[GSA Council] Voting System URGENT Motion to Vote on

Fri Mar 24 14:50:56 PDT 2017

Hi Soliman,

Thanks for addressing all the concerns with comprehensive reasoning. Wish you all the best for this and am sure that you and your team will set an example for future.

Thanks & Regards,

Kartik

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Soliman A. Abu-Samra
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2017 5:41 PM
To: kartik narayanan
Cc: Mahsa Khoshab; GSA all contacts
Subject: Re: [GSA Council] Voting System URGENT Motion to Vote on

Hello Kartik,

Thanks a lot for reaching us out and thanks for your kind and motivating words,

In response to your queries/concerns, here are my responses:

1. The only failure that can happen to the system is that concordia's system is down as this system is running on concordia's servers. So, the risks involved are minimal and tend to be impossible, if I were to say. If I were to compare it with the paper-based voting, i would put it in the same category of stealing a ballot box full of votes for example, which is theoretically possible, but from an implementation point of view, it is so hard to happen. 

2. When you go with online voting, the university is obliged for any software issues with regards to their systems. Similar to the class registration, all the risks associated with the system's failure are transferred to the university. So, that being said and given that it is also the voting period for all the associations, the university are taking extra precautionary measures to make sure the systems are always ready and that's why they are asking for at least 2 weeks for preparing and setting up everything to act as a contingency/safety factor.

3. From my perspective, I can see a lot of potential for the online voting as compared to the polling stations in every dimension as highlighted earlier. The security breach issue that was discussed yesterday makes no sense as there are much more critical and sensitive information to worry about if your concordia account was hacked and concordia ITS Departement is having built-in security systems in place to avoid those breaches at the first glance. Besides, it is worth to mention that there are numerous part-time jobs all over the campus but those sensitive jobs that involves confidential information (i.e. Student voting, student ID # list, etc) are never shared with students, even if they are working as part time, to avoid any conflict of interest situations from arising at the first place. This information has been shared with me from the deans of students office yesterday, when I was asking for a student list with thee student ID #.

4. The CRO will for sure run tests with the ITS and dean of student office to make sure the system is smoothly running. It is also worth to mention that the CRO will be working along side with the Deans of students office and he will undertake all the necessary tests prior to going for the actual elections voting. Please note also that concordia is running a similar system for the course registration for graduates and undergraduates all at the same time. So, the system, which is capable for handling 42,000 student, will for sure be able to handle 7,000 student.

Again, Thanks a lot for reaching us out Kartik and I really appreciate you bringing up those points for further clarification. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further queries and have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Looking forward to experiencing a successful online 2017-2018 elections.
Cordial regards,

Soliman A. Abu-Samra

President

Graduate Students Association
Concordia University

2030 Mackay · Montreal · QC · H3N 1J1
tel  514.848.2424.x7903  ·   fax  514.848.7904
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On Mar 24, 2017, at 5:07 PM, kartik narayanan <amiablekartik at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Soliman,
Appreciate the efforts you and your team are putting in for improving the old and outdated system. My question is regarding the risks involved in online voting. Though I am FOR this initiative, it is imperative that you mention the possible risks involved and the risk mitigation plan you have in place for the same. What is the Contingency plan in case of failure? 
Secondly, what are the constraints/limitations in this system and how are you going to tackle it? 
Lastly, would there be a test run for this?

I am supporting this initiative for the fact that more students would be voting because of convenience and accessibility. Second being the financial savings which can be realized.

If you need any kind of assistance, please free to contact.
Regards,
Kartik

On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Soliman A. Abu-Samra <president at gsaconcordia.ca> wrote:
Hello all,

I second Mahsa on that. There will be huge monetary savings in the elections' administrative expenses. Those savings could be summarized as follows:

1. No paper (paperless voting) - huge amount of printing costs
2. Space booking savings - No costs for booking polling stations (save the booking costs for 5 polling stations for EV, Hall, Library, JMSB, and Loyola buildings)
3. Polling clerks - there won't be a need for polling clerks as there won't be any polling stations.
4. Time savings - lot of time savings resulting from the votes counting, polling stations monitoring, etc. Time savings could be translated to money as it decreases the number of hours the CRO and his team will need to work to accomplish their work.

We aren't the 1st to try online voting for our elections or referendum. We have tried it once for accreditation and PGSS McGill (McGill Graduate student association) is working with it since 2014 and it is showing promising results in terms of better outreach, more accessibility, less exerted energy, and less elections' costs, which could be better utilized to provide better services to our members.

Thanks a lot and wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead!

Cordial regards,

Soliman A. Abu-Samra

President

Graduate Students Association
Concordia University

2030 Mackay · Montreal · QC · H3N 1J1
tel  514.848.2424.x7903  ·   fax  514.848.7904
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On Mar 24, 2017, at 3:07 PM, Mahsa Khoshab <internal at gsaconcordia.ca> wrote:
Cuties 

please, feel free to review the amount regarding the paper-based elections in our budget allocation and the energy has to be consumed on such an old version of voting.  

Thank You

Regards,
Mahsa Khoshab
Vice President Internal

Graduate Students Association
Concordia University
2030 Mackay · Montreal · QC · H3N 1J1
t 514.848.2424.x7900 · f 514.848.7904
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On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 2:44 PM, Mudasser Akbar <academic.advocacy.gsa at gmail.com> wrote:
I believe the online voting system should be addressed to a larger graduate audience and then taken into consideration.  We should go ahead as previously discussed with the ballot voting on the 11th and 12th ONLY for which we are prepared. We should also take into consideration and do a fair bit of studies of the system that is going to be in place of which we know nothing about. I have not seen how the system works neither do we know how it is handled, managed and who administers it on the other end of the system. CSU as an example is a much bigger body than GSA and they do not use the system and there would be good reasons behind for which we can talk to their executive time to understand why but now is not the time for it.

On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 2:35 PM, meeting facilitator <meetingfacilitator.gsa at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello  all,

We have just been informed by the DOS that we are not allowed to have both online voting systems and polling stations in place. Thus, we have to select one of them and proceed accordingly.

So, we would appreciate the Councillors feedback on the following motion:

BIRT The voting for 2017-2018 elections will be carried out through "Online Voting" only with no polling stations.

We require your votes on this issue by tomorrow the latest in order to proceed with the necessary setup and coordinate with the DOS. Please email me if you are FOR, AGAINST, or ABSTAIN. Since this vote is being conducted by email our bylaws require everyone to participate for it to be valid.

I know that a few last minute items have been sent for your attention and thank you all for your time.

Carlos

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-- 
Mudasser Akbar Muneer Ahmed
VP Academic and Advocacy Affairs 

Graduate Students Association
Concordia University
2030 Mackay · Montreal · QC · H3N 1J1
tel  514.848.2424.x7900  ·   fax  514.848.7904

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-- 
Dhandapany Kartik Narayanan
Full Time MBA Candidate
John Molson School of Business
Concordia University
M: +1 438-928-2575
Email: amiablekartik at gmail.com

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