A Polling Station is traditionally where a voter goes to cast their vote in an election or referendum. MSL's Polling Station lets your members cast their votes in person, wherever you decide to set up Polling Stations, for example, on campus or in your organisation's building. Polling Station gives you the convenience of an online vote without losing the excitement of running a paper ballot.
Your voters can cast their votes using a combination of sources - as all votes are linked to the user's profile, they can cast some votes in an election or referendum on your MSL website and StudentLink app and finish casting their votes on your Polling Station.
The Polling Station, like other MSL System modules, records the University ID via text input, so you can use any card scanning hardware setup that can output the ID number to enter the voter's University ID number rather than manually entering it. The exact hardware setup you can use will depend on the format of your ID cards and what readers are compatible with those. You may want to consult your University or other institution to check which readers work best. For further information, see Scanning University Cards.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
You can access this feature from your MSL System Admin site. Only Super Admins with Polling Station Operators or Site Admins permissions can access the Polling Station. Polling Station Operators should access the Polling Station via the direct link https://[sitecode].admin.ukmsl.net/voting/. For further information, see How to Locate your MSL System Site Code.
Before proceeding, if your MSL website is linked to a Single Sign On (SSO) login, the Polling Station can only be run in Attended mode. A member of staff or another appointed individual must invigilate the Polling Station to verify user identity.
You can use Polling Station to allow proxy voting and/or the entry of paper ballots. When run in Attended mode only the voter's user ID is required to enter their vote so it's possible for a trusted individual to enter a vote on another user's behalf. We highly recommend you have suitable processes and checks in place to ensure voter fraud does not take place.
To use Polling Station when your MSL System uses the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system, you must ask your voters to only set a single preference. If they add further preferences, they will be ignored.
For further information, see Elections Overview.
Polling Station Setup Fields
This table lists and explains the fields in the Setup window.
| Field Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enable Voting For: | This is where you select the sort of vote you want your voters to be able to cast using the Polling Station, whether that is a vote for a candidate (an Election) and/or a vote on a question (a Referendum). The options are:
If both options are selected, a Show Referenda button is displayed on the Select Election window, and a Show Elections button is displayed on the Select Referendum window. |
| Select Operating Mode: | This refers to the different ways the Polling Station can be used. The options are:
|
Polling Station Fields
This table lists and explains the fields in the Polling Station windows.
| Field Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Profile | Displayed on the Select Post window, click the Profile linkfield to open the Profile and Self Definitions window where the voter can update their self-defined status. |
| Back to Select Election | Displayed on the Select Post window, click Back to Select Election to open the Select Election window where a list of all current Elections is displayed. |
| Back to Select Referendum | Displayed on the Select Motion window, click Back to Select Referendum to open the Select Referendum window where a list of all current Referenda is displayed. |
| Back to Select Post | Displayed on the Election Ballot and Profile and Self Definitions windows, click Back to Select Post to open the Select Post window where a list of all Posts in the election is displayed. |
| Back to Select Motion | Displayed on the Referendum Ballot window, click Back to Select Motion to open the Select Motion window where a list of all Motions in the referendum is displayed. |
| Back to Ballot | Displayed on the Check Vote window, click Back to Ballot to open the Election Ballot window for the selected post. |
| Show Elections | This field is displayed if both Elections and Referenda are selected on the Setup window. Click Show Elections to open the Select Election window. |
| Show Referenda | This field is displayed if both Elections and Referenda are selected on the Setup window. Click Show Referenda to open the Select Referendum window. |
| Quit | Click Quit to finish voting. The user is returned to the Voter Login window if the Polling Station is in Unattended mode, or the Voter Identification window if the Polling Station is in Attended mode. |