Web voting

Owned by Jia Wen Li, created
Last updated: May 18, 2023 by Natasha Jennings
2 min read

About this service

Simply Voting, which launched November 1, 2022, is a web-based online voting system that supports the official online voting needs on campus. Simply Voting provides counting and access control for official online voting and votes requiring authentication, security, and anonymity. Simply Voting currently supports many types of votes.

Email from Simply Voting use the subdomain uwaterloo.simplyvoting.

Types of votes available

  • Referendum (yes/no) votes

  • Election first-past-the-post style votes (i.e. vote for 'x' of 'n' candidates)

  • Specify ballot or question introductory text

  • Attach photos & descriptions for each candidate if desired

  • Allow for a single winner or multiple winners

  • Allow voting for write-in candidates

  • Control the minimum and maximum number of candidates voters are allowed to select

  • Control whether voters are allowed to abstain from voting

  • Run preferential questions (Single Transferable Vote (STV) / Hare-Clark / Alternative Voting / Condorcet Ranked Pairs / Instant Runoff Voting counting method)

  • Run cumulative voting questions

  • Add comment boxes to collect feedback from voters

Not sure if Simply Voting is the right tool for your needs? For more information about alternative systems for other types of votes, see the Comparison of Microsoft Forms and Qualtrics IST knowledge base article.

Who can use this service

Employees (including faculty, staff, graduate students) with authentication.

Who can participate in a vote

  • Votes can be open to the campus community, with and without authentication

  • Guests can participate in a vote using an external email address

How to request this service

Request an account to create online votes, https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/2/group/1616/create/1353 

Please also see Simply Voting accounts

Average length of time to complete request

Two (2) working days after the submission of all the required information to set up a vote

Support for this service

User accounts: To request an account or manage your account, get in touch with IST:

Setting up an election: After your account has been created, the Election Manager Guide in the Help portal will walk you through your first election. If you are having issues with configuring your election, get in touch with IST:

Support during your election: Get in touch with IST:

Pricing/cost

No cost.

IST KB resources that may be related to this service entry

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