• Is the Election being held on Rootsweb?
  

• How do I know my vote will be secret?
  

• When the election is over the EC will receive a report listing all candidates and the total number of votes each received?
  

• Why are we only allowed to vote once this year? In the past I could vote as many times as I wanted. What if I change my mind?
  

• I received four copies of the broadcast message, does this mean I have four votes?
  

• So you're actually saying that someone could vote twice? Why are you allowing this to happen?
  

• I didn't receive my voter password - why?
  

• How do I know that my vote won't be tampered with?
  

• I went to vote and I have a ballot that I don't think I'm suppose to have.
  

• I think this is a poor way to run an election! People can vote in an area that they're not suppose to!!!!
  

• HELP! I've lost my password.
  

• I went to vote and I got an error message when I hit the "cast vote" button.
  

• What are the limits on who votes? I am a CC volunteer for several counties and could even hold many positions in associated activities like Archives area etc. Why do I only have one vote? Shouldn't I vote several time in the national election as well as each region I'm involved in?
  

• What happens if a candidate resigns from the race before the completion of the election period? Is the voter who cast a vote for that person now disenfranchised (aka out of luck), or will they be eligible to cast a ballot for one of the remaining candidates? How will a situation such as this be handled by the EC, should it happen?

Is the Election being held on Rootsweb?

The Election is not being held on Rootsweb. It is being held on the server at the University of Indiana. You will enter the Voting Booth from the Election Committee's webpage (which is hosted on the Rootsweb Server) but you will be taken to the server at the U of IN to actually vote and then you will be returned to the EC's webpage.

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How do I know my vote will be secret?

How do I know that my vote won't be tampered with?

The voting booth software will be on the U of IN's server and Larry Stephens will be in charge of it. Most of you know of Larry. He has several e-mails lists and he hosted many lists when the old Maiser system went down. Larry has no connection with the USGenWeb Project. He has agreed to oversee our election as a completely impartial outsider.

Once the voting begins the EC will be just as much in the dark as everyone else. The only reports the EC will receive from the voting booth software will be reports of the total number of voters who have cast a vote as of a specific date. None of the EC members will know who voted, who they voted for or where any candidate stands.

When the election is over will the EC know who voted for who?

The Election Voting Booth Software will have a full record of who voted should any vote or seat be challenged. But, that information will not be available as a whole to the EC, the AB or any other group or faction of the Project. If any individual wants to know that their vote was actually recorded the information on their own vote will be available to them. Should any challenge be made about a candidate's total votes then the voting information can be confirmed.

Every vote will be private and secure.

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Why are we only allowed to vote once? In the past I could vote as many times as I wanted. What if I change my mind?

In past elections there have always been problems with people questioning which of their votes were actually "counted". To eliminate any possibility of charges of tampering or counting the wrong vote the EC elected to have the voter software allow only one vote. In real life we are only allowed to vote one time. We can't change our minds and go vote again.

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I received more than one password message does this mean I may vote once for each password?

No you are only allowed one vote. If you receive more than one password please notify a member of the EC immediately. That means that you are on the voter list under two different names with two different e-mail addresses.

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So you're actually saying that someone could vote twice? Why are you allowing this to happen?

The EC requested the Advisory Board to allow only those members who registered to vote to be allowed to vote. The AB denied the EC's request. Until only registered voters are allowed to vote the EC must depend on the SC of each state to update and verify the membership list.

Since some volunteers maintain multiple web sites using different names and e-mail addresses it is almost impossible to be sure that an individual volunteer is on the voter rolls only once. The only thing the EC can do is depend on the honesty of the person receiving more than one password to let us know so we can correct the voter's list.

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I didn't receive my voter password - why?

It is possible that your mail bounced or it's possible that your name was left off of the lists sent by the SC or if the SC didn't send the EC a voter list - it is possible that the EC didn't find your name on the state's county list or county site. The USGenWeb Project's Election runs for 31 days (July 1st thru July 31st) so there is time to verify your information and, if you are qualified to vote, to add you to the voter list. If you have not received your password contact a member of the EC.

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I went to vote and I got a ballot for a region I'm not in. I voted in that region anyway. How come you let me vote in the wrong region?

There is one ballot for the election. Your vote will only count for the region you are qualified in. If you vote in a region you are not qualified in the vote will be discarded.

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I think this is a poor way to run an election! People can vote in an area that they're not suppose to!!!!

As long as the EC must depend on information supplied by other people or as long as the information about voters has to be gathered from the lists on State Pages or Special Project pages the possibility for errors exists. The EC believes that the majority of the volunteers of this project are honest and will notify the EC of any mistakes. For those few who are dishonest ..... there is nothing the EC can do.

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HELP! I've lost my password.

The EC does not have access to any of the voter passwords. Please contact: Larry Stephens stephenl@indiana.edu.

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I went to vote and I got an error message.

Check the date and time the polls open. The most common reason for an error is the polls aren't open yet.

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What are the limits on who votes? I am a CC volunteer for several counties and could even hold many positions in associated activities like Archives area etc. Why do I only have one vote? Shouldn't I vote several time in the national election as well as each region I'm involved in?

Each volunteer has one vote for every region they qualify in. If a volunteer was allowed to vote for every county or job they do then the election would cease to be a fair representation of the membership since a few individuals who host several sites (jobs) could swing the election even if their choice was not the choice of the majority of the membership.

What happens if a candidate resigns from the race before the completion of the election period? Is the voter who cast a vote for that person now disenfranchised (aka out of luck), or will they be eligible to cast a ballot for one of the remaining candidates? How will a situation such as this be handled by the EC, should it happen?

If the voter has already cast their vote for a candidate that withdraws the voter cannot vote again for one of the remaining candidates. The Voting Booth software is set up to accept only one vote. This problem will be taken into consideration by the EC for future elections.

Do you have questions that are not covered above? Please forward them to: Ellen Pack  e.j.pack@natchezbelle.org and we will do our best to answer them.