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► The Voting Process
How to Vote in Union Elections
Who is eligible to vote in Union Elections?
- All full-time Sussex students (including Medical School)
- All part-time students (including Distant Learning Students)
*Occasional students and students on programmes validated by the University are NOT eligible to vote*
How can I vote in Union Elections?
Just bring your student card to one of the ballot boxes (check elections publicity). Your card will be scanned (to ensure no-one votes twice!) and you will be given a ballot paper for each position
There are several elections throughout the academic year, including Sabbatical Elections, Part-time Officer elections and referenda. In each election you should vote for the candidates in order of preference. That way, if your chosen candidate #1 is not the winner, you still get a choice between the others. For referenda, the question will require a 'yes' or 'no' answer.
An option called 'Re-open Nominations' is provided in each election (but not referenda). If you strongly dislike all the candidates, you can vote for this option. And if you strongly dislike all except one or two, you can vote for your favorites and place 'Re-open Nominations' as your further preference. If the majority of voters do the same, no candidate will be elected and the election will be re-opened with the chance for more students to apply.
Absent Voting - if you won't be on campus to vote
This applies to those students will be away from campus on polling day - for example, on a year abroad, field trip or placement, etc. It does not apply if you simply can't be bothered!
Step 1: email democracy@ussu.sussex.ac.uk from your Sussex/BSMS email address with your name, course, registration or library borrower numbers (both on your Sussex ID Card and Sussex Direct), and the reason you will not be on campus and your vote. Please make this as clear as possible, e.g. state the election, the position and your vote (in order of preference if applicable)
Step 2: celebrate! you have just voted!
How To Vote in Union Elections - a little more detail
Each position has a separate ballot paper. This means you will be given several ballot papers (one for each named position). Voters will need to complete a ballot paper for each position. Here’s an example of what a ballot paper looks like:
In order to be elected, a candidate has to achieve 50% + 1 of the total vote, or a majority unassailable by the remaining votes. This is known as a system of transferable voting.
Here are some examples of how the USSU voting process works. To vote you will need to mark your choices as outlined in the examples below. Please note: empty ballot papers are classed as ‘abstentions’, and unclear or damaged papers are ‘spoilt’.
Fig.1 You want Trevor McDonald to win and aren’t interested in any other candidates then you put B in 1st choice and leave the rest empty (if you put B in every box it simply counts as one vote for B and serves no real purpose other than illustrating very clear intent and wasting a little bit of ink and your time).
| 1st Choice | 2nd Choice | 3rd Choice | 4th Choice | 5th Choice |
| B |
Fig. 2 You really want Trevor McDonald to win, but you’re not sure if many other people will agree, so want a back up candidate in case he is knocked out and your next favourite candidate is Graham Norton, then mark the ballot paper:
| 1st Choice | 2nd Choice | 3rd Choice | 4th Choice | 5th Choice |
| B | D |
If Trevor McDonald is knocked out then all of the papers originally allocated to him are redistributed, this ballot paper would now count as a vote to Graham Norton, which could move him up the rankings.
Fig. 3 You can continue to add choices until you fill all the boxes in order of preference:
| 1st Choice | 2nd Choice | 3rd Choice | 4th Choice | 5th Choice |
| B | D | C | E | A |
Fig. 4 If you really don’t want any other candidates to win after your initial choice or choices, mark the paper with a RON (Re-open Nominations) vote, as below:
| 1st Choice | 2nd Choice | 3rd Choice | 4th Choice | 5th Choice |
| B | D | Z |
If RON wins, then nominations are re-opened for that position and the process starts all over again. Voting RON essentially closes your ballot paper from further count as it states clearly that you would love Trevor McDonald to win, but if he doesn’t do that well then you would like your vote to go to Graham Norton. If he doesn’t do that well either, then there is absolutely no way you would want your Union led by Terry Wogan, Lauren Laverne or Jade Goody.
Happy Voting – Feel Democracy in Action
Example of Election Results
Finally, an example of a results sheet. In the 2006 elections 2,360 students voted in the sabbatical elections. Below we have included an example of the results for the Welfare Officer. As you can see, although candidate D went on to win the election, she did not have 50% + 1 of the total votes in the first round (although she did already have the highest number of votes), therefore the voting process went through a system of transferable voting until Candidate D was shown to be the outright winner.
