E-Vote! @ SPH

An R&D Project in the School of Public Health

What is it?
E-Vote! is an electronic system for faculty voting on non tenure decisions, and other matters requiring faculty actions such as committee elections and approval of School and University policies.

Why now?
E-Vote! greatly reduces use of paper, time, and labor compared to the current system. E-Vote! is a GREEN endeavor.

Why here?

We have over 3 years of experience, documentation, planning, and consultation.

Experience. Epidemiology has used electronic voting for the past three years in their Division elections. Faculty and staff are satisfied with both the process and the system itself. Half of all SPH faculty are in this Division.

Documentation. The SPH Dean's Office has documented the elections process for a one year study period, recording data such as number and types of elections, resources used, costs, number of ballots to quorum, and days to completion for each election. We now know what the process is, its scope, resources used, and estimated cost savings.

Planning & Consultation. Planning the scale-up from Division to School-wide voting took 9 months from January-September 2009. Consultation has been at all levels of administrative leadership, staff, faculty representatives (e.g., APT and FCC), and faculty in all four Divisions.

Who will do it?
The SPH Health Survey Research Center (HSRC) will administer the electronic part of E-Vote! in collaboration with the SPH Dean's Office. HSRC has adapted standardized software used for survey research to create E-Vote! Ballots are recorded as anonymous data, but voters (and non respondents) can be identified. The electronic process includes an initial invitation to vote, a ballot, reminders to vote (with additional ballots), and completion to quorum, all individualized for each ballot.

When implemented?

E-Vote! will be launched now with a practices session using Bernie's Perilous Promotion as an example promotion election. All SPH Faculty will receive an election invitation e-mail with the Subject line: SPH E-Vote Practice Election. Please complete the document review and cast your vote for the example faculty appointment election.

All SPH Committee Elections will begin this week using E-Vote!

Continuations: The meeting is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 18. All associate and full professors (P) eligible to vote will receive an e-mail with the link to the E-Vote! site to review the faculty dossiers in preparation for the vote at the upcoming voting meeting.All continuations will be by paper ballot.

Promotions. Group Discussion Meetings will begin in mid-September. Dossiers will be available on E-Vote!, with paper ballot elections to open during that meeting.

Appointments. The faculty eligible to vote will be able to view those dossiers as well on the E-Vote! site. They will receive an e-mail later this fall with the link to review the promotion dossiers online in preparation for the meeting to vote by paper ballot if appointments are tenure related.

Elections and Other Faculty Decisions. Beginning in August 2009 and extending throughout the year, faculty will use E-Vote! to make these decisions.

What is the cost?
We estimate that the cost of E-Vote! during the start-up year will be approximately the same as one year of the current system. After the start-up year, costs are expected to decrease.

Will you evaluate?
Yes, we will evaluate E-Vote! using a pre-post design compared to our current system on key variables. A two- to three-year study period will be used: one year before and two years after the August 2009 launch. Final report will be by August 2011.