Success of any association of persons is dependent on how well it is managed. And how well an organization is managed is dependent on the democratically elected representatives who manages these associations. Hence it is very important that association elections are conducted in a secured and transparent manner with maximum participation of members. However, the biggest challenge in association election is low voter turnout. Right2Vote’s online election technology is solving this problem very effectively. Association elections suffer from low participation or low voter turnout due to booth-based elections. Most association have polling booths set up at their association head office. All members are supposed to travel all the way to this booth, stand in a queue and then vote. However, these days members of an association might be spread across the country and across the world. It is not possible for all members of the association to travel all the way to the specific booth just to vote.
For example –IIT Delhi Alumni Association (IITDAA) has their head office at IIT Delhi campus. However, their alumni are spread across the world. If IITDAA decides to have their elections for few hours during the Alumni meet at the IIT Delhi campus in Delhi as it used to happen earlier, very few alumni who are located around the campus or are enthusiastic enough to travel would be able to participate. However, when IITDAA decided to move to online voting, alumni from across the world started participating which led to major jump in voter turnout. Today the association is better representative of the members as all members including international members have a say in the selection of the management committee.
There are several kinds of associations which are benefiting from Right2Vote’s online election service. These include:
TRADE ASSOCIATIONS
Trade associations are association of people representing specific trade or business. The objective of such association is to further the cause of the specific trade, regulate members and their activities. One of the main purposes of trade associations is to represent, on behalf of the members, in all communication with regulators and policy makers. Examples are:
• Solar – International Solar Alliance (ISA)
• Shipping – ICC Shipping Association
• Realtors – South Metrocity Association of Realtors (SMART)
• Rubber dealers – The Indian Rubber Dealers Federation (IRDF)
• Traders – The Calcutta Electric Traders Association
• Chemists – The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD)
• Hospital administrators – Academy of Hospital Administrators (AHA)
• Indian Business Alliance Russia (IBA – Russia)
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Professional associations are association of professional like Engineers, Doctors, Chartered Accountants, Lawyers, Company Secretary etc. Membership of these associations are restricted to members who have qualified specific exams and practicing certain profession. Example of such associations are:
• Engineers – Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI)
• Information System Audit Control Association (ISACA)
• Indian Association of Structural Engineers (IAStructE)
• Doctors – Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) Delhi chapter
• Indian Arthroscopy Society (IAS)
• Indian Orthodontic Society (IOS)
• Delhi Ophthalmological Society (DOS)
• Indian Prosthodontic Society (IPS)
• Screenwriters – Screenwriters Association (SWA)
• Pilots – Executive Pilots’ Association (EPA)
RESIDENT WELFARE ASSOCIATIONS or COOPERATIVE HOUSING SOCIETIES: Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) or Cooperative Housing Societies (CHS): Flat owners and property owners in a particular building or locality generally form an association to manage common areas and common services.
EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATIONS or EMPLOYEE UNIONS: Employee associations are associations of employees of certain organization formed to protect the interest of employees and for collective bargaining. Employee associations are very common in government organizations and public sector enterprises. Private companies also have employee associations. Apart from protecting employees interest these associations also coordinate social events, manage services like canteen and transport, act as trustees for retirement funds of the employees.
All kinds of associations are moving from booth-based election to online election service of Right2Vote due to following reasons:
Higher voter turnout leading to more representative and better management committee
As the voter can vote from anywhere with Right2Vote’s election website and mobile apps, the voter turnout increases substantially. Right2Vote sends personalized invites and reminders to each voter individually. The platform is very user friendly and the whole voting activity takes less than a minute for the voter. In many associations where voting percentage with booth-based voting was as low as 10-15%, Right2Vote managed to increase the voting percentage to more than 90%.
Tested, Certified and Approved by Government of India
Right2Vote’s eVoting website is a government of India approved eVoting platform. Right2Vote is tested and certified by Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate (STQC) under Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeitY), Government of India. Right2Vote is also approved eVoting agency by Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India.
Saves cost: Unlike booth-based voting, with Right2Vote’s online voting system there is no cost associated with renting of booth, setting it up, ballot paper printing, ballot boxes, ink, voting machines, security, logistics, manpower, counting etc. All election management activities are done by Right2Vote system automatically without any human intervention.
Saves time and effort: Right2Vote’s online election software manages the complete election from input of voter list and candidate list to output of result. Association members are not required to waste any time on the election activity, and they can focus on the association’s primary activities. Traditional booth based voting wastes lot of man hours in election preparation, booth management, security, counting etc. With Right2Vote all these manhours are saved. Time and effort saved is more than 99% and in many big elections it can be as high as 200 man-days. Saving in time and effort is also at voter’s end. In booth based voting the voter wastes around 2-5 hours in travelling to booth, standing in queue and voting. With Right2Vote the whole voting process takes less than a minute.
Secure and transparent: Right2Vote online election has several layers of security which ensure only authorised voter is able to vote, unlike booth-based voting, which is infamous for double voting, false voting, impersonation etc. Right2Vote security and transparency features include OTP based authentication, encryption, two factor authentication, biometric authentication, voter selfie, geo tagging, geo fencing, unique IP restriction, specific IP restriction, voter receipt, vote record, audit trail, secret ballot, result multilock etc.
Feature rich, flexible and easy to use platform: Right2Vote’s online voting website and app is very feature rich and can be customized to specific requirements of the association. 1600 different configuration is possible for online election as different associations have different election rules. Right2Vote has solution for all kind of elections.