We will be voting for the Senate online for the first time at FIR: How to do it?
On Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 from 10:00 to 16:00 regular elections to the Academic Senate of the Faculty of International Relations will be held. For the first time ever, we will be voting electronically via InSIS, so we have prepared a question-and-answer guide on how to proceed. However, there is nothing to worry about, the elections will be easier than before, and more voters can participate thanks to the possibility of voting remotely.
A list of the candidates can be found here.
There are two basic options. Either I wait for a message to arrive at my school email with a direct link to the ballot. I can expect this message just a few minutes after the opening of voting, which is set for 10:00 AM, and I can choose from the candidates directly after opening the link.
If I don’t want to wait for an email, I can use the Voter Portal option in the eAgenda after logging into InSIS. Here I’ll see the line FIR – Senate Elections Academics or FIR – Senate Elections Students (depending on which caucus I’m voting for). At exactly 10:00 a.m., my ballot will be accessed by clicking on the icon in the Vote column.
If I don’t see the Voter Portal in InSIS, this application may be hidden and needs to be expanded in that section (eAgenda) using the white arrow in the bottom right corner.
If I am an academic at FIR, I can select a maximum of 12 candidates. However, I can also select less than 12 names, depending on my preference. For more than 12 candidates, InSIS will not allow me to vote. The ballot also includes an option to “Abstain”.
If I am a student at FIR, I can choose up to 6 candidates. Everything else applies similarly to the academic staff election.
The election must be secret, so my vote will be encrypted. Once I select my representatives and click on Vote, I will be prompted by InSIS to encrypt my vote, which I will confirm by clicking on “Encrypt Ballot”. If, after submitting the ballot, I want to verify that my vote has been counted, I will need to copy the highlighted section from the currently displayed page – see answer to question 4) below. After that, I still need to submit the ballot by clicking on the “Submit ballot” button. Without this last step, my vote will not be complete.
Before clicking the “Submit ballot” button, I can copy the string of letters that is bolded (ends before the dash) (using Ctrl + C) and that is unique to my vote. This verification is optional, I only do this if I want to verify my vote later. I paste the copied string into any document, such as Word (Ctrl + V), where I can save it for verification after the election is over.
If I click on Cast Ballot, I see the message “The vote went fine. Your vote has been saved.” I can now find my cast ballot in the Voter Portal under the “Past Elections” tab. When the election is over, I can click on the displayed icon in the Verify column and find (via Ctrl + F) the previously copied string of letters that indicates my vote in the Votes list.
Yes. Your ballot and votes will be encrypted – see answer 3). InSIS records that you have voted (so you can’t vote more than once), but no one can see who you voted for because of the encryption.
If you need to solve any problems during the election, please e-mail bic@vse.cz.
Election Commission of the FIR Prague University of Economics and Business on 12 June 2023
