Computer Science Graduate Student Council

The Computer Science Graduate Student Council (CSGSC) elections are held every Spring term under the oversight of the council’s faculty advisor. Election procedure is drafted by the council and approved by the advisor.

All computer science graduate students on the cs-grad mailing list are eligible to vote. The election procedure is composed of five phases: an announcement phase where eligible voters are informed about the election procedure, a nominations phase where candidates are nominated by eligible voters, an acceptance phase where prospective nominees get a final chance to respond, a voting phase during which eligible voters cast their vote, and a verification phase when the faculty advisor and department manager independently verify the results of the election. Detailed information about each phase is provided later in this document.

This year, CSGSC officers unanimously voted to hold digital elections. The digital elections will be run using an online voting service called Ballot Bin (http://www.ballotbin.com). The user name ‘gcouncil’ has been registered with Ballot Bin for this purpose. Although, the CSGSC coordinator will be managing the elections, the Ballot Bin account credentials and voter list will be made available to the faculty advisor and department manager.

The following CSGSC officer positions are currently up for election:

After the election, the coordinator is responsible for assigning the roles of “Treasurer”, “Restocker”, and “Purchaser” to the officers at large.

Important Dates

• Tue May 3: Deadline for getting election procedure approved by faculty advisor
• Wed May 4: provide voter list and Ballot Bin account credentials to faculty advisor and department manager
• Thu May 5: add voters to Ballot Bin, email election procedure (Announcement Phase)
• Mon May 9: nominations begin (Nomination Phase)
• Wed May 11: send nomination reminders to voters
• Mon May 16: nominations close, Acceptance Phase begins
• Fri May 20: Acceptance Phase ends, elections begin at 9:00 am (Voting Phase)
• Tue May 24: send voting reminders to voters
• Fri May 27: elections close at 4:00 pm, Ballot Bin announces results
• Tue May 31: election procedure verified by faculty advisor and department manager

Election Details

The five phases of the election are described in more detail below.

Announcement Phase: the voter list and Ballot Bin account credentials are provided to the faculty advisor and department manager. The voter list is provided on paper and electronically, while the Ballot Bin account credentials are provided on paper only. Next day, an email containing a summary of the election procedure is sent out to all voters.

Nominations Phase: any eligible voter can nominate another for an open council position during the nomination phase (May 9 to May 16). A nomination must be sent out via email to all eligible voters and must contain a brief reason for the nomination, and the title of the position for which the person is being nominated. The prospective nominee must then accept or decline the nomination by responding to all eligible voters via email. If the prospective nominee does not respond by the end of the nomination period, CSGSC officers will try to personally request a response by the end of the acceptance phase of the election.

Acceptance Phase: this phase occurs only when there is at least one potential nominee that has not responded to their nomination. CSGSC officers will try to personally contact the potential nominee via email, phone, or a physical meeting and request a response. The response like before, must be sent to the ‘csgrad’ mailing list. If at the end of this phase, a response is still not received, the nomination will considered to have been declined. A report of how the CSGSC officers tried to contact the potential nominee must be included in the election summary (see ‘Verification Phase’)

Voting Phase: voting for a council position occurs only when there is more than one nominee for that position. Otherwise, the sole nominee is chosen for the council position. In the case that voting occurs, the online voting service “Ballot Bin” will be used. The voting phase lasts for one week starting May 16. Following is a quick step-by-step overview of a Ballot Bin run election.

1. Election administrator creates the “Bin”
2. Election administrator adds positions and candidates to the Bin’s ballot.
3. Election administrator adds voters to the Bin
4. Election administrator sends registration email messages to the voters
5. Election administrator optionally sends reminder email message(s) to the voters
6. Voters receive registration email messages and click on the included link. This takes them to the voting page. They fill in the ballot and click “done”.
7. Results are tallied and displayed to the election administrator and optionally to the voters as well.

Note that the “Officer at Large” positions are filled by candidates with the top three vote counts.

Verification Phase: begins the day after Ballot Bin announces the results. The CSGSC coordinator must create a written ‘election summary,’ and submit a paper copy to the faculty advisor and department manager. The election summary must contain the results of the election, the vote counts for each candidate, and a report of how CSGSC officers tried to contact potential nominees that did not respond to their nomination. The department manger and faculty advisor then independently log in to the Ballot Bin account, verify the voter list, verify the vote counts, verify the election summary, and ratify the election. In case any part of the election process is considered unacceptable by both the advisor and the department manager, the election is recalled and repeated the week after, starting with the announcement phase.

The CSGSC elections for 2010-11 closed June 2, 2010. This year’s election included two components:

1. Election of officers for the academic year, and
2. Approval of new constitution.