Recently, Assembly Voting’s election experts headed abroad to help a world-renowned humanitarian organization conduct several elections and votes in the span of a couple of weeks. We take a look back at the events and discuss their background, carrying them out, and reflecting on what went well, along with what we learned so that we may continue doing our utmost in service of democracy going forward.
The Context
Assembly Voting’s relationship with the humanitarian organization began in 2023. Seeking a more secure system for conducting their general assemblies and conferences, Assembly Voting stood out as a vendor due to not only its now fully end-to-end verifiable solution Electa, but also its experience in assisting organizations across the continent hold their elections and voting events. Being familiar with the organization’s philosophy and work, along with being a company whose foundation was rooted in the desire to serve, Assembly Voting was honored to be selected to serve as the organization’s provider of online voting solutions.
Assembly Voting’s work with the organization also provided the opportunity for us to pilot two new features of Electa. The first, a “hand-raise” feature, was developed for Live Conference voting as a digital version of a traditional raising of hands taken in a meeting to vote. Through this feature, users in the frontend of Electa can see the results of a vote immediately, including who voted for what. Aside from casting ballots, this feature can also serve as a useful way to take attendance.
The second involved the creation of a new role within the system. As the organization has an independent election council tasked with officially opening and closing each election, developers had to find a way to enable such a body to be able to go into Electa, approve the election’s setup, and then trigger the election. The result was the new “Auditor” role in Electa, one which allows auditors and election officials to enter the system and give the setup a thumbs-up before it is allowed to be used in any official vote or election.
The Event(s)
Even though they occurred consecutively within the span of two weeks, the organization was in fact holding three separate events each with their own agendas, types of votes (hand raise and secret ballot), and voting rules.
The first event, a general assembly, is held once every two years. This year, it included a vote on amendments to the organization’s constitution, along with the election of youth leaders. The election of youth leaders took place over the course of two days, with votes being cast from all over the world.
The second event was convened to discuss and adopt resolutions. AV team members remained on standby as the event was ongoing to ensure that ballots on Electa could be configured at a moment’s notice for any vote which might be necessary should participants be unable to reach a consensus.
The final event is a quadrennial conference bringing together global representatives. These participants convene once every four years to elect members to the organization’s highest commission. As the pinnacle of the two weeks of events, the conference played host to a number of prominent figures and served as a forum for all participants to shape the global humanitarian agenda.
In order to maintain an impeccable level of service for both voters and administrators, Assembly Voting dispatched two election experts to each event. One expert was tasked with helping set up ballots while the other devoted themself to support for the organization’s voters and administrators. This division of tasks ensured that all ballots were properly set up, all votes were conducted in a transparent manner, and all results were quickly tallied and published.
Looking Back (and Forward)
Overall, the three events were – as phrased by one of our election experts – “fun and tiring.” It may seem like an odd combination of words, but we feel that it captures the essence of the experience very well.
On one hand, the back-to-back-to-back events were indeed complex and necessitated extensive support and oversight. On the other hand, from meeting with high-profile figures to watching representatives from all walks of life cast ballots, the experience was nothing short of memorable.
No matter what level of guidance was needed, AV team members did their utmost to not only prepare all ballots in line with the organization’s rules, but also stand at the ready to help voters with any issues. Thankfully, the events concluded without complications, a testament to the hard work of both administrators in the organization and AV’s experts who stopped at nothing to make the events a success.
Most importantly, both Assembly Voting and the organization gained valuable knowledge about conducting Live Conference-type elections, including best practices for registering and assisting voters, which they will take with them into future events. And, as fortune would have it, the next event is actually not too far away, with a fully virtual meeting planned for next year.
Needless to say, Assembly Voting’s election experts will once again be ready to support the organization in providing secure and reliable electronic voting to all of its members.
Fast Facts
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Events: 3
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Eligible Voters - 389 in total (national representatives)
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Total Votes Across the Events: 8
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Turnout: Over 66% (on average)
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Countries Represented: 191
