Day 4 - What else can TallyJ do for me?

As mentioned in the note on Day 2, the core of TallyJ is entering and reporting on ballots.

But, TallyJ is evolving into an entire "election system."

A typical election, in a Baha'i context, is one part of a larger meeting: the annual meeting, the unit convention, or the national convention. A local by-election may, or may not, be a part of a Feast or some other gathering. And regional council elections are usually done by mailing in ballots.

TallyJ does not force a change on how any of those meetings are held. However, the aspects of those meetings concerned with the actual voting process are often prescribed or limited by the processes used for voting.

Roll Call

An example of this is the roll call. One set of election guidelines says "One way to collect ballots is by reading names from the list of eligible voters who will deposit their ballot in the ballot box when their name is called." Larger communities may struggle to accomplish this, and revert to having a number of ballot boxes available for people to line up and drop off their ballot.

TallyJ "has an app for this"! The "Roll Call" screen is designed just for this purpose, and has proven to work well. Here's a sample view, with names from a totally fictitious election:

Front Desk Registration

Another aspect of the voting process that is often the source of problems and delays, is the registration of voters and receiving dropped off ballots. TallyJ has another screen just for that:

Ballot Analysis

The process of checking for spoiled ballots is automatically done as tellers type the ballots into TallyJ. Once all the ballots are entered, a full review and analysis is done, checking for tie votes that need to be resolved. The rules around tied votes can be complicated, especially for unit conventions! Here's the head teller's screen:

Teller's Reports

After the tallying is complete, and the results are confirmed, the head teller will usually read out the results. The Teller's Report screen can be shown at the same time, to provide a visual display of the results:

There is an option, at most elections, for those present to decide to see more information. The typical request is to see the names of all those who received a vote, along with the number of votes they received. TallyJ has such a report instantly available, ready to be printed out:

Local By-Elections

When a local by-election is required, some communities hold it in conjunction with a Feast or other event, and may have a number of locations in the city where people can cast their ballot. TallyJ can help, by letting tellers at each location enter the ballots they receive. Once all the ballots are entered, the head teller can review the results, and once approved, let tellers in each location see the Teller's Report screen with the results to be announced and/or displayed.

Future Plans

I have plans for further evolution of TallyJ, such as phone-in voting, online voting.

If you have ideas or suggestions for what TallyJ could do, please comment here, or send me a message!

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