are in force with paper-based voting systems.

Can we run "e-Polling Stations"?

Yes you can. All you do is set up computers in the right location that will give voters access directly through to their e-mail accounts. This can give you locations around which canvassing can take place.

Can we run a paper voting system alongside the e-voting?

We are investigating this as an added cost option. Please contact us immediately if this is of interest to you.

How do you manage candidate withdrawals?

If a candidate has been withdrawn after the polling has started then that candidate will continue to show on the ballot paper until the poll is closed. When the votes are being processed, all votes for that candidate are removed from each individual electors vote and any lesser preferences incremented so that no voter is disadvantaged by the withdrawal. It is as if the candidate had never stood.

How do we know how candidates were elected or excluded?

The detailed report provided to the Returning Officer provides a stage by stage detailed report of which candidates were elected or excluded.

Can we use our Union's logo on the electronic ballot sheet?

Yes you can, in fact we encourage it. We provide you with a space at the top of the ballot paper for a logo or header of your own design. We can also match the basic colour scheme of the election to suit your image.

Can we put a voting link on our website?

Yes you can, all you do is place a link that will take them through to their e-mail box login page. The voting then proceeds as normal using the security as described above.

Our candidates submit manifestos or statements that we place on our election website pages. Can a voter get to see the relevant ones easily?

Yes, we have built in this facility. If you provide us with the full URL for the relevant web pages, e.g. one per post, we can put that link on the header for the vote for each position. It opens in a separate window so the voter does not loose their place.

We are not sure if the university will release the students e-mail addresses to us, can you help?

We have mentioned above how we are prepared to provide assurances to yourselves and your University colleagues about the security of student e-mail addresses.

It is important to note that we are not a marketing company, nor do we make direct sales of any form to students. Therefore we have no vested interest in doing anything other than safeguarding the students e-mail addresses.

We would also be happy to deal directly with the University Administration or I. T. Department so that the e-mail addresses would be issued directly to us rather than through the Students Union, if that were preferable to all parties. 

How can we ensure that the invitation emails do not get lost in spam filters?

To help ensure that emails do not go into SPAM accounts we advise/ require the following:

• The email will come from an address that you specify. It may be an
  existing address (e.g. VP-Representation@YourUnion.ac.uk) or one that you set up
  for the purpose that you can monitor (e.g. SUElections@YourUnion.ac.uk).
• You will advise the University's IT team of the times when the email will
  be coming so that their bulk spam filters do not stop the invitations getting
  through.
• You will tell us what should appear in the header of the email.
• Both of these should be publicised on your election web pages so that
  students know what to look for and to set their personal spam filters (if
  any) to accept the message.
• All students will be sent an invitation and two reminders on days that you
  specify. So if they have lost the first to their spam filter then they can
  change the settings to get the second and third.

What happens to rejected emails?

As you saw, the invitation email will come from an address that you specify. Any rejected emails will go to that address. You can then decide what is to be done about them. By using the university email address these should be no more than a handful.

Some students report not having received email invitations, how can that be?

The system used to send the invitation emails sends thousands of email each day, and has been doing so for several years for many high profile clients. When this phenomenon was first reported we asked the Technical Team to check several individual emails and they were able to confirm the sending and quote a received acknowledgement from the receiving email server. In all the many thousands of emails sent we have never been able to identify a failure in the sending mechanism. The two most common causes of failure are either some form of spam filtering, either applied by the incoming mail servers (see the notes above about this) or by the individual recipients. Please remind students that they should ensure that any spam filters they impose are open to the email from the given source address.

Note that, unless you tell us otherwise, each voter will receive two reminders, so no need for panic.

One other point. Because these are large mailings, many thousands at once, the sending sometimes has to be staggered. We do book slots in advance to try and avoid this, and so far have been successful. However, at peak times, there can be a delay in reception of emails of an hour or two.

We have some seats for which all can vote and others that are restricted, for example by Campus or Faculty. Can you manage that?

Yes. When you supply the email addresses you also supply the 'demographic data'. We then build in filters so that each voter only sees the actual elections for which they are eligible.

On one occasion in the past we have had to suspend voting for one post after the election has started. Can you manage that?

Yes. It will involve taking the election offline for about five minutes. Then the post you have asked to be withdrawn will disappear from view and all other posts will remain visible.

To ensure privacy we want to disable any Autocompletion on Internet forms, can you advise please?

The instructions will vary depending upon the exact browser and version you are using. Here are the ones for Internet Explorer V6.

From the menu bar select Tools>> Internet Options. Select the 'Content' tab and then click on the 'AutoComplete' button on the right hand side; it's in the Personal Information section.

Now deselect all the Auto complete options (e.g. use AutoComplete for Web addresses, forms, usernames and password on forms). Then click on the two buttons, <Clear Forms> and <Clear Passwords>.

 

Any more questions? Then contact us today!