Online Voting with 26,000+ Members
SaskCanola, a producer-led organization,
Challenge
SaskCanola required an independent, third-party research firm to conduct its 2014 Board of Directors election amongst its 26,000 members. This marked the first occasion where SaskCanola did not conduct their election entirely using paper ballots and instead employed an online approach primarily.
Due to the change in voting methods, it was important to ensure that all SaskCanola staff and board members were comfortable and familiar with this new online process.
Approach
To help ease the transition from paper ballots to online voting, Insightrix Research ensured the new method held up to SaskCanola’s rigorous voting standards.
This included undertaking the following approach before the election:
- Conducting a test election among SaskCanola staff to guarantee they were comfortable with this new approach before the election.
- Having the voting platform reviewed by Agri-Food Council and approved according to the statutory obligations of the commission.
Once the testing phase was completed, Insightrix conducted the online election by:
- Designating a URL link for each voting participant; each voter was given a unique identifier assigned to only him or her, which they could enter online to access their ballot.
- Uploading the candidates’ biographies into the Insightrix voting platform allowed voters to read the biographies and cast their votes.
- Providing paper ballots to anyone who requested them.
- Closing election at the specific date and time and providing results to the SaskCanola Returning Officer.
Outcome
After conducting the test election, SaskCanola board members and staff had complete confidence in the Insightrix Research voting platform. Over 500 members participated in the election online, with less than 50 participating by paper.
The online voting process succeeded, and SaskCanola plans to employ it again.
“SaskCanola had always taken the traditional paper approach when conducting elections for our Board of Directors, so while we felt it was time to make the move to online voting, we wanted to be thorough with such a significant change in process for our stakeholders. Working with Insightrix, we decided to start by doing a test run with our staff and board members to see if we would be comfortable going ahead with the full-scale election. Insightrix made sure that all of our questions and concerns were addressed and corrected. When it came time to conduct the full election, we were more than comfortable utilizing online voting. We were also impressed at how quickly they responded to any member concerns that arose while voting. We would definitely recommend them to other organizations.”