The voting process is run using a software called Jay, which is
powered by Django, a web framework written in Python. It allows
students to login, and participate in elections. It is Open Source [1]
and running at [2].
Jay is split into several logical voting systems, one for the GSA, one for the USG, etc. Each of these voting systems has a separate set of admins. Once given access, these can login and use the voting system overview pages (e.g. [3]) to create and administer votes within these.
Each vote is in one of five stages:
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Initial Stage, where the vote is set up and all it's properties can be changed (see below);
-
Staged Stage, where the vote can no longer be changed and is waiting to be opened;
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Open Stage, where the vote is open for students to login and vote;
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Closed Stage, where the vote is no longer open, but only administrators can see the results and;
-
Public Stage, where the results are public for everyone to see.
Votes start out in the Initial stage, and are advanced from one stage to the next by the administrators which can click a button in the vote edit UI. Votes go through the stages in order, and once a vote has passed a stage it is no longer possible to revert it. It is also possible to go through stages on a timer, but this has never been properly tested so it should not be used.
Each vote has a name, a machine name, along with a description in Markdown. The machine name is used as in the URL for voting and the results. These URLs can be found in the admin page, and should be distributed to voters so that they can login and participate. These links only work in the appropriate stages.
To determine which students are eligible to participate in a specific vote, a so-called Filter is used. This can also be set on the admin page. Several presets exist, e.g. 'Active Graduate Students', 'Everyone'. It is also possible to create custom filters using a pseudo-code-like syntax.
Finally, each vote has a set of option. An option is something that can be voted on by users. Each option has a name, optionally a picture URL, a description, as well as an optional link with a URL and description. Options can be created, reordered and deleted from the admin interface.
It is possible for admins to set the minimal and maximal number of options a student is allowed to select per vote, e.g. enabling voting for more than one candidate at once. By default, option descriptions are cut off after a certain length, requiring users to click on them in order to see the full description. This can be turned off in the admin interface as well.
Finally, as if this wasn't clear already, the system never associates which user voted for which option. Furthermore, while the vote is ongoing, it is not possible to see intermediate results; instead only the number of students eligible to vote and number of students that have already voted is shown.
During the OPEN stage, in order to prevent users from voting multiple times, it is necessary for the system to store the set of users that have voted already. This information is discarded as soon as the vote is advanced to the CLOSED stage. Instead the system only maintains the number of people that have voted.