“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.” – Otto von Bismarck

“Among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and…they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost.” - Abraham Lincoln (c.1859)

We’ve already looked Plurality Voting, Preferential Voting, as well as how to organize a Referendum in ElectionBuddy. Approval voting is another election type that is supported in ElectionBuddy, and that’s what we’ll hone in on this Feature Focus.

Approval voting is an election method that lets voters vote for (or approve of) as many of the candidates as they wish. The winners is the candidate receiving the most votes. More information can be found at the Wikipedia article on approval voting, but it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Approval voting is beneficial for re-electing a group of people. If your organization uses a “If ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, approval voting might be the way to go for keeping, for example a group of board members.

ElectionBuddy offers a variety of election types that will suit your organization. Today we’re taking a look at Preferential Voting.

Preferential Voting (also known as instant runoff voting) is a type of election where voters rank the candidates in order of preference, with “1″ being the highest (most preferred) ranking. The first preference on each ballot counts as a vote for that particular candidate, and the votes are tallied. If no candidate receives a majority (greater than 50% of the total valid ballots), the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated and the ballots for that candidate are redistributed to each ballot’s second preference. The process continues until a majority is reached by one of the candidates.

The Wikipedia article on Instant Runoff Voting is a good reference.

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On November 4th, 2008 (Election Day in the United States), the ice rink at Rockefeller Center displayed a map of the United States. During the day, tourists and visitors were able to skate over the rink. But in the evening, States were painted blue or red depending on whether they went to Barack Obama or John McCain. Being from Canada, and a hockey enthusiast, I loved this idea!

Photo by Elizabeth Wentling

“We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.” – Will Rogers

It’s almost 2012. Nearly everyone has a smart phone, so why not show how hip and tech savvy you are by marketing using these devices?

Check out this video from M4 Group Marketing for some cool mobile marketing tips, directed at nominees running in an election. While the message is good, they could have done more than just the Powerpoint style thing they have got going on.

“Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.” — Bernard Baruch

Seeing as it’s almost the holiday season, we wanted to surprise all of you with a special gift – a new feature that will surely add an interesting dynamic to your elections!

Multiple Votes per Ballot

Multiple votes per ballot (aka Weighted Voting) is a way of allowing one person to have more influence on an election than another voter. We wanted to implement this feature as a way of tackling the condominium board community and homeowners associations. It is also extremely useful for proxy voting at board elections. We have gotten a lot of requests for this feature, so I’m pleased that we able to introduce it to everyone! In the past ElectionBuddy operated on a “One person, one vote” tallying system. With this new feature, organizations can assign multiple votes to a ballot, when elections are set in the First Past The Post, and Referendum method.

Who uses Weighted Voting

While weighted voting can be used for a variety of applications, it is prominently seen in elections done by homeowners associations and condominium boards – where multiple votes can be assigned to a ballot. For more information on how condominium boards across Canada operate their elections, I invite you to read our Condominium Board Blog Series. We have also looked at US Homeowners Associations and Condominium Boards to see how ElectionBuddy might be beneficial to them.For example, in a Condominium Board Election, John owns 5 units in a building totaling 18,000 sq. ft. and Amanda only owns 1 unit for 2000 sq. ft . The way votes are completed for this board are such that John would receive 18 votes and Amanda would receive 2 votes, on their respective ballots.  You will notice that most condominium bylaws state that number of votes someone receives is set by how much square feet they own.

How to Use it in ElectionBuddy

We realize most elections operate on “a one person, one vote” tallying system, and didn’t want to impact those who use it that way in the slightest. ElectionBuddy users love the simplicity of the software, so we wanted to keep it out of the hair of users who won’t be using it. Here’s how to use it:

1. In Step 1: Election Details, elect either First past the post or Referendum. A new option will appear below where you can assign how many ballots each vote is worth. Note:  If you select “One vote per ballot”, then ElectionBuddy will appear as normal.
2. If you chose “Multiple votes per ballot”, you’ll notice a brand new email address and voter information field on Step 3: Voter Setup. Whether you select,  Email ballots, printed ballots, choose to distribute ballots yourself, or a combination of the three, you will be able to assign multiple votes per ballot!
3. The Ballot Identifier is our unique way of attributing a number of assigned votes to a certain person. For example, if you are using manual keys, then you need to which voting key is whose, as they will be weighted differently. The Ballot Identifier could be an apartment number, phone number, really anything that you’ll know how many votes a voting key is worth.

We’d love to hear what you think about this new feature. We are all extremely excited about it and hope you are too! Please leave us a comment below, or reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter.

Chicago is city rich of condominiums and associations. Condominium associations in the state of Illinois can either be governed by the Illinois Condominium Property Act or that and the Illinois general Not-For-Profit Corporation Act should your condominium association be also a not-for profit corporation. In event of conflict, the Property Act will supersede.

Illinois Condominium Property Act

The Illinois Condominium Property Act sets forth the procedures that associations need to implement when running an election. Prior to an Annual Meeting at which the Board Members are elected, the Board is required to send notice to all Owners advising the date, time and place of the upcoming election.  In addition, it is generally common practice to request names of those Owners that are interested in running for the Board of Directors at the meeting.  Once the Board has the name of the Directors that are interested in running, a proxy or absentee ballot should be mailed to all Owners setting forth all known candidates.

The quorum for your Annual Meeting should be specified in the By-Laws.  If you reside in a condominium association of 20 or more units, quorum shall be twenty (20%) percent unless the Owners have voted to increase the quorum requirement.  If you reside in an association with less than 20 units, you need to check your governing documents for the quorum requirements.  If you reside in a town house or homeowners association, your quorum requirement will depend on your governing documents.

If you would like to learn how ElectionBuddy can easy the election of new board of directors in Illinois condominiums, I invite you to read the following article: How Online Elections Can Help Condominium Boards in the United States