MCR Elections FAQ
If there’s any questions you have that are not addressed here, please get in touch here at MCR-President@homerton.cam.ac.uk.
How do I apply?
A form will be distributed by the MCR Presidents shortly before the elections, you will need to fill this out with a proposer, seconder and a few other details. Nominations will open at 10am on the opening day and close at 2pm on the closing day. Manifestos will need to be submitted sometime within this timeframe and will be distributed as soon as nominations close! Hustings will then take place a few days later and voting will begin immediately after hustings ends.
How do I vote?
Voting is done using the CUSU (not CamSU…) STV voting system. You will rank the candidates in order of preference, including RON (re-open nominations, which if victorious will restart the election process) and these will be counted according to the STV protocols. The link to the voting portal will be widely distributed nearer the time.
What do proposers and seconders have to do?
Beyond vouching that they do in fact support your candidacy, your seconders don’t have to do anything! Your proposers must make a one minute speech before your own at the hustings and will give their speech immediately before you give your own (think of them like your warm up act!).
What should go in a manifesto?
Manifestos must be black and white, A4 documents outlining why you are running for the role and what you would like to do. It is probably advisable to speak to existing officers in order to make sure you don’t start trying to promise things you can’t do, and to break up your manifesto into sections. Remember: it is not a poster, so don’t try and be too fancy with it! They will be displayed both on the MCR website and in the MCR so that people who can’t make it to hustings can make an informed decision.
What happens once nominations close?
Manifestos are put up, and campaigning can begin. There are a few campaigning rules though, the main ones being:
You must not use any social networking sites, apart from ONE change to your Facebook cover photo which must be approved by the Deputy Returning Officer (one of the MCR Presidents).
You must not put your, or any other specific person’s (e.g. members of College, College staff etc.) picture on any of your posters.
You must not include any religious, political, or otherwise objectionable content in your posters.
You must not spend more than £5 on campaigning material (no giving out free sweets unless you can craftily do it for under £5!)
Generally this shouldn’t be a problem, but posters must anyway be approved by the Deputy Returning Officer (One of the MCR Presidents) before being distributed. For full rules, please come and have a look at the HUS Constitution, which you can view in the office.
What are hustings?
Sadly, hustings is not a street way of saying ‘HUS things’. For Homerton elections, it is probably best described as a non-confrontational debate. Each candidate must have a proposer to make a one minute speech in their favour (the same proposer from their nomination form), and then make a two minute speech themselves, outlining why they should be elected. Once all candidates have been through this, we then open up to the floor for questions. The first question is always asked by the Deputy Returning Officer, and then we will take between three and five questions from the floor. Questions must be answerable by all candidates (no questions which are stilted towards one candidate), and must be general to the role rather than the individual. We encourage speeches and answers to be about why the candidate speaking should be elected, rather than why his or her competitors should not to keep things friendly!
How does voting work?
Voting is done using CUSU’s online system, at www.vote.cusu.cam.ac.uk. Voting opens within two hours of hustings finishing, and is then open for two full days. It will then close on the second day, and provisional results will be immediately available online. These will be ratified by our Returning Officer (The Homerton Union of Students Office Manager, Emma Themba) the next working day, and then officially announced. Please note that the results of the voting platform are not final, due to certain constraints on the roles and the winners are only those announced by Emma.
A slightly convoluted example, (but it has happened!) could be where there are 3 candidates for a role with 2 positions that must represent 2 gender identities. If two candidates with the same gender identity get the 1st and 2nd number of votes respectively, the voting system will declare they have won since it automatic, but in fact because 2 different gender identities are needed, the 2nd person with the lower number of votes of the 2 from the same gender identity will NOT be elected.