The Good Voters Guide

It is almost voting time for the Leadership Elections, so we’ve pulled together a handy guide to cover all the information you need to know. Set your alarms for 10:00 tomorrow!

It is almost voting time for the Leadership Elections, so we’ve pulled together a handy guide to cover all the information you need to know.  

Voting opens at 10am tomorrow (5 March) and closes at 2pm on Thursday (7 March) and you can check out the candidates and their manifestos on our website

How To Vote 

You can either vote in person at one of our voting stations in the library or at the SU – you'll just need 5 minutes and your student ID number.  

Or you can vote online by logging in on our website. If you can’t vote, check out our login guide or email voice@su.rhul.ac.uk  

What do my votes mean? 

We adopt the Single Transferable Vote system at RHSU. This means that you vote in order of preference. So, for example, you may select Candidate A as your top preference for the position of President, then Candidate B as your second and Candidate C as your third. Every position in the election also has an extra candidate which we add called Re-Open Nominations (RON). A vote for this candidate is your way of telling us that you feel that candidates ranked below RON are not suitable for the role or deserving of your vote. 

Once all votes for a position have been cast, the candidate with the lowest number of first-preference votes is eliminated. We then take the votes cast for that candidate and count their second preference. After another count of the votes, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. This continues until one candidate receives enough votes so that they can't be beaten, and the winner is announced. 

What should I be aware of?

During the voting period, candidates and their campaign teams will be out and about on campus to speak toyou about why you should vote for them. Whilst we are encouraging campaigning, we also want to ensure that all students are respected on campus and do not feel pressured to vote. There are a series of rules and regulations that candidates (and their campaign teams) must follow otherwise they risk consequences including being disqualified from the election.

I think a rule has been broken... 

If you have been engaging with a candidate and feel they have broken a rule, you are within your rights to submit a complaint. You can do so by using the online complaints form, and the deputy returning officer will investigate. If you’re not sure but have concerns that you would like to discuss, please reach out to the elections team at voice@su.rhul.ac.uk.

Get the guide