Ringing Forums

Are there examples of the above in today’s digitally connected world? — Andrew G Smith

There are many such online systems, it's difficult to say anything meaningful without a lot more information about the current systems the society is using and exactly what they'd intend to use a voting system for.

Are there any security issues, data protection issues etc? — Andrew G Smith

Yes, of course there are. See above.

I don’t know of any Association/ Guild /Society which is using electronic voting.
I think there is a general feeling that people should sit through the meeting (online or face to face) to hear the context etc before voting but that’s largely just because it’s always been done that way.

For those using membership systems like MemberMojo it would be easy to either ask a question within a renewal or offer a vote as a checkout item in the shop (with no price) to collect votes from members only and I guess making sure only members can vote whilst anonymising the results is the challenge but when you vote at the meeting people see who raises their hand so an admin seeing who voted each option wouldn’t be any different.

Societies should encourage voting to be informed, so anyone voting should be able to do so woth full knowledge of relevant facts. From that it follows that there are two different cases:

If a topic is to be discussed in a meeting, all those eligible to vote should have the opportunity to hear the dedbate before voting, which means thee must bed present either in person or online. Obv ly you can’t force people to listen, or even stay Assamese, but you can try.
But where a vote is not preceded by a debate, and relevant facts have already been made available, there is no need to allow stand alone voting.
An obvious example is the election of officers. Normally the only facts provided are the candidates’ names, so no arguments to be listened to. Sometimes a little is said about candidates, their track record and/or whazt they cash bring to the role. That’s not a debate and the summaries could just as readily bee posted beforehand (as they are for CC officers and most professional bodies). In fact it would be better for ringing societies to do that. It would salve merging time. It would encourage more members to taker part.