E-Voting System

Is E-Voting a good idea or bad idea?

If it works well then it's a very good idea.

What software did you use?

In house developed software using a couple of talented computing / software engineering students. Jon Burton created the 2003 version and Rob L created the 2004 version which is still in operation.

Did you use e-ballot stations or rely solely on people to use their own computers?

On the first year to try and help the transition we advertised some e-ballot stations.
But it's not something we do anymore, though it still might be useful for the additional profile it might create in the right location.

Any system errors?

Minor issues, all software will have bugs to fix, but we haven't had any major catastrophes.

Did voting turnout go up or down?

Since introducing e-voting turnouts have increased, this will also be due to other factors but I think e-voting has had a positive effect. 2008 witnessed a record number of 3,229 voters take part. The following table suggestions the positive impact of e-voting at UWESU.

How do you confirm student status?

Voters use their university login and password to access the system. When a voter tries to login the system communicates with a central university directory (called LDAP) that stores all usernames and passwords for the whole university. This confirms whether the voter exists as a current student or not. If they do then they can proceed to view the ballot pages, if not their login attempt is rejected. Using the Uni's LDAP system means we have the most up to date method of determining the status of a student.

Note: LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and is a common standard for providing organisations with a central directory of users.

• Find out more about LDAP

How does you system count?

Our system automatically counts the votes for the Alternative Transfer Voting method only.

Should I just stick to paper?

Probably not.