ALA Online Election: Tastes Just Like Chicken!

Allow me to make a few approving clucks over the new ALA online election system. I started my ballot today (and will set it aside to finish it up later). It’s not just that the company did a good job designing our ballot (which they did) or that the process is remarkably smooth (which it is). What stands out are the unexpected joys of using an online system, which informates the process so that some of the tasks, such as figuring out how many Councilors you had voted for, are done by the system itself.

Notes from the election process:

I had no trouble identifying the initial e-mail informing me that the ballot was available.

I logged in without trouble–in Mozilla, no less.

The instructions were clear, and unavoidable.

The voting process is easy-breezy. I like the way it adds up the Councilors for me. (Now I am wondering what happens if you vote for too many Councilors on the paper ballot–is that section of your ballot then void? I’d think so.)

It’s easy to see the candidate bios–far easier than in paper–and the ability to vote for the candidate from the bio page is a real plus (and as newspapers are wont to say, “a Web-only feature”).

User support phone numbers and e-mail are listed on every page.

Amendments, plus pro/con, appear in a popup. (Wonder if candidate bios are not popups because they are interactive pages? I betcha.)

I found I spent far more time thinking about each Council candidate than I have in the past. It is so much easier to review the bios online, and I was able to prioritize my votes. I’ll discuss who I’m voting for later today.

I finished voting, then moved on to the LITA ballot; it went very fast–less than two minutes. I’ll save the other two ballots for a little later on.

I bet John Duke a beer that turnout would increase by 5% in this election; he bet 10%. I bet he wins–I should have insisted on a spread. Any other bets?