Tech Talks: What's in a Voting System?
By Hans Kelson, Technology Coordinator
As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of the Friday update, we are introducing a new option for voting at this month’s congregational meeting. This is in accordance with our bylaws, and with more completely practicing our democratic principles.
If you are a UUCB member watching the livestream of a congregational meeting from a remote location, you can now also vote online!
The new online voting system is located at vote.uubloomington.org, and it is ready for you! Everyone who is going to use this system must create an account. This can be done in advance.
In this article, I will be describing in a bit more detail what has gone into this system, and some of the considerations I had to make in designing it.
First, I’ll make note of what this system is not: This does not replace paper ballots for in-person voters. That would be needlessly complex for everyone voting in the room, for no real gain. In person, we will stick with what we know.
Second, even online, this system operates on the principle of the secret ballot. There is no way for anyone (even the database administrator) to see how an individual person voted in a meeting. Here’s how that works:
When you cast a vote, the system creates a digital ballot containing your answer, and saves that to a database. Your account is then marked as having voted, but the actual selection you made is not linked to your identity in any way. This preserves the secrecy of your votes, while also making sure that no one can vote twice.
But how do we make sure that only members are allowed to vote? Well, I’m glad you asked. When you create an account, you are asked for an email address. Before you’re allowed to sign in, the voting system makes a call to our Church Center database. It asks Church Center two questions:
- Does this email address appear in your records
- If it’s there, does it belong to someone who is listed as a member of the congregation?
As long as the answer to both of those is yes, you are allowed to go ahead and create your account.
Once you’ve created your account, you must verify that you have access to the email address you entered. This is how we truly know that only members are allowed to cast ballots: If your email address is associated with a member, and you’re able to verify that you have access to that email address, then you are allowed in.
There’s one more step, though, before you can actually vote on anything: Just like when we meet in person, you must check in and be recognized before you can vote. There are two reasons for this:
- It allows people voting remotely to be counted towards our quorum. Our bylaws require that 15 percent of our membership be present for a vote. Allowing those members present remotely to count towards our quorum is a big part of fully living out our democratic ideals.
- It prevents people from voting twice, whether accidentally or on purpose. There are two ways you can check in: In person, at the registration desk, and online. If you’ve checked in via one of those options, the system will not allow you to also use the other.
In conclusion: This is probably more complicated than you guessed it would be. However, I think it’s worthwhile. Our democratic processes are extremely important, and allowing everyone to have equal access to those processes is a high priority.
If you found this article interesting, or if you have any questions, please let me know! I love talking about this stuff, and I’m open to any feedback you might have. Always feel free to send me an email at hkelson@uubloomington.org.