Day 18 - Wrapping up and Reaching out
Just one more day to go!
Over the last 17 days, I've tried to cover as many aspects of TallyJ as I could. I hope I haven't totally bored you with it all! My mission was to ensure that every Baha'i community has a chance to learn about TallyJ.
This is just the beginning for TallyJ and for computer-assisted tallying in Baha'i elections! As more and more communities get too big for manual counting, TallyJ will be there, ready for their use!
I've been asked a number of times whether other groups can use TallyJ. In its current form, TallyJ is aimed squarely at meeting the needs of Bahá'í communities, and incorporates all the guidance that I'm aware of, especially for Canada. However, the principles behind Baha'i elections and how they are run are not religious in any sense, and there is no reason that other groups should not adopt them.
In fact, when you have a community of peers, who are actively engaged and working together, I can't think of a better way of electing individuals for managing the administrative aspects of your community! Those elected would thus be trusted and empowered to represent the community, make decisions on its behalf, arbitrate any disagreements, and generally be a central source of authority that all the community members can turn to.
If you have ideas about how TallyJ could be used in other circumstances, please let me know!