The “Right” Tool for Club Elections
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What you need to know:
- A trusted third-party can build the trust of members and the public by prioritizing transparency and security in your club election.
- Organizations of every size need and deserve the highest-quality, efficient, and secure elections available.
- Moving elections online can save your organization money.
Smaller elections are no small task
With a smaller member organization (5,000 or fewer members), it can be easy to feel overwhelmed with so many items on the election to-do list. If you’re like other smaller organizations, it’s often additional work for already busy staff and volunteers.
Some of the election challenges smaller organizations often face include limited budgets, smaller staffs and trying to balance innovation with day-to-day productivity and deadlines.
A trusted third-party can build the trust of members and the public by prioritizing and maintaining transparency and security in your election. Ballots are counted externally, with oversight, and elections are safe from intrusions, hacks and human error (such as misplaced boxes of paper ballots).
One of the biggest benefits of moving club elections online is to the bottom line – it can save you money. When you calculate the hard costs of printing and mailing ballots and the “soft costs” of employee time spent on election-related activities such as tabulating and verifying results, the cost savings can be significant.
“No thanks, we’ll just use a free survey software”
In recent years, many member organizations have attempted to save money with free survey tools to run their elections.
Big mistake. Why?
First, there is an enormous difference between running an informal web survey and conducting an official election.
When you log on to a free online survey site using one email address you can take the survey. When you log on using a different email address or device, in most instances you can take the survey again. Online elections demand the security and integrity of one vote per member to be protected as the number 1 priority, not as a workaround.
Online elections, the right way
Look for an application like myDirectVote, an easy-to-use program that caters to elections with 5,000 voters or fewer. It’s easy to set up and customize your club’s election, or you can choose to have your election set up on your behalf, saving you even more time. Administration of your election is easy, just like the set-up, something your staff will thank you for.
When considering moving your election to an online environment, be sure your third-party partner features the highest level of security and guarantees at least 99% up time (minimizing the chance that your election will be offline at any point).
To download the ebook and read the full article, click on Useful Tools for Smaller Elections.
Have questions? Wonder if myDirectVote might be the right tool for your member organization? Contact us any time with questions, we’re here to help!
Hannah joined SBS in June 2022 and currently holds the role of Marketing Strategist. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Minnesota Duluth, with coursework in English literature complementing her skill set. Creating content for SBS, her contributions span from graphic design to crafting informative election resources, like blogs and eBooks. Hannah also manages email communications and is responsible for producing the SBS Newsletter, “The Ballot Box”.