Method of voting
Each WFN member society that is eligible to vote, having paid its membership dues, is entitled to one vote.
Member societies are asked to register the name and email address of their voting delegate or proxy. The proxy must be an executive officer or an ordinary member of the society with voting authority.
The voting delegate is sent a unique link and login details to the online voting form.
The voting will use the Instant-Runoff Full Preferential Ranking method. This method, explained below, allows the election to be completed in a single voting cycle.
The winner of each ballot will be the candidate who receives more than 50% of the voters’ first-choice votes.
- Each ballot will list the candidates in alphabetical order by last name.
- Voters must rank all candidates in order of preference, from 1 to x, where x is the total number of candidates.
- The voter’s first-choice and most preferred candidate is ranked as 1, the second choice as 2, and so on, until the least preferred candidate is ranked x.
The voting system requires all candidates to be ranked before the vote can be submitted.
- Ballots are first counted based on each voter’s first-choice selection. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, that candidate is declared the winner.
- If no candidate receives more than 50%, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated.
Note: If two or more candidates are tied with the lowest number of first-choice votes, the number of second-choice votes they received are added—but only for those candidates who are tied. The candidate with the lowest combined total of their first- and second-choice votes is then eliminated. If the tie persists, third-choice votes are considered, followed by fourth-choice votes, and so on, until the tie is broken.
- When a candidate is eliminated, any ballot that ranked them as the highest remaining choice is transferred to the next preferred candidate on that ballot who is still in the race. This process continues until one candidate receives more than 50% of the votes.
Tie-break
In the event of a tie between two candidates, where second- and subsequent-choice votes cannot determine a winner, a casting vote by the presiding officer (i.e., the WFN President) will be used to break the tie.
This is a sealed vote submitted in advance by the presiding officer and is only opened and counted if a tie occurs at any stage of the election.