Student president elections are a great way to get students involved in campus life, but they can be hard to organize. Fortunately, there are some easy things that any organizer can do to make them run smoothly. In this article, we’ll go over what steps you should take to have an election that gets people excited about voting for the next leader of their student body!
Get a Head Start
Before you start planning the election, it is important to remember that elections are more than just voting. If you want to get the most out of your student president elections, there are a few things you should do before actually hosting them.
- Start Planning Early: A good rule of thumb is to begin thinking about your elections at least two months in advance. This will give you plenty of time to plan and prepare for all aspects of the event.
- Choose a Date: Another thing to keep in mind when choosing a date is how many days are needed between now and then so that everyone has enough time to plan their student council campaign ideas and activities. Smart candidates often know where to tap to get things before it’s too late. Here’s an example of how such people will manage their campaigns. As Adobe Express puts it, “with thousands of professionally designed templates, you can create standout student council posters in record time.” A smart candidate will certainly leverage such cutting-edge tools and find more ways to make their campaigns a success. So, announce a common date and see who works more efficiently within the specified time frame.
Decide on What Type of Voting You Will Use
Now that you have an idea of what kind of election would be best for your school and its student body, it’s time to decide the type of voting method. There are four popular types:
- Plurality voting (also known as first-past-the-post)
- Majority voting (also known as second-round runoff)
- Runoff elections (in which two candidates face off in one final election following multiple rounds of voting)
- Single elections (in which students vote for only one candidate).
Determine the Rules for Candidates
You can choose to make your elections as rigid or fluid as you’d like. You might want to let candidates run for longer than a semester, but it’s important that they adhere to the other rules you set forth (for example, if they’re not allowed to campaign during the day and only have 24 hours per week after school, then their campaigning must take place exclusively at night).
A good way of thinking about this is like a video game: you can change the difficulty level at any time. If students are struggling with something too difficult, lower it! And if they’re breezing through things too easily and need more challenges, then raise the stakes!
Make an Eligibility List
First, make sure you have the correct information. Make sure that you have all the necessary information at your disposal to create an eligibility list. This includes:
- The number of candidates running for each position
- The total number of candidates running for all positions combined
- The total number of voting students in your student government organization (SGO) as well as their preferred method of receiving polling results (i.e., email, text message)
By following these steps, you will be able to create a student president election ballot that is safe, secure and easy to use. The best part is that the whole process can take less than 20 minutes! And now you know how to do it too.