This is a step-by-step guide to holding parent governor elections electronically. I have described two methods, both of which allow you to collect votes anonymously online.
It is also possible to pay a company to help you hold online elections and I had a look at Choice Voting software in a separate post.
These methods could also be used for staff governor elections, but I’ve described the parent governor election process here as it is more involved.
Is it legal to hold elections online?
In maintained schools the law says parents may be given an opportunity to vote for parent governors by “electronic means”. It does not give explicit permission for staff governor votes to be electronic, but says that all rules for both parent and staff governor elections are set by the “appropriate authority”.
“The appropriate authority must make all the necessary arrangements for the election of parent governors. The arrangements made may provide for every person who is entitled to vote to have an opportunity to do so by electronic means.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
The “appropriate authority” is either the local authority (LA) or the governing body itself, depending on the type of school, so check what they allow in your school before the election is held. (You can find out who your appropriate authority is in a separate article on holding parent governor elections.) The two methods on this page have been recommended by Hampshire County Council.
In academies all rules for parent and staff trustee elections are set by your own academy trust, so check with the trust to see if online voting is permitted.
Must we offer paper ballots too?
Yes; online voting should never be the sole voting method you offer. Maintained schools must by law offer paper ballots in all parent governor elections.
“The arrangements made must provide for every person who is entitled to vote to have an opportunity to do so by post. ‘Post’ includes delivery by hand.”
Constitution (England) Regulations 2012
Model articles for academies (2021) do not state that paper ballots must be offered but it is wise to provide them, whatever your own articles say, because some parents may not have internet access or be confident using technology.
Method 1: Voting by email attachment
This is the easiest method as the school simply emails all parents a copy of the ballot paper as an attachment and asks parents to return it as an attachment too.
You need an email address for all eligible parents but it’s not a problem if partners share an address because you ask all voters to type their full name in the body of their reply email. The school can then check their eligibility before saving each ballot separately and anonymously. Votes are then counted by hand.
The method is similar to the double envelope system used for paper ballots because votes and names can be separated before the count.
An example ballot paper is available on my templates and letters page as part of a pack of documents to use in a parent governor election. The pack also includes a vacancy letter, nomination form, “thank you for applying” letter and an election results letter.
If you send the ballot as a Word file most parents will be able to edit it, save it and email it back directly. You could also send a pdf so parents can print the form, complete it by hand and then scan it if they are more comfortable with that method.
It’s a good idea to set up a specific email address to receive ballots so that one staff member is not over-run with ballot returns. You will probably receive one or two votes in the body of the email rather than as an attachment, so the appropriate authority will need to decide whether to accept these.
Method 2: Voting using random numbers and mail merge
This system is more complicated to set up but it allows you to send the form via either email or paper letter. You can also save both the mail merge email/letter and the online voting form to use in future elections.
Parents vote through a web page and votes are counted automatically. You will need access to Microsoft Excel and Outlook and a Google account.
There are three basic steps.
- Assign a random voter number to each parent using Excel.
- Set up an online ballot using Google Forms.
- Send details of the ballot using mail merge in Word. This contains the parent’s voter number and a link to the online voting form. The mail merge can be sent via email or paper letter.
Assign voter numbers in Excel
Start with an Excel spreadsheet with two columns, one that shows the “Parent Name” and one for either “Parent Email Address” or “Parent Home Address”, depending on whether you wish to email parents or send them a letter. List all eligible parents in separate rows, even if partners share an address.
Call the third column “Random Number”. We will assign a random number to each parent to anonymise them. Click on the final cell at the base of the third column. Then copy and paste the following formula into the formula bar (the long box at the top) and press return.
=RANDBETWEEN(100000,999999)
Click on that same final cell again and hold shift while pressing the up arrow to select that entire third column. Click on “Fill” in the top right of the screen, then choose “Up”. Excel will assign a random number to every parent.
(This formula assigns a random number between 100,000 and 999,999, but you can change these numbers if you wish – just edit the two numbers in the formula.)
Click on column D and call it “Voter number”. Click on the first cell in column C (Random Number) and hold shift and the down arrow until all rows in the column are selected. Press control-C to copy them.
Click on the “D” label at the top of column D so the whole column is selected. Right-click and choose “Paste special” and then “Values”.
Click on the “C” label at the top of column C and choose “Delete”. The whole column will be deleted, leaving just the names, addresses and anonymised voter numbers. Save your spreadsheet.
(To explain what we have just done and why – when Excel assigns random numbers it changes them as you work and we want the numbers to be fixed. By copying and pasting the numbers as “Values” we only paste the result of the formula, the six-digit number itself, not the original formula. This means Excel stops changing the numbers as the formula is no longer being applied.)
Making the ballot in Google Forms
Go to Google Forms and log in with a Google account. Click on the template called “Customer Feedback”. Google will automatically save your changes as you go along.
Click on the “Customer Feedback” title and change it to “Parent Governor Election At Malory Towers School”.
Click where it says “We would love to hear your thoughts” and add text to explain that you are holding an election and all parents are eligible to vote. Also explain how many vacancies there are (with one vote per parent per vacancy) and state the deadline for votes. Then enter the election statements from each candidate.
Click on “Feedback Type” and type in “Your Vote”. Then click to the right of the multiple choice circles to type in the names of your candidates. If there are more choices than candidates click on the cross on the right to delete extra lines. If you need to add more candidates click on “Add Option”.
If you have more than one vacancy change this section to a checkbox question instead of multiple choice. Click on “Multiple Choice” and choose “Checkboxes” from the dropdown menu. This allows parents to vote for two or more candidates at once. If you do use checkboxes click the three dots on the bottom right and choose “Response Validation”. You can then stipulate that all parents choose exactly two candidates, or three, or however many vacancies you have.
On the bottom right of the page there is a button labelled “Required”. Make sure this is toggled to the right so that voters must fill in this section.
We don’t need the next two sections, labelled “Feedback” and “Suggestions For Improvement”. Click on these sections and click the rubbish bin icon to delete them.
The next section is labelled “Name”. Change that to read “Voter Number” so we can collect the random numbers we assigned to parents in Excel. Make sure the “Required” toggle on the right is switched on.
Click on the three dots on the bottom right and choose “Response Validation”. On the left choose “Number” so parents can only enter a number in this box. You can also specify that the number must be between 100,000 and 999,999 (but enter the numbers without commas as 100000 and 999999).
At the very top right of the page click on the icon that looks like a paint palette to customize the theme. To change the picture at the top of the form click on “Choose Image” and either use one of the pictures provided or click on “Upload” to use your school logo or banner. You can also change the font and colours here.
Click on the “Customer Feedback” title in the very top left of the page and change it to “Parent Governor Election At Malory Towers School”. Click on “Preview” in the top right (the eye symbol) to check everything looks OK.
Click on the gear symbol in the top right. Click on “Presentation” and change the confirmation message so that it says “Thank you for voting in the Malory Towers parent governor election, your vote has been successfully received.”
Still in the gear symbol settings, make sure that in the General section “Edit after submit” is not ticked. This ensures parents cannot change their vote after submitting it.
There is a setting here that says “Limit to 1 response”. This sounds good in theory but if you tick this box parents can only vote if they log in with a Google account. Leave it unticked. You can check that parents only vote once later because you are collecting the voter numbers.
If you would like to use this same form for any paper ballots you need to issue click on the three dots in the top right of the screen and choose “Print”.
Sharing the voting form
We need to find the web address of the form to use in our mail merge. Click on the big blue “Send” button in the top right and look for the “Send Via” section.
Click on the curved symbol with a line in it to get the web address. If you click on “Shorten URL” Google will give you a shortened version of the address.
Enter the web address you have just been given into a browser to check it works. You will need this web address for the mail merge we will make in the next section.
Sending the online voting form using mail merge
Open Microsoft Word. The next steps vary depending on whether you wish to send the online ballot to parents via paper letters or via email.
To print paper letters
Click on “Mailings” and “Start Mail Merge”. Click on “Letters”. Click on “Select Recipients” and “Use An Existing List” to choose the Excel spreadsheet you saved earlier.
Type a letter to parents in the main body of the Word document explaining the upcoming election. Include the statements from each candidate. Include the web address for your online ballot. An example letter is shown below.
Click on “Insert Merge Field” and choose “Parent Name” to automatically insert the names.
Click on “Insert Merge Field” and choose “Voter Number” to insert the voter numbers. Click on “Insert Merge Field” and choose “Parent Address” to insert the home addresses.
Click on “Preview Results” to check everything looks OK. Choose “File” and then “Save” to save your letter to use again in a future election.
Click “Finish and Merge” and choose “Print Documents” to print the letters out.
To send emails
Click on “Mailings” and “Start Mail Merge”. Choose “Email Messages” and then “Select Recipients”. Choose “Use An Existing List” and choose the Excel spreadsheet you saved earlier.
Type a letter to parents in the main body of the Word document explaining the upcoming election. Include the statements from each candidate. Include the web address for your online ballot. An example letter is shown below.
Click on “Insert Merge Field” and choose “Parent Name” to automatically insert the names at the top of the letter.
Click on “Insert Merge Field” and choose “Voter Number” to automatically insert the voter numbers into the letter.
Click on “Preview Results” to check everything looks good. Click on “File – Save” to save the mail merge so you can use it again for a future election.
Click on “Finish and Merge” and “Send Email Messages”. In the “To” box choose the email addresses column from your spreadsheet. Type in a subject line for the email, eg: “Parent Governor Election” and choose html for the mail format. Make sure to select “All” in the send records section.
Click “OK” and the mail merge will begin, with sent messages appearing in the sent folder of Outlook.
Your mail server may limit the number of emails you can send per day, often 500 or 1,000 people in total. Your mail server is usually provided by whoever provides your email address (eg: Google Gmail, Microsoft Outlook) so check their website for the current limits.
Depending on this limit you may need to split your Excel spreadsheet into batches of 500 or 1,000, but only do this once you have assigned all the random numbers. Use the standard cut, copy and paste commands to transfer 500 rows into separate spreadsheets and do a separate mail merge for each one.
Example Letter/Email to Parents
Dear Parent Name [Use “Insert Merge Field” to add names],
There is one parent governor vacancy to be filled at Malory Towers School. Here are the instructions for the election.
- Each parent must vote separately.
- Each parent is entitled to one vote only. [Or one vote per vacancy if you have more than one vacancy.]
- Please enter your vote on the ballot form [insert the web address for your Google Form]. You will be required to enter your unique Voter Number which is [Use “Insert Merge Field” to add the voter number].
- Any forms without a valid voter number will be discarded.
Here are the candidates’ election statements. [Include their statements].
The deadline for the election is Tuesday 23 November at 5pm. No votes received after this deadline will be counted.
Viewing the votes
Go to your Google Form. At the top middle of the page click on “Responses” to see the votes.
Once the voting deadline has been reached look for “Accepting Responses” in the top right. Toggle this switch so it turns off. No more votes can be cast.
Click on the three dots in the top right to download all responses to Excel or print all responses. The image below shows the simple Excel document that can be downloaded.
Checking voter eligibility
Once the election deadline has passed you need to check the eligibility of the votes. If you have a fairly small number of votes simply check the numbers manually by comparing the spreadsheet from Google Forms to your Excel file of voter numbers. Sort the columns into number order before you start to make it easier.
If you have many hundreds of votes you can use Excel to highlight any invalid ones. Open the spreadsheet you downloaded from Google Forms and select and copy the whole column of voter numbers.
Open your original Excel spreadsheet and paste this column to the right of the original “Voter Number” column. Highlight both these columns. Click on “Conditional Formating” and “Highlight Cells Rules” and then “Duplicate Values”.
From the dropdown box choose “Unique” and press “OK”. Any unique numbers (numbers that do not appear in both columns) will be highlighted in red in the farthest right column.
If the number is unique it means it was not assigned to a parent so you should delete that vote. (Numbers will also be highlighted red in the third column, but that just means those parents chose not to vote.)
Finally, press control-Z to remove the red highlights and then select only the farthest right column. Click on “Conditional Formating” and “Highlight Cells Rules” and then “Duplicate Values”. Choose “Duplicate” in the dropdown box and press “OK.”
This time any double votes will be highlighted, so you can discard any votes from parents who have used their voter number twice.
Once you have deleted any invalid or double votes simply check the election result in Google Forms and congratulate your new parent governor!
A note about survey software
If you wish to hold an election that is both a) anonymous and b) capable of automatically blocking ineligible or double votes, Google Forms can only do that if you force everyone to log in with a Google account. Microsoft Forms has an even stricter rule in that you can only prevent multiple responses if the voters are all from your school’s own Microsoft account.
Anonymous elections that guarantee single responses from eligible voters can be set up using paid software. In a separate post I describe how Choice Voting help schools to run online elections.
Another option is Survey Monkey. The cheapest plan Survey Monkey offer is called the Flex plan which is £19 per month, but billed monthly so you cancel after one or two months. If you want a longer-term plan they offer discounts for schools. There is a free option but it only lets you see 40 votes.
If you use Survey Monkey to send a voting form directly to a parent’s email address, you can automatically block that parent from voting twice. If you share the form via a web address Survey Money can try to block responses but this function relies on cookies, so if the parent clears their cookies or uses their Ipad instead of their laptop they can vote twice. More information is here.
The disadvantage of relying completely on software is that if a parent asks you to prove the election was secure you cannot explain your anonymisation process or show how you checked the votes, because you relied completely on the software to do this automatically.