Last Monday, I was a candidate in the NUS Delegate election. Check out my highly-sensible manifesto (pictured right).It was a great day for two reasons.
Firstly, the hard work paid off and I got elected! You can view the results on the Guild wesbite and (smug alert!) I came top of the polls with forty-one first preference votes. Thank you to all who voted for me :D
Secondly, Monday was also great because I got to experience our new e-voting system as both a candidate and a voter. I can now give a personal view on our move from paper voting to electronic voting. And I found our new e-voting process very beneficial.
And here's why. E-voting made the election accessible to a lot more people than if it had been a paper vote. During the 9am-5pm voting time, I had the following students vote for me:-
- my Engineering mate who is on a placement year with a company.
- a girl who is studying in France on her year abroad.
- a Home Student who would normally have had to commute from Worcester.
- several Medics who have hospital placements all-day, every-day.
- a friend who is studying a PGC course, which again requires 9am-5pm studies.
I also know many lazy people who did not want to leave their warm living rooms in order to head to a ballot box in the freezing December weather. E-voting allowed them to vote from their homes, wrapped up in a duvet.
From looking at the figures, 462 students voted in this election and roughly only 100 voted on one of our e-ballot stations. So all in all, the benefits of e-voting are starting to become apparent.
Democracy is merely a click away!
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