Make it easier to enter your nominations
- Simplified entry of candidates
- Fewer errors when making entries
- Less effort in analysis
1. Booking the feature “Searchable candidate list and digital consent”
The “Searchable candidate list and digital consent” feature makes it easier for the nominators to enter candidate proposals. With a searchable candidate list, entering the first few letters of a nominator’s name will present suggestions for auto-completing your entries in the nomination field.
This feature is currently available only with the support of your POLYAS team. Please contact us if you would like to use the feature for your nomination. Contact support@polyas.de or your Election Manager.
2. Specify the type of proposal
Once you have decided for the feature, you need to decide in advance:
- Should nominators be able to submit proposals solely from the list of candidates (fixed proposal)
- Or should nominators also be able to submit additional nominations (free text proposal)
If you select the "free text proposal", nominators can specify further candidates who are not on the list of candidates.
Optionally, you can choose whether or not the nominees have to submit their digital consent to their candidacy. Consent can only be given by nominees chosen from the list. If entries are specified in a free-text field, nominees cannot give their digital consent, as the proposed person cannot be identified.
3. Set up the list of nominees
To use the "Searchable candidate list and digital consent" feature, you need to adapt the Excel file containing your register of nominators. In addition to the usual columns (e-mail address, surname, first name, ID), POLYAS also requires the columns “Nominate” and “Be nominated“ Here you specify whether nominators may or may not actively nominate and/or be nominated. To do this, enter either "YES" or "NO" in the two columns:
In the case of active and passive nominators who may both submit nominations and be nominated, enter the following:
- “Nominate” column: YES
- “Be nominated” column: YES
Passive nominators may only be nominated, but have no active right to make nominations. They are unable to log into the nomination platform:
- “Nominate” column: NO
- “Be nominated” column: YES
Note: Since passive nominators do not need access to the nomination platform and thus do not receive an invitation, there is no need to enter an e-mail address in the register of nominators.
Active nominators can submit nominations, but cannot be nominated themselves. The columns must be filled in as follows for this:
- “Nominate” column: YES
- “Be nominated” column: NO
Caution: It is not possible to enter “NO” in both columns. Nominators must be authorized for at least one of these options.
POLYAS tip: Download our template for your register of nominators: Excel template. Instructions on how to do this are available here.
Note: To create the register manually, follow step 4 and then complete the register manually in the POLYAS Online Voting Manager.
4. Add attributes and set searchable columns
Before you import the register of nominators, you must add the attributes "nominate" and "be nominated" to your register in the POLYAS Online Voting Manager. Do this by going to the “Nominators” tab, click “Attributes” and, under “Add new attribute”, add “Nominate” and “Be nominated”. Both attributes are mandatory.
Under “Attributes” you can now add additional columns to your register of nominators, such as the surname or first name of your nominators. If you have added these as attributes, you will see the "Public" column in your overview of attributes. If you set a checkmark next to the first and/or last name here, this means that these columns will be searched by the system during the nomination process and will be displayed to your nominators as a possible input option. The combination of the first name and surname must produce an unambiguous result. If in doubt, add further information such as a department in order to avoid confusion during the nomination.
An example: You decided to enable the first name and surname for the search. If one of your nominators wishes to choose Joe Public, his entry would be suggested by entering “Jo ...” or when entering “Publ ...”. However, if the last name only is activated, his name would not be suggested when entering “Jo ...”.
Once you have added all the attributes and specified the searchable columns, click “Save”. You can now either import your register of nominators or fill it in manually. To import the register, go to “Nominators” and click on “Import and export”. Here you can either upload the register using drag and drop or browse your device.
Then assign the appropriate attributes to the columns and click “Save”.
You can now finally configure your nomination and then complete it.
5. Submitting digital consent
Due to legal regulations, bylaws, electoral regulations, or even just for reasons of convention, personal consent may be required from nominees before they are nominated. If you book the “Searchable candidate list and digital consent” feature with the options “...with digital consent”, the nominators have the opportunity to use the nomination platform to give their consent after their nomination by other nominators. In the “Digital declaration of consent(s)” section, nominators can see how many nominations they currently have. Nominees can access the consent form by clicking on “Edit digital consent form(s)”. Any nominations they agree with can be selected here. In this way, nominees can submit their consent personally. Consent can also be withdrawn during the nomination phase, or submitted for new nominations later.
The organizer is able to view the consent forms submitted for each nominee.
