Information Services

Count us in – Success with the New Voting Service

After partnering with Civica Election Services the first online election has exceeded expectations with increased voter turn-out.

After partnering with Civica Election Services and on-boarding university election  stakeholders in 2022, the first online election of 2023 got underway smoothly - voter turn-out showing a huge increase with 60 times as many voters participating compared to previous years. 

The General Council was the first election provider at the University to be on-boarded with Civica. The election organiser  stated: “We are delighted to say that the number of people voting on this occasion is far higher than previously,” meeting the requirements set by the new General Council Secretary, Dr William Duncan.

Voting Election Services

The General Council administration were also contacted by voters, unprompted, who commented on the improvement they noticed using the new platform. 

Over the past 20 years, the Electronic Voting and Electoral System (EVES) had delivered up to 10 voting events for high profile university elections, including: 

  • General Council, 
  • Court Services, 
  • Academic Senate, 
  • Sports Union, 
  • Law Students' Council, 
  • University Rector Elections 

However, as EVES approached end-of-life during the pandemic, a new solution was sought. Partnering with industry leading Civica has guaranteed a streamlined ballot access point for Alumni members and a secure platform.

As part of ongoing service transition work, all student elections were successfully on-boarded to EUSA, while the remaining staff elections will be moved to the new voting service with Civica in the coming months. Over the next few weeks, the university's Electronic Voting service webpages will be re-launched to reflect this new service offering. 

For questions about the Electronic Voting services contact:

Portals coordinator, Stephen Smith stephen.smith@ed.ac.uk