ELECTION GUIDELINES FOR SUBORGANIZATION OFFICERS
Elections of both departmental and nondepartmental suborganization officers should be held during the last few weeks of each spring semester and no later than the second week of every fall semester. Departmental suborganizations must also elect Senators who will act as representatives of their organizations in the GSO Senate. Nondepartmental suborganizations will appoint representatives to the Senate through the Sociocultural and Multicultural Assembly (SCMA). To be valid, departmental organization elections must be open to all registered graduate students in the respective department, school, or program offering a graduate degree. Likewise, nondepartmental organization elections must also be open to all respective members. Both departmental and nondepartmental suborganizations must elect at least a president, vice-president and treasurer. The election of a secretary or other officers is left to the discretion of each organization. However, all departmental organizations must also elect a representative (Senator) to attend all senate meetings throughout the academic year. The election of an alternate senator to attend senate meetings in the absence of the organization’s senator is also highly recommended. Elections may be held by postal ballot or on site, as determined by an advertised meeting of the graduate students in the suborganization, but the electorate shall have at least one full week when classes are in session to return their ballot.

NOTIFICATION
The list of candidates and method of voting must be announced publicly and at least one week in advance of the beginning of the election.

ELECTIONS IN PERSON
Elections can be held through a properly publicized meeting. This meeting must be scheduled a week in advance, and at such a time that is convenient for the majority of graduate students. Candidates are elected by a majority vote of graduate students present at the properly announced meeting.

ELECTIONS BY BALLOT
Elections can be held by a mail ballot. Ballots must be distributed to every graduate student in the department. The ballots must include either an envelope or a space for a signature and name. This is neces- sary to ensure that there is only one ballot per graduate student. This envelope or space must be separated from the ballot prior to the actual counting of ballots in order to ensure a secret ballot. The ballots must be returned to a clearly advertised location. The deadline for the return of ballots is final. If there is any problem with the collection of ballots the deadline cannot be extended, but rather the election must be restarted from the initial notification process.

COUNTING OF BALLOTS
Ballots shall be counted by no less than three people, no more than one of which may be a candidate in the election. The suborganization shall be responsible for providing the GSO Vice President with a List of Officers Form, including the names and contact information of all elected officers (and senators) and signed by the president and treasurer of the organization. These forms are available in the GSO Office. Access to allocated monies as well as commencement of voter status of elected Senators will be possible only upon submission of this form to the GSO Vice President.