Elections Policy

Policy Purpose

Create a uniform and impartial system of conducting elections for faculty officers.

Policy Details

Policy Category

Faculty

Effective Date

07/01/2026

Policy Statement

  1. Department Chairs:

    Procedures for voting for department chairs are contained within the Department Chair Selection and Recall Policy. That policy shall take precedence in the event any conflict exists between it and this policy.

  2. Faculty Senators:
    1. All Faculty Senate elections will take place as described in this policy.
    2. For School Senators, Library Senators & Counseling Senators, the candidate must be a Tenured full-time academic Faculty member, a Tenure-Track full-time academic Faculty member or a Market Hire full-time academic Faculty Member with more than half of their position within the school/department they wish to represent. Emergency Hires, Part-time Faculty and Administrative Faculty are not eligible to serve in the School Senate positions.
    3. Pursuant to the Faculty Senate Bylaws, senators are apportioned to and represent the individual schools. To ensure fair representation, the schools may divide and elect their senators according to departments or other units within the school. Voting groups will be conducted at the school level, unless specific subgroups are decided by a majority vote within the school.
    4. Any CSN full-time Academic or Administrative faculty may nominate an eligible faculty member to serve as a senator. The nominee must confirm willingness to serve in writing to the Faculty Senate Chair and the Chair of the Elections Committee.
  3. Faculty Senate Chair-Elect:
    1. Any CSN full-time Academic or Administrative faculty may nominate an eligible faculty member to serve as Faculty Senate Chair-Elect. The nominee must confirm willingness to serve in writing to Faculty Senate Chair and Chair of the Elections Committee.
    2. For Senate Chair-Elect, the candidate must be a Tenured full-time academic Faculty member, a Tenure-Track full-time academic Faculty member or a Market Hire full-time academic Faculty Member. Emergency Hires, Part-time Faculty and administrative faculty are not eligible to serve as Faculty Senate Chair.
  4. When voting is to take place for Emeritus Faculty voting or a Department Chairperson Recall, it will be conducted by the Faculty Senate Elections Committee.
  5. Any election discrepancies not directly or clearly addressed in this policy shall be resolved by an immediate discussion and vote by the Elections Committee. Should a candidate involved in the discrepancy be a member of the committee, that member may participate in the discussion, but will be recused from any subsequent vote. On all such matters, the decision of the Elections Committee will be final.

Procedure

  1. After making any adjustments of representation according to the apportionment of senators as dictated by the Senate Bylaws and no later than February 1, the Faculty Senate Chair or Elections Committee Chair will notify the faculty within the college, school and/or department that will need to hold senator, department chair and/or Faculty Senate Chair-Elect elections.
  2. Nominations for all positions must be sent via CSN email to the Faculty Senate Chair and Chair of the Elections Committee dated no later than February 28, 5:00pm PST. Nominations dated after February 28, 5:00pm PST will not be considered, regardless of if there are open seats for any position. All dates for elections stated in this policy, the Chair Selection & Recall Policy or any other policy involving elections will be strictly followed, even if they happen to occur on non-working days.
    1. The Faculty Senate Chair and the Elections Committee Chair will send out weekly reminders via the “All Faculty” distribution list to solicit nominations. Weekly reminders will be sent beginning February 1.
    2. The Faculty Senate Chair and the Elections Committee Chair cannot extend the nomination period without consulting the Elections Committee and Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
    3. The full ballot with all eligible candidates will be distributed to faculty after March 1, 5:00pm, PST, or any extension as authorized by sub (2) above.
  3. Open seats after Nomination Deadline
    1. If a current Faculty Senator is vacated prior to September 1, a Special Election will be held to fill that seat before September 30. This will not apply to seats that were not filled the prior spring.
    2. Per the Department Chair policy, if there is a vacancy for a Department Chair, one will be appointed by the President.
    3. If there are no nominations for Faculty Senate Chair-Elect, a special election will be held within 14 calendar days.
  4. The Chair of the Elections Committee will be responsible for creating electronic voting groups for senator, Faculty Senate Chair-Elect and/or department chair elections within the college’s Learning Management System (LMS). The Elections Committee will be responsible for verifying the eligibility of the members of each voting group.
  5. Campaigning:
    1. The Elections Committee will solicit and accept candidate statements for all positions, and have the statements posted in the LMS prior to March 30. Once the established deadline has passed, no additional statements will be included in the Election shells in the LMS.
    2. As indicated in the Department Chair Selection and Recall Policy, during March, all departments holding a chair election shall have a single departmental meeting to allow for the candidates to speak and department members to ask questions. The candidates shall agree upon a department member to preside over the discussion. If no agreement can be reached over a presider, the Elections Committee Chair (or designee from outside of the department) shall serve as the presider.
    3. The primary medium for those campaigning for senator seats will be through the candidate statements for publication in the LMS. Candidates are encouraged to meet in-person with the members of their voting groups, but no formal group-wide meeting will be held, unless the candidates choose to coordinate one on their own.
    4. Candidates for Faculty Senate Chair-Elect will be invited to address the Senate during its March meeting. The Faculty Senate Chair shall preside over the discussion. The Elections Committee Chair will remind the Faculty Senate Chair of this requirement prior to the March meeting Agenda creation.
  6. Ballot Formation, Tabulation and Reporting Results:
    1. Electronic voting groups will be able to vote in the LMS from April 1 through April 14 at 5 PM, even if those dates fall on non-college workdays.
    2. Every initial ballot will include a “None of the These” option.
      1. A vote cast for “None of the These” shall be disregarded in the results tabulation for determining a majority, but the number of “None of the These” votes will be reported with the results.
      2. If “None of the These” receives more votes than all candidates combined in a department chair election, that fact will be reported to the College President along with the corresponding recommendation concerning the appointment of the department chair.
    3. Results will be tabulated in the LMS upon the close of the election and reported to the Faculty Senate Chair by the Chair of the Elections Committee on or before the start of the second following workday.
    4. The Faculty Senate Chair will announce the results to all eligible voters by the end of the second business day following the close of the election.
  7. Determination of Results
    1. Department chair election results will be determined as dictated in the Department Chair Selection and Recall Policy.
    2. Faculty Senator Elections:
      1. Some units or schools may have more than one senator seat up for election each year. In such cases, a single electronic voting group and ballot including all corresponding candidates shall be produced. Each voter in the group will receive votes equal to the number of open seats. For example, if there are three seats under consideration, each member of the voting group may vote for up to three distinct candidates.
      2. Up to the number of open seats, the number of candidates receiving the highest number of votes in the election will be elected as senators for that unit or school. For example, in a unit or school with two open seats, the candidates with the 1st and 2nd highest vote totals will be elected.
      3. In an election for a single seat where the voting results in a tie between candidates, a run-off election will be held between the tied candidates.
      4. In an election for multiple seats where voting for the final seat(s) results in a tie, winners shall be declared up to the tie, and a run-off election will be held between the tied candidates to determine the winner for the final seat(s).
      5. In an election for multiple seats where voting results in a tie that is not in a determining position, no run-off election will be held. For example, if the unit has three (3) open seats and the election results in a three-way tie, no run-off is needed; all three candidates would be elected. Similarly, if there was a tie between the top two candidates or a tie between the second and third place candidates, no run-off is needed; all three candidates in question would be elected.
    3. Faculty Senate Chair-Elect:
      1. If there is a single candidate, that individual will be the winner.
      2. If there are two or more candidates and one of them has received the majority of votes, that individual will be the winner.
      3. If there are two or more candidates with neither of them receiving a majority of votes, all the candidates who received the top two vote tallies will participate in a run-off election. For example, if Candidate A gets 101 votes, and Candidates B and C each get 100 votes, all three candidates will participate in a run-off election.
    4. Run-Off Elections:
      1. Any necessary run-off elections will begin immediately following the tabulation of the initial balloting and run for seven (7) calendar days.
      2. Any run-off election will utilize the same electronic voting groups as the corresponding inconclusive election.
      3. “None of the These” will not be a ballot option in any run-off election.
      4. The candidate receiving a plurality of votes in the run-off election shall be declared the winner.
      5. If the run-off election is being held for multiple seats, the corresponding number of candidates with the highest pluralities shall be declared the winners.
      6. In the event of a place-determining tie in a run-off Senate election, the winner(s) will be determined by drawing cards from a standard deck of cards.
        1. The card draw will be conducted by the Chair of the Elections Committee, will take place within the first two workdays following the close of the Runoff election, and will take place in the Faculty Senate Office, with the Faculty Senate Chair (or designee) serving as a witness.
        2. Only candidates tied for the specified place will participate in the card draw, and each participant will draw one card.
        3. Participants unable to attend the card draw will be expected to designate a proxy to draw for them.
        4. Ace is the high card in each suit, and the participant(s) with the highest ranked card(s) will be declared the winner(s).
        5. In the event of participants drawing cards with the same numeric rank, the card suits are ranked Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, and then Clubs (for example, the King of Spades is ranked higher than the King of Clubs).
  8. Contesting An Election
    1. Only candidates and eligible voters in an election have standing to contest that election.
    2. A candidate or eligible voter wishing to contest election results must do so in writing to the Chair of the Election Committee and the Faculty Senate Chair within seven (7) calendar days, regardless of if the college is on Spring Break, and by 5:00pm PST of the seventh calendar day of after the official announcement of the election results. In their petition contesting the election, the candidate or voter must expressly state the grounds on which they are contesting the election.
    3. Elections may be contested on the basis of:
      1. Technical error (technical issues such as LMS system failure, ballot(s) not configured correctly)
      2. Clerical error in recording or announcing the vote (inaccurate number of votes recorded, or the losing candidate(s) incorrectly identified as the winning candidate)
      3. Voting by ineligible voters (Emergency Hires, Adjunct Faculty, Classified Faculty, Administrative Faculty)
      4. Conflict of interest
      5. Other issues not identified in this policy.
  9. Within seven (7) calendar days by 7:00pm PST of receiving a petition contesting an election, the Chair of the Elections Committee shall call a meeting of the Elections Committee to review the petition and corresponding election results. Candidates in the election, nor petitioners, will not be present at the meeting.
    1. The Election Committee Chair and the Faculty Senate Chair may provide to the Elections Committee a written response to the contest petition. The Election Committee shall consider the contest petition and the response and, within seven (7) calendar days from the aforementioned meeting (face-to-face or online), make a recommendation for disposition and/or any further action. The Elections Committee may draw upon the resources of OTS and/or Office of E-Learning to investigate any suspected technical problems.
    2. Should the Elections Committee be unable to meet in person due to scheduling conflicts, the Faculty Senate Chair and candidates will be notified. The petition will then be discussed and a recommendation, which will be sent to the full Faculty Senate Chair, is rendered via CSN email.
    3. Any Election Committee member who is a candidate for the contested election shall recuse him/herself from any investigation and cannot vote on the Committee’s recommendations.
    4. The Committee’s recommendations shall be sent to the Faculty Senate Chair via CSN email for distribution to the candidates, and the Faculty Senate will decide the matter by majority vote at the May Faculty Senate meeting.
    5. The decision of the Faculty Senate shall be final.

Authority and Cross Reference Links

Disclaimer

The president has the discretion to suspend or rescind all or any part of this policy or related procedure(s). The president shall notify the appropriate CSN personnel, including the Executive Sponsor and shared governance leaders, of the suspension or rescission.

Questions about this policy should be referred to the Executive Sponsor.

Most Recent Changes

Version 3:

  1. Section III: Updates on procedures, based on recent experiences to make it more clear to all parties involved.
  2. Section III: Updates on procedures for Vacancies for Faculty Senators.
  3. Section II.B: Added language to mirror what is stated in The CSN Faculty Senate Bylaws on eligibility of Senators and Senate Chair.
  4. Section II.D: Added language declaring the Elections Committee is the default group to run every faculty election.
  5. Section III.B: Changed Nomination Deadline to be in alignment with Chair Selection Policy.

Attachments

  • Appendix A: History
  • Appendix B: Glossary

Appendix A: History

Version 1:

  • 06/12/2017: Approved by CSN President Michael D. Richards
  • 06/05/2017: Reviewed for legal sufficiency by General Counsel (R. Hinckley)
  • 05/16/2017: Recommended by Faculty Senate (A. Pandey)
  • 4/24/2017: Submitted by Faculty Senate Elections Committee (E. Moreau)

Version 2:

  • 12/16/2019: Approved by CSN President Federico Zaragoza
  • 12/13/2019: Reviewed for legal sufficiency by General Counsel (R. Hinckley)
  • 11/08/2019: Recommended by Faculty Senate (A. Bell)
  • 11/08/2019: Submitted by Faculty Senate Elections Committee (N. Webb)
  1. Section II.B.2: Faculty Senator nominations.
  2. Section II.C: Faculty Senate Chair-Elect nominations.
  3. Section III.B,C: Nomination deadlines.
  4. Section III.G.3: Single candidate election.
  5. Section III.H, I.: Deadline calculation and contesting an election provision.
  6. Appendix B - Glossary: Learning Management System.
  7. Various formatting and grammatical corrections.

Version 3:

  • 03/2025: Approved by CSN President Stacy Klippenstein
  • 03/2026: Reviewed for legal sufficiency by General Counsel (T. Russom)
  • 3/14/2026: Recommended by Faculty Senate (T. Sherman)
  • 1/15/2026: Submitted by Faculty Senate Elections Committee (P. Villa)

Appendix B: Glossary

Faculty List

List of faculty noting department membership supplied by Human Resources. This will serve as the master list of eligible voters that form the electronic voting groups.

Electronic Voting Groups

Computer-assisted or online groups created to manage elections governed by this policy. The electronic voting groups must meet the following criteria:

  1. Voting is limited to a secure list of eligible faculty.
  2. Faculty members have easy access to the voting portal.
  3. Multiple votes from a single voter are not possible.
  4. Access to voting records is limited and controlled.
  5. Vote results are automatically tabulated.
  6. At the discretion of the Elections Committee, electronic voting groups for different offices may be combined to streamline the process. For example, one large group may be created to manage both Faculty Senate Chair-Elect and Senator elections where the Chair-Elect voting is open to all and Senator elections are limited by dividing voters into appropriate subgroups using selective access features of the system.

Learning Management System

The Learning Management System (LMS) system, which provides for electronic voting, used by CSN meets the criteria set forth by the electronic voting groups.

Majority

The number of votes cast for a candidate is more than half of those counted.

Plurality

The number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other candidate but does not receive an absolute majority. For example, in a three-candidate election, if Candidate A has 100 votes, Candidate B has 90 votes, and Candidate C has 80 votes, Candidate A has a plurality of votes, but no candidate has the majority of votes.