about the elections

18.03.11.

Like a job interview, but with balloons.

Student elections in St Andrews are amongst the most lively and exciting than anywhere else in the UK. We have one of the highest election turnouts, and the atmosphere on election day is amazing.

Once you've made the decision you want to run - whether that's for President of the Students' Association, the head of STAR radio, or SRC Member for Widening Access - here's what you need to do next....

1. Register as a candidate

Nominations have now closed. For a full list of the candidates, click here.

2. Prepare your campaign

Once you've registered as a candidate you can start thinking about how you're going to run your election campaign, and persuade the student body that you're the best person for the job.

Many candidates like to get a group of people together to help then campaign - the most important thing to remember is that elections are fun! It's a great opportunity to be creative - whether that's making exciting posters, using social media, or just chatting to new people. You can also appoint a 'Campaign Manager' to help you run your campaign.

You should also think about the reasons you're running for the position you've chosen and what you'd like to do with it if you win. Now write those reasons down as succinctly as possible. You should use these core messages in your publicity and make sure that everyone helping you campaign knows what you want to achieve in the position, and why you want to run for it.

Before you start working out what you want your election campaign to look like, make sure you and your campaign team know the

rules on elections & the rules on campaigning.

We have rules, and budgets, to make sure our elections are run fairly and that everyone has an equal opportunity to run a successful campaign.

All AU candidates must have the saints-sport logo on their publicity - email publicity@saints-sport.com to get an electronic version. Candidates for any AU position cannot use yellow as their campaign colour because this is the colour of the AU ballot papers!

All your publicity needs to be approved (including banners), and deducted from your budget, BEFORE it can be displayed - come along to our office on the top floor of the union (opening times below)

If you have any questions, aren't quite sure if something exciting you want to do is 'allowed', or are worried you don't have enough money to cover your candidate budget, come and chat to the Elections Team, or alternatively email saelect@st-andrews.ac.uk.

3. Hecklings and candidate debates

The candidates meeting will be held at 6pm on Friday 11th March in Venue One. This will be the opportunity to ask any questions about the week ahead, collect any publicity you may have ordered, and meet your opposing candidates! As soon as this meeting ends at 7pm, you can start campaigning.

Hecklings, or 'hustings', will be arranged during election week. Hecklings are your chance to prove yourself and articulate the ideas you have for the year ahead. The atmosphere will be fairly laid back so don't be intimidated by the idea of public speaking - in most cases, the important thing is what you say, not how you say it. There will also be a Sabbatical Candidates Debate during the week - click here for details on when the hecklings and debate will be held.

4. Vote - Friday 18th March 2011

Election day itself is always a crazy day - and as a candidate it can be stressful. The most important thing to remember is to have fun with it! Chat to other candidates, sing songs, give out cakes and stickers and generally contribute to the usual party atmosphere after a long week of campaigning!

Polling stations will be open:
Union: 10am-6pm
Library: 10am-5pm
Physics: 10am-1pm
Sports Centre: 1.30pm-5pm

If you are not in St Andrews, or cannot vote in person for a valid reason, you can submit a proxy vote. To find out how to do this - click here.

5. Counting the votes

Once the polls have closed and campaigning is over, we'll do our best to count the votes as quickly as we can. This often takes a very long time, meaning that the count can go well into the early hours of the morning. The votes are counted by the Elections Team, and other student volunteers who haven't been involved in campaigning to make sure it's completely fair. 

Voting is by Single Transferable Vote (a form of proportional representation) so it takes longer to count than traditional methods, but we think it delivers the fairest result.

Speaking of results, we'll announce them at the count, broadcast them on STAR and post them live to this website and to twitter.

Confused? Questions?

Talk to us. You can either email us on saelect@st-andrews.ac.uk, or come into the elections office for a chat.

The Elections Office will be in the Music Room (top floor of the union) for you to come along and ask any questions to our elections team, report any issues or rule breakings, sort out your publicity and get it checked and stamped, or generally ask for any support or advice on elections. We will be open:

Monday 7th March- Friday 11th March
10am - 5pm daily

Saturday 12th March
1pm-3pm

Monday 14th March - Thursday 17th March
10am - 6pm daily