Making the election process manageable
School board elections can seem intimidating. But as the saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time… So let’s break the election down into some more manageable phases:
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Phase 01
Election set up
Like painting, the success of an election all depends on the preparation.
We will talk with you and get all the information we need to make sure the rest of the election runs smoothly and provide a plan of what school or kura staff need to do and when.
What we do
- We will set your school or kura up in our election system
- We will get the contact details for the main contacts at school, including the Principal|Tumuaki and the current Presiding Member, your election date, the SMS that you use, your school roll, and what election you want us to run
- We will provide you with our very thorough Election Handbook which is a great reference document that answers most questions you will have about your election
- We will also provide an election communication plan on what needs to be sent to your community and when
What your school or kura needs to do
- Your board will need to pass a motion appointing us as your Returning Officer
- You will need to provide us with some key information
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Phase 02
Finalising the electoral roll
Getting the electoral roll right means the communication about the election goes out to everyone who needs it.
What we do
- We will sort the integration of our election platform with the SMS your school or kura uses
- We will be able to generate the main electoral roll when the time is right
- We will advise those staff who are also parents about the restrictions the legislation has on people voting twice in one election and ensure they are on the correct electoral roll
- Once the main electoral roll closes we will generate and provide to your school or kura a public electoral roll that needs to be accessible to view at the school office on request
What your school or kura needs to do
- You will need to authorise the integration with your SMS system (this only accesses the information we need for elections and no extra information is passed to us)
- You will need to let us know of any changes to your electoral roll between the main roll closing and the supplementary roll closing
- We will need a list of staff who are also parents of students at your school
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Phase 03
Nominations
This is where the election becomes more visible, especially to your wider school community.
What we do
- We send the official communication to everyone on the electoral roll
- A call for nominations is sent out with a nomination form and instructions, and we also follow this up with email reminders
- The key contacts at your kura will be able to see progress live through our election admin portal
- We handle any queries about the election process
What your school or kura needs to do
- We recommend sending additional communications to your community using your newsletters, Facebook page, school app and similar channels
There are a heap of templates and examples in our Election Handbook to copy and paste. If you are a Hail customer, you will also have access to pre-written newsletter articles that you can include when you are sending out your school newsletter.
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Phase 04
Voting
If you have received enough nominations to move to a voting election, the real fun begins and your community gets to vote.
What we do
- We send out the voting emails to all eligible voters, or paper-based voting if needed, as well as reminder emails
- If there are any questions about voting or issues, we handle these for your election
What your school or kura needs to do
- Sending reminders that voting is open to your community using your newsletters, Facebook page, school app and similar channels is best practice at this stage
There are a heap of templates and examples in our Election Handbook to copy and paste. If you are a Hail customer, you will also have access to pre-written newsletter articles that you can include when you are sending out your school newsletter.
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Phase 05
Results and reporting
This is where we find out who was elected, as well as the more boring bits like reporting to the Ministry of Education.
What we do
- We count all the votes and generate the Declaration of Results
- The Declaration of Results gets sent to all candidates and also to the main school contacts once voting is complete
- A copy is also sent to everyone on the electoral roll a few days after the election closes
- If there is a tie, we will break the tie according to the election rules
- We will also handle the required reporting to the Ministry of Education about the election
- We will send the required reports to the local District Court if your election went to a vote
What your school or kura needs to do
- It is best practise to publish the declaration of results in your newsletter, school app and similar channels
- The Regulations state that the results must include the names of the candidates elected and the number of votes cast for each candidate
- If you have a new Presiding Member after your first board meeting you will need to complete the report to the Ministry of Education to record this
We’re with you every step of the way
Don’t stress if this all seems a little daunting… It’s our job to make this as simple as possible for you and our Mission Control team will be with you every step of the way.
