The Union’s staff, acting as Depute Returning Officers oversee the elections process. They answer candidate questions, organise the key dates for the process, including supporting the CAC committee. They also enforce the election rules and deal with any allegations of rule breaking.
The Depute Returning Officers report to NUS for the purposes of Returning the election as NUS acts as our Chief Returning Officer.
The rules for this election are listed below:
Students must be free to cast their vote without undue influence or pressure.
Candidates may not stand and watch students when they vote as the student would be under pressure to vote for that particular candidate. Candidates may not touch any electronic devices belonging to voters while campaigning, as every device is a polling station. While you may offer students benefits such as inviting them to a watch party to help students remember to you and listen to you, any benefits offered to voters must not be contingent on voting for that candidate. You cannot offer students any rewards that they get after they have voted for you, as this would be deemed as undue influence.
Obey the Law, Union policies, and University policies.
This means that you as a candidate and your campaign team, as always, must adhere to the law, University regulation (such as their behavioural code, health and safety regulations, equal opportunities procedure, harassment code, damage to university property, and use of email etc.) and Union policy (such as our safe spaces policy, Elections Regulations, and our online campaigning guide etc). Breach of these policies can lead to a disciplinary which could in turn affect your student status and your Union membership.
Candidates must be approved by the candidate approval committee (CAC) in order to stand.
You must have attended an interview with the Candidate Approval Committee where they will test you to ensure that you meet the criteria required to be an officer, specifically that you have been involved in the Union for at least a term, or you have relevant experience from another institution and you are capable of representing students in a range of settings.
If you have already been approved to stand by the CAC in an election within the last 12 months, you do not need to face the CAC again.
Keep everyone safe.
All campaigning during this election must be safe for everyone involved. This means that you should not campaign face to face if you are suffering from a contagious illness for example, and that you should ensure campaign teams get breaks and look after themselves.
Treat other candidates with respect and honesty.
This rule covers a lot of ground. For example: defacing other candidates’ publicity, making up stories about other candidates, or heckling other candidates are among the actions that would be considered a breach of this principle.
Items produced or primarily used for your campaign must be accounted for within your given allowance.
Candidates must not spend their own, or other people's money on their campaign. Instead they must use the allowance for the election which is given by the Students Union. Candidates must keep receipts and submit them to the Union for approval. The allowance for the October 26 election is set below.
CAUTION - do not spend any money before you have been confirmed as a candidate. If you do, and the CAC does not approve you to stand, then you will not be reimbursed for what you have spent.
Campaigning will start on the agreed upon day.
That day, is the day that the candidate is approved as a candidate - so once you have been approved by the CAC, attended the mandatory briefing and uploaded a photo and manifesto to our website.
To be approved as a candidate you must attend a candidate breifing, attend a CAC meeting and be approved as a candidate and upload a photo of yourself and a manifesto to the website.
Be approved to stand by the Candidate Approval Committee. The Committee will interview each candidate via teams and ensure that the candidates are able to communicate their ideas and manifestos effectively, that they have the ability to represent the views of students in a wide variety of settings and that they have experience of being involved in the SU (or another appropriate organisation) for at least a term.
Attended the Candidates Briefing - Camera's must be on, so make sure you are in a place where you can focus on the meeting.
Upload a photo to the Union's website - So people know who you are.
Upload a manifesto to the Union's website - so people know what you stand for.
Your status as a candidate will not be confirmed until you have attended a candidate briefing, and uploaded a photo and a manifesto to the Students’ Union website, and confirmed that you understand the role you are running for.
Campaign Allowance
Your campaign allowance is money to help you campaign. We provide this to all candidates to make sure that you can afford to run for election. You must not spend any of your own money to run for election. You may wish to spend this money on posters or flyers, t-shirts for your campaign team, or anything else that you think will get you noticed and encourage students to vote for you. You may not offer students rewards (such as sweets) for voting for you, but you may offer sweets to encourage students to talk to you.
The campaign allowance for this election is £100.00
Travel Rules
You can use your campaign allowance to travel to different campuses to campaign during the campaign period. This convers candidates only – unfortunately we cannot cover the travel costs of your campaign team. Where possible you should travel by public transport.
How to claim your travel and campaign allowances
- Inform us of what you would like to purchase, including sharing any designs with us for your printed materials – such as posters or flyers, and the costs of each item by email the returning officers at the contact details below.
- After receiving approval you can either:
- Purchase the materials using your own funds and submit the expense form with receipts to claim reimbursement.
- Request funding in advance, using the epxenses form, and then submit the receipt.
You can download a copy of the expenses form here
Failure to follow this process or if you spend more than your allowance may result in your expense not being reimbursed and you’ll be referred to the Returning officers for disciplinary action – which can result in you being withdrawn from the election entirely.