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Election 2023: How to conduct your departmental or agency vote – guidance for network chairs

Rules and procedures relating to the 2023 election for a new chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

By
Civil Service LGBT+ Network
Published
14 April 2023

About this document

An election for the chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network has been called, following the resignation of the incumbent chair.

This document is intended for network chairs. It provides guidance on how to conduct an internal vote of your members, so that you can successfully vote in the election as a network.

Overview of the election system

One network, one vote

In line with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s constitution, voting in this election will be based on an electoral college system, with each network’s vote having equal weighting.

You must hold an internal vote

In order to determine which candidate your network will support, you must hold an internal vote of either:

  • your full LGBT+ network membership, or
  • your LGBT+ network’s committee

The default expectation is that all departments will hold a vote of their network membership, unless you cannot hold a vote for practical reasons. If you cannot hold a full network vote, and you do not have a committee, your network is not eligible to vote.

All candidates, as listed on the Civil Service LGBT+ Network website once they are published, must be presented to your members or committee. Re-open nominations must also be a ‘candidate’ in the election.

Interpreting the results

The results of your internal vote will determine the vote you must submit to the Civil Service LGBT+ Network before the deadline. The candidate that receives the highest number of votes in your internal vote will be your department’s vote.

You will also be required to submit the full results of your internal vote to the returning officer; the total number of votes received, and how many votes were cast for each candidate.

The candidate that wins in the most departmental votes wins

Once all votes are collected and the deadline has passed, the candidate that wins the highest number of departmental votes will be elected.

How to conduct your internal vote

Appoint an election coordinator

You should appoint someone to conduct this process in your department; this is likely to be the network chair, but can be any sufficiently independent person in your network.

This person is responsible for:

If you are running a network membership vote

We recommend you hold a vote either:

  • in a meeting of your network members, or
  • online via a form

Voting in a meeting

Holding a vote during a meeting may make it easier to ensure that no one votes more than once.

You could select your preferred candidate by a simple show of hands during the call.

Voting using a form

If you are using an online form, you should ensure that each member is only able to vote once. You could do this by requiring members submit their email address alongside their vote, and searching for duplicates.

Your form should include the name of all candidates, in alphabetical order, plus ‘Re-open nominations’ as the final option.

If you are running a committee vote

We recommend you hold your vote during a committee meeting.

Use the ‘first past the post’ system

You should run your vote using ‘first past the post’; similar to a general election, where each member gets one vote for one candidate. This will make it easier to count and provide the results to the returning officer.

You may use alternative methods – such as ‘transferrable voting’ – if you are confident in administering the count, and can provide sufficient evidence that your vote was a fair and open process.

Submit your vote

When your vote is concluded, you will need to submit the results to the returning officer. The process for submitting your vote is outlined in separate guidance.