PRESENTS
vTools Voting:
Creating a Ballot Instructions for
volunteers on
managing a ballot and
running an election
Table of Contents
Logging In
Ballot Dashboard
Choosing a Template
Filling out the Ballot
Candidate Information
Load an Image for the Candidate
Load and Save Candidate Image
Add more Candidates for Each Position
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Table of Contents
Delete a Position
Edit a Position on the Ballot
Allow “Write-in Candidate” for Each Position
Add a Voter List
Preview the Ballot
Activate the Ballot
The Activated Ballot
E-mail Voters of the Ballot
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Table of Contents
E-mail Log
Change the Election End Date
View Election Results
Enter paper ballot votes
Logging Out
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Logging in
Navigate to https://voting.vtools.ieee.org
Use you IEEE web account to
log in. Navigate to
http://www.ieee.org/web/ac
counts to learn more about
the IEEE web accounts.
The Voting system uses SSL
encryption to ensure that the
data is transferred in a
secured manner.
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Logging in – cont’d.
Use your IEEE web account credentials to login. If you do not recall your username or
password, or need to create an account, visit the account portal at
http://www.ieee.org/web/accounts
Please note that only volunteers who are listed on the section roster will have access to the
creating and editing of meetings. This ensures that only authorized IEEE members can edit
meeting data. Use the reporting form located at http://officers.vtools.ieee.org/ to report new
volunteers.
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After
entering your credentials, hit the “Log In” button.
Logging in – cont’d.
Select option to manage your ballots.
Please remember that only volunteers who are listed on the section
volunteer roster will be able to manage ballots.
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Ballot Dashboard
In order to create a ballot,
you must select an
organization that will hold
the election.
The Ballot Dashboard shows all of the ballots that you
have created including: Active, Saved (Drafts), and Past
Ballots.
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You have an option to create
a ballot from a template that
has pre-defined officer
positions. Using a template
is not required.
Choose a Template
Select a template you would
like to use, from the list.
In this example, we are
using the “Chair, Vice-Chair,
Secr/Treas” template.
Then, click “Create.”
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Filling out the Ballot
Name of the ballot. This will
be shown to the voters.
You can select your local time
zone.
Start and End dates of when
the voters can log in and
vote.
The formatting bar should be used to style your
voter instructions.
Copy/Pasting from Microsoft Word may
unintentionally increase your character count due
to hidden tags. Also note the 2000 character limit.
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Now scroll down.
Filling out the Ballot
Enter an e-mail address your voters can
use to ask questions regarding the
election. This e-mail will be shown to
ballot voters when they login.
Add candidates for each
position by clicking on the “Add
new candidate…” link.
These positions were precreated because we used the
template to create the ballot.
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Candidate Information
Once you click on the “Add
new candidate…” link, you
will see this window open.
Enter the candidate’s
information, including first
name, last name, IEEE
member number, and short
biography.
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Candidate Information
Note: A footer will be added to your message content. The
footer will contain the generic voting URL, and options for your
members, such as unsubscribing, and a web-based tutorial:
To place your vote, go to https://voting.vtools.ieee.org. You will need your
IEEE web account to vote. If you don't have an IEEE web account, go
to http://www.ieee.org/web/accounts. A web-based tutorial on how to vote is
avaliable at http://sites.ieee.org/vtools/documents/2013/10/3-voterinstructions-tutorial-pdf.pdf
Once completed, click “Save”
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To unsubscribe from the mailings regarding 2014 IEEE Corpus Christi
Section please click here. Please note that this will not unsubscribe you from
the e-mails regarding future elections.
Load an Image for the Candidates
You’ll be brought back to this
page where you may choose
to add an image for the
candidate.
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Then, this window will open,
and you can choose the
image to attach to the
candidate.
Load and Save Candidate Image
Once you choose the file,
click the “load” button to
display the image below (as
preview).
Click on the “Close” link after
the picture is uploaded to
return to editing the ballot.
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Add more Candidates for Each
Position
Click here to add an additional
candidate for the position.
Let’s go through the process of adding
more candidates for each position.
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Add more Candidates for Each
Position
Once completed, click “Save”
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Attach a Candidate Image
Let’s now add a picture for
this newly-added candidate.
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Delete a Position from the Ballot
For this example, there are
no Vice Chair positions to be
elected on. Therefore, let’s
delete this position from the
voting ballot.
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Then, confirm that you want
to delete this position by
clicking the “OK” button.
Edit a Position on the Ballot
You can also edit positions
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Edit a Position on the Ballot
You can edit the
“Secretary/Treasurer”
position to be a “Webmaster”
position instead.
Then, click “Save.”
You’ll notice that the position
is now changed to reflect the
new position of “Webmaster.”
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Add new Candidate Information to
newly-created Position
Once you fill in the
necessary information,
click “Save.”
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Add a Candidate Image
Let’s add a picture
for Marie Curie.
After selecting an
image, click “load” to
upload it.
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Add a new Position
Positions can easily be added by clicking
on the “Add new position” link. Positions
will need to be added if you did not use a
template.
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Add a new Position
You can specify position title and a maximum number of
candidates voters can select for this position. Select “1,”
when only one officer can serve in that position.
Select a number larger than “1” if you are allowing multiple
officers to serve in that position. This is also applicable, if
you are electing Executive Committee members.
Once completed, click “Save.”
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Add a Candidate to a new Position
Let’s complete the candidate
information, then click “Save.”
Then, let’s assign an image to
this candidate.
Once the image is
assigned, click “Close.”
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Allow “Write-in Candidate” for
Each Position
You can allow your voters to specify write in
candidates for each position. This is very
useful for learning about members that would
be good candidates for a volunteer position.
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Add a Voter List
To auto-load a list of voters,
enter your IEEE password and
click on “Load” to automatically
retrieve the voter list.
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Add a Voter List
Save your ballot as a draft once
the voter list has been
uploaded.
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Preview the Ballot
The ballot will show under the “Saved
Ballots” section. Select “preview” link to
preview the ballot and check for any
mistakes before it is activated. Once the
ballot is activated, you will not be able to
make any changes!
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Preview the Ballot
You can preview the ballot, as well as click
on the candidate’s names to view their
profiles that you just created.
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Preview the Ballot
When you’ve completed previewing the
ballot, click on “Ballot Dashboard” (at the
top).
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Activate the Ballot
Click on “Edit.”
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Activate the Ballot
After you make any necessary changes, you can activate the
ballot. Reminder: Once you activate the ballot, you will not be
able to make any changes.
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Activated Ballot
You can view your ballot in a
printable format, then print and
send it to your members via postal
mail.
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Activated Ballot
Same instructions will show on
online and on printable ballot.
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Activated Ballot
Candidate details will be shown after
each position.
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E-mail Voters of the Ballot
You can send e-mail to your voters once the ballot
has been activated.
PLEASE NOTE: You must wait one hour after
activating the ballot before you can send an e-mail
to your voters. Sending e-mail before then might
not work, i.e. No messages will be sent.
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E-mail Voters of the Ballot
To ensure that IEEE members are not
inconvenienced with a large number of e-mails,
we restrict the number and frequency of e-mails
you can send to the voters.
The formatting bar may be used to style your
email text.
Make sure to provide your contact information so
that voters can contact you if they have questions
related to the election.
Copy/Pasting from Microsoft Word may
unintentionally increase your character count due
to hidden tags.
Note the 4000 character limit.
Then click “Send.”
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E-mail Log
You can view all of the e-mails that
you sent to the voters for this ballot
by clicking on the “e-mail log” link.
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Change the Election End Date
If necessary, and approved by the election committee,
you can change the end date of the election by clicking
on the “manage” link. For example, you can extend the
end date if you would like to give your members more
time to vote.
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Change the Election End Date
Change the date and click on “Update.”
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View Election Results
Once the ballot is closed, you can view the
election results by clicking on the “manage”
link.
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View Election Results
Click on “View Results”
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View Election Results
Voter distribution for each position is
shown under its corresponding title. The
candidate who received the highest
number of votes will be shown in red.
Please note that the total number of
votes might vary between positions.
This is because voters are not required
to vote on each position. In this
example, every one of 6 voters voted
on the “Treasurer” position, but only 5
voted on the “Webmaster” position.
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Enter paper ballot votes
Click on “Ballot Dashboard” to see the
“Past Ballots”
Find the “Past Ballot” that you are
adding the paper ballot votes to. Click
“Manage” for that corresponding ballot.
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Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d.
Here, you see options for managing the
ballot, including the option to “Update
results based on paper ballots.” Click on
this option.
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Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d.
On this screen, you will see the results
of the ballot, and are given the option
to add the paper ballot votes for the
corresponding candidates.
For this example, we will add 2 votes
for Maya Angelou , and 1 vote for Brian
WestBrook.
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Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d.
Here, we see the proposed changes. To
allow the changes to take affect, click
“Submit.”
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Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d.
Click “Save changes” to confirm changes.
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Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d.
Here we see that the changes have
taken place. The prior voting results for
Maya Angelou were 2 votes, but after
adding the 2 paper ballot votes, she now
has 4 votes total.
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Logging out
Log out by clicking on
the “Log out” link.
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Logging out
It is very important
to close your
browser in order to
complete the logout
process.
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Thank you!
Thank you for viewing the tutorial.
Please remember to visit vTools’ site (http://vtools.ieee.org) and
tutorials (http://sites.ieee.org/vtools/training) to learn more about our
projects. If you have any questions regarding vTools.Voting, please email us at: vtools-voting@ieee.org.
Thank you!
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