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► Voting Explained

The Voting System Explained 

 If you think about “normal” elections for our politicians, it’s likely that you’ll think it’s all about putting an X next to whoever you want to win. Whoever gets the most votes wins – simple as that. This is called the First Past the Post system, and it is how we’ve been electing our politicians for years.

Unfortunately for us - it’s not fair! If there are 3 candidates running for office this system allows a candidate to win even though the majority of people don’t vote for them. Consider this, Seth gets 25% of the vote, Jolie gets 40% and Freddy gets 35%. Jolie wins, even though 60% of people actively wanted someone else.

Students’ Unions believe in a better form of democracy that counts every vote. We use the Alternative Vote system. Students are asked to rank their candidates in order of preference, putting ‘1’ next to their favourite, a ‘2’ by their second choice and so on. If a candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, they are elected just like the other system. However if no single candidate gets more than 50% of the vote the second choices for the candidate who is last are redistributed. This process is repeated until one candidate gets an absolute majority. This ensures that no vote is wasted and if your first choice candidate isn’t elected, at least you are able to support your second preference.

Second preferences nearly always make a difference in Brighton SU elections. Please read the manifestos, think about who you want to represent you and vote in the knowledge that every vote counts.

Any student on a University of Brighton course can vote. Casting your vote is very simple. When you log in to studentcentral, just click the banner at the top of your home page and follow the instructions from there, Studentcentral does the security for you so there’s no need to mess about registering, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to select your favourite candidates and cast your vote. If time really is a pressure, you can always log out and go back anytime till polling closes.

How to Vote (By-Elections)

Obviously voting will only work when voting for elections is actually open! But, come Tuesday 8th November (start of the voting peroid for the 2011 By-Elections) this is how it's done...

1. Click here to log into Studentcentral
2. Click the VOTE HERE banner at the top of your home page
3. Click on the job title to see the full list of candidates standing for that post.
4. Use the drop down menu next to each candidates’ name to make your preferences. The candidate you want to win should be ranked 1. Your second preference should be ranked 2 and so on.
5. Click on SUBMIT VOTE
6. Repeat for all the posts you want to vote for

Click here to go to Studentcentral

If you experience any problems voting you should contact the Deputy Returning Officer on c.cheetham@brighton.ac.uk

CC 27/09/11