The Election Committee shall perform duties in accordance with Articles 5.4 and 5.5 of the By-Laws and Section E of the Operating Policies and Procedures Manual, Part I. The text of these items is provided in the Appendix at the end of this document.

Guidelines

In implementing the election By-laws the Election Committee shall:

1. Arrange for nominations for election of Directors and Officers of the Society to be solicited in an issue of Liaison. The election notice should appear in Liaison no later than August 31. Prepare a slate of candidates for election, obtain agreement from the candidates, and request that each candidate send biographical information to the Chair of the Election Committee. In the past it was suggested that this occur by early December. Current practice is to complete this task by the end of October.
2. Arrange for the slate of candidates to appear in Liaison along with a request for further nominations for any position made through a petition signed by at least five individual members in good standing, and communicated to the Committee on or before March 1. Current practice is for this slate to appear, without biographical information, in Liaison by the end of November and with biographical information in Liaison by the end of  February. If additional nominations are received on or before March 1, the final list of candidates is distributed electronically.
3. Request that each additional nominee send biographical information to the Chair.
   
      a. Prepare, in conjunction with the SSC Office, the electronic ballot and a brief biographical sketch of each candidate.
          i.  A paper ballot should be prepared and sent to any members who request it. 
          ii. When a person is a candidate for a Society office and a Section office, in the interests of clarity the biography of such candidates should appear in both places.
   
      b. Ensure that the SSC Office sends on or before April 15 a ballot to each individual member of the Society who is eligible to vote, together with the appropriate instructions and a link to a brief biographical sketch of each candidate (in both official languages) posted online.
   
      c. Supervise the election and certify the outcome of the voting to the Board of Directors. The Chair of the Elections Committee, the SSC Executive Assistant and a third SSC member (selected by the Chair after consulting with the Executive Committee) have direct access to the results of the electronic voting. A notation on the ballot should specify the day on which the ballots are to be counted. Ballots arriving after that day may not be opened or counted. 
    
4. Inform the Executive Committee of the results of the Election (vote tallies to be reported only to the Executive Committee).
5. Write to all candidates in the election, thanking them for running and informing them of their own results. (To be done as far in advance of the Annual Meeting as possible; in view of the 30 day period mandated for members to vote, this will normally occur on or about May 15.)

Note:

• At the 1996 Spring Board Meeting a new procedural rule was suggested, which was followed in the 1997 election, namely, that the date announced as the deadline for receipt of ballots is the date that ballots are to be counted.
• At the 2007 Fall Board Meeting, the following motion was adopted.
  
  MOTION: that the Executive Committee make the necessary arrangements for the 2008 elections to be held electronically, if feasible / / que le Comité exécutif prenne les mesures nécessaires en vue de la tenue d'élections par voie électronique en 2008, si possible.
  
  As a result, the 2008 Election was held electronically, with the voting period from April 15 to May 15.
   
• Subsequent elections will continue to be held electronically. 

Suggested Election Timetable Reflecting Current Practice: (pdf) 

Section Elections

The election of Section officers shall take place annually at the same time as the Annual Election of the Society. Only those members of the Society who are also members of a given Section on April 1 are eligible to vote in the election of officers for that Section in that year.

The election of Section officers is conducted by the Election Committee as part of the Society elections. Past- Presidents of the Sections are members of the committee and participate in all the activities of the committee. In addition, they serve as liaison with the Section Election Committees. Sections shall provide the SSC Election Committee with Section slates and biographies of candidates in accordance to the schedule given in the Election Timetable.

Appendix: (pdf)