12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 PRESENTS vTools Voting: Creating a Ballot - Instructions for volunteers on managing a ballot and running an election

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Table of Contents Sign In Ballot Dashboard Choosing a Template Filling out the Ballot Candidate Information Load an Image for the Candidate Load and Save Candidate Image Add more Candidates for Each Position 2

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Table of Contents Delete a Position Edit a Position on the Ballot Allow “Write-in Candidate” for Each Position Add a Voter List Preview the Ballot Activate the Ballot The Activated Ballot Voters of the Ballot 3

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Table of Contents Log Change the Election End Date View Election Results Enter paper ballot votes Sign Out 4

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Sign in Navigate to Use your IEEE web account to sign in. Navigate to to learn more about the IEEE web accounts. The Voting system uses SSL encryption to ensure that the data is transferred in a secured manner. 5

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Sign in – cont’d. 6 Use your IEEE web account credentials to sign in. If you do not recall your username or password, or need to create an account, visit the account portal at Please note that only volunteers who are listed on the section roster will have access to create and manage an election. This ensures that only authorized IEEE members can access elections. Use the reporting form located at to report new volunteers. After entering your credentials, hit the “OK” button.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Sign in – cont’d. 7 Select option to manage your ballots. This is the Ballot Dashboard for volunteers.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Ballot Dashboard The Ballot Dashboard shows all of the ballots that you have created including: Active, Saved (Drafts), and Past Ballots. 8 In order to create a ballot, you must select an organization that will hold the election. You have an option to create a ballot from a template that has pre-defined officer positions. Using a template is not required. The Ballot Dashboard shows all of the ballots created including: Active, Saved (Drafts), and Past Ballots. As the Election Manager, you have access to only those ballots you have created. This is to maintain the integrity of the election process. Only the Election Manager has access to the results of this election. In this example, you many preview this ballot.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Choose a Template Then, click “Create.” 9 Select a template you would like to use, from the list. In this example, we are using the “Chair, Vice-Chair, Secr/Treas” template.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Filling out the Ballot Now scroll down. 10 Name of the ballot. This will be shown to the voters. You can select your local time zone. Set the Start and End dates for the election and when voters can sign in to vote. The formatting bar may be used to style your voter instructions. Pre-populated text has been provided and you may edited it, if desired. Copy/Paste from Microsoft Word may unintentionally increase your character count due to hidden tags. Also note the 4000 character limit.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Filling out the Ballot 11 Check here to allow write-in candidates. This is very useful for learning about members that would be good candidates for a volunteer position. Add candidates for each position by clicking on the “Add new candidate…” link. See next slide for candidate details. These positions were pre-created because we used a template to create the ballot. Enter a single address your voters can use to ask questions regarding the election. This will appear as a link on the voter’s Ballot Dashboard under Contact Election Manager. Select the number of candidates a voter can select for a position. Published view of the ballot will display the value selected.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Candidate Information 12 Once you click on the “Add new candidate…” link, you will see this window open. Enter the candidate’s information, including first name, last name and short biography information here. Enter candidate’s member number and click ‘Verify’. System will verify member’s eligibility. Click ‘Save’ when all candidate’s details have been entered..

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Load an Image for the Candidates 13 Click on ‘manage picture’. This window will open where you may choose the image to upload to the candidate. You’ll return to this page where you may choose to add an image for the candidate.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Load and Save Candidate Image Click on the “Close” link after the picture is uploaded to return to editing the ballot. 14 Once you choose the file, click the “load” button to display the image below (as preview).

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add more Candidates for Each Position 15 Click here to add an additional candidate for the position. Let’s go through the process of adding more candidates for each position.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add more Candidates for Each Position Once completed, click “Save” 16

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Attach a Candidate Image 17 Let’s now add a picture for this newly-added candidate.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Delete a Position from the Ballot 18 Then, confirm that you want to delete this position by clicking the “OK” button. For this example, there are no Vice Chair positions to be elected on. Therefore, let’s delete this position from the voting ballot.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Edit a Position on the Ballot 19 You can also edit positions

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Edit a Position on the Ballot You can edit the “Secretary/Treasurer” position to be a “Webmaster” position instead. Then, click “Save.” You’ll notice that the position is now changed to reflect the new position of “Webmaster.” 20

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add new Candidate Information to newly-created Position Once you fill in the necessary information, click “Save.” 21

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add a Candidate Image Let’s add a picture for Marie Curie. After selecting an image, click “load” to upload it. 22

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add a new Position 23 Positions can easily be added by clicking on the “Add new position” link. Positions will need to be added if you did not use a template.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add a new Position You can specify position title and a maximum number of candidates voters can select for this position. Select “1,” when only one officer can serve in that position. Select a number larger than “1” if you are allowing multiple officers to serve in that position. This is also applicable, if you are electing Executive Committee members. Published view of the ballot will display the value selected. Once completed, click “Save.” 24

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add a Candidate to a new Position Let’s complete the candidate information, then click “Save.” Then, let’s assign an image to this candidate. Once the image is assigned, click “Close.” 25

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Allow “Write-in Candidate” for Each Position 26 You can allow your voters to specify write in candidates for each position. This is very useful for learning about members that would be good candidates for a volunteer position.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Add a Voter List 27 To auto-load a list of voters, enter your IEEE password and click on “Load” to automatically retrieve the voter list. Save your ballot as a draft once the voter list has been uploaded. Voter List loaded: The manual upload option is available, if needed.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Preview the Ballot 28 The ballot will show under the “Saved Ballots” section. Select “preview” link to preview the ballot and check for any mistakes before it is activated. Once the ballot is activated, no changes to the ballot are permitted.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Preview the Ballot You can preview the ballot, as well as click on the candidate’s names to view their candidate information you have provided. 29

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Preview the Ballot 30 When you’ve completed previewing the ballot, click on “Ballot Dashboard” (at the top).

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Activate the Ballot 31 Click on “Edit.”

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Activate the Ballot 32 After you make any necessary changes, you can activate the ballot. Reminder: Once a ballot is activated, no changes are permitted.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Activated Ballot – print version 33 Print version (pdf) of a ballot is to be sent via postal mail to those voters that do not have an address.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Activated Ballot – print version Same instructions will show on online and on printable ballot. 34

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Activated Ballot – print version Candidate details will be shown after each position. 35

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB Voters of the Ballot 36 is not sent out automatically to your voters. You would compose and send to your voters directly from vTools.Voting once the ballot has been activated. Click on “ ” link to open the editor window. PLEASE NOTE: You must wait one hour after activating the ballot before you can send an to your voters. Sending before then might not work, i.e. no messages will be sent.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB Voters of the Ballot 37 To ensure that IEEE members are not inconvenienced with a large number of s, we restrict the number and frequency of s you can send to the voters. Pre-populated content has been provided that you will want to customize. Make sure to provide your contact information so that voters can contact you if they have questions related to the election. The formatting bar may be used to style your text. Copy/Pasting from Microsoft Word may unintentionally increase your character count due to hidden tags. Note the 4000 character limit. Note: A footer will be added to your message as follows: To place your vote, go to You will need your IEEE web account to vote. If you don't have an IEEE web account, go to A web- based tutorial on how to vote is available at instructions-tutorial-pdf.pdf instructions-tutorial-pdf.pdf To unsubscribe from the mailings regarding “Title of Ballot inserted here” please click here. Please note that this will not unsubscribe you from the s regarding future elections.click here Then click “Send” Note: As the creator of the ballot, you will also receive all s sent to the voters.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB Log 38 You can view all of the s that you have sent to the voters for this ballot by clicking on the “ log” link. Log: Note: As the creator of the ballot, you will also receive all s sent to the voters. You may send three (3) s to your voters.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Change the Election End Date 39 If necessary, and approved by the election committee, you can change the end date of the election by clicking on the “manage” link. For example, you can extend the end date if you would like to give your members more time to vote. Note: An election can not end earlier than the close date saved to the ballot.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Change the Election End Date 40 Change the date and click on “Update.” Note: An election can not end earlier than the close date saved to the ballot

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 View Election Results Once the election has ended, you can view the election results by clicking on the “manage” link. 41

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 View Election Results Click on “View Results” 42 Note: Election results are not automatically reported to IEEE headquarters. The election results must be reported using another vTools application: vTools.OfficerReportingvTools.OfficerReporting ( For more information, click here.here Note: Election results are not automatically reported to IEEE headquarters.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 View Election Results Voter distribution for each position is shown under its corresponding title. The candidate who received the highest number of votes will be shown in red. Please note that the total number of votes might vary between positions. This is because voters are not required to vote on each position. In this example, every one of 6 voters voted on the “Treasurer” position, but only 5 voted on the “Webmaster” position. 43

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes Find the “Past Ballot” that you are adding the paper ballot votes to. Click “manage” for that corresponding ballot. 44 Click on “Ballot Dashboard” to see the “Past Ballots”

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d. Here, you see options for managing the ballot, including the option to “Update results based on paper ballots.” Click on this option. 45

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d. On this screen, you will see the results of the ballot, and are given the option to add the paper ballot votes for the corresponding candidates. For this example, we will add 2 votes for Maya Angelou, and 1 vote for Brian WestBrook. 46

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d. Here, we see the proposed changes. To allow the changes to take affect, click “Submit.” 47

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d. Click “Save changes” to confirm changes. 48

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Enter paper ballot votes – cont’d. Here we see that the changes have taken place. The prior voting results for Maya Angelou were 2 votes, but after adding the 2 paper ballot votes, she now has 4 votes total. 49 Note: Election results are reported using another vTools application: vTools.OfficerReportingvTools.OfficerReporting ( For more information, click here.here

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Sign out 50 Sign out by clicking on the “Sign Out” option.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Sign out 51 It is very important to close your browser in order to complete the logout process.

12-CRS-0106 REVISED 8 FEB 2013 Thank you! Thank you for viewing the tutorial. Please remember to report election results via vTools.OfficerReporting.vTools.OfficerReporting Please remember to visit vTools’ site ( and tutorials ( to learn more about our projects. If you have any questions regarding vTools.Voting, please e- mail us at: Thank you! 52