Elections and Referenda

Confident, Compliant Elections – Without the Chaos

Running elections or referenda is tough work. They’re a big part of university life, providing students with the chance to get their voices heard and promote the issues that they care about. But for you, tight schedules, ensuring fairness, the challenge of maintaining engagement, and the mountain of admin involved, it’s easy for things to go off track.

You need a solution that is built for the unique challenges faced by student organisations that helps you reduce your admin and boosts voter turnout and engagement.

Book a demo now

Partners Supported by the MSL Elections Module

“Beginning the operational delivery of the elections I was dealing with other student issues, looked up, and realised voting had started and nothing was on fire! It all just worked.

That kind of calm is rare in election week.”- The University of the West of England SU

Read the case study

Increasing Participation

The MSL Elections and Referenda Module has been developed specifically for student organisations, to manage student elections from nomination to count, ensuring compliance with modern electoral and democratic standards. This is alongside tools to keep students informed and engaged.

With MSL’s Election Module you have the power to run and manage engaging, accessible, secure, and robust student elections for whichever system of voting you use and type of vote you need to run including:

Sabbatical elections
Part-time officers
Course and academic reps
Student group committees
Decision making and preferences
Completely online or in person

No more late-night spreadsheet stress, disjointed communications, or last-minute manual vote counting. Just a reliable voting software that works, so you and your team can focus on what really matters – getting students engaged and excited to take part.

Learn more about MSL's Elections

Student Voting Made Easy

Students want a simple, secure, and fair way to vote – and that’s exactly what they get. Whether they’re casting their vote online or using dedicated voting points around campus, the process is fast, accessible, and transparent.

Voting dashboards for your website are a great way for you to maintain voter engagement and encourage non-voter participation. When it comes to referenda, staff can manage the process or assign students to campaign groups who add content to the “for” and “against” sections of each motion. It's a great way to showcase student perspectives and support informed decision-making.

Fair Student Nominations

For candidates, it’s just as empowering. Every nominee gets their own digital space to upload their details, photo, manifesto, outline their key policies, and show why they’re the right person for the role (but nothing is published until your election administrator approves their submission).

With our Elections Module, it’s easy to personalise, update, and share – giving candidates the tools they need to reach voters and run a fair, visible, and engaging campaign. Plus, all content sits within the same system, no need for third party websites or additional barriers to participation.

See how it works for your organisation

Online and In Person Voting

Once campaigning has concluded and voting opens, you can offer voters a number of options

Online - create a dedicated area on your website and give voters the ability to cast their vote from any web-enabled device helps boost turnout. To support security and validity of those votes, MSL Elections and Referenda checks and validates voter ID and ensures multiple votes cannot be cast.
Polling booth - touchscreen voting makes it easy to promote elections around campus and gives voters a quick, convenient and secure method of participating.
StudentLink+® app - your app includes voting so you're sure of reaching voters on their favourite devices wherever they are.

With MSL Elections and Referenda, each time a vote is cast through their account they will receive a notification to help tackle electoral fraud.

Smart Data = Better Engagement

The MSL Elections and Referenda Module comes complete with a suite of built-in reports and dashboards. With this data at your fingertips, you’ll have access to all the data you need to understand your elections successes and opportunities for future development.

Using this data, you’ll have rich insights such as voting profiles by hour/post/motion, voter IP reporting, historical comparisons, and candidate and voter demographics right at your fingertips.

Reporting

MSL Elections comes equipped with several reporting tools to help increase engagement which are easily accessible during and after voting:

Targeted content to display specific messages based on the viewer’s current voting status
Generated lists of voters and non-voters to target via email/SMS
Real-time voting stats to display up-to-the-minute voter turnout on your website to keep candidates informed and voters engaged

Popular Features of MSL’s Elections Module

Supports First Past the Post (FPTP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV) counting – with adjustable quota options.

Let student campaign groups add “for/against” content to referenda motions.

Counts can be done in private or publicly. Our MSL Elections experts can even run it for you so it can be ready to publish.

Live dashboards and voter stats
to boost visibility.

Ability to run multiple elections and referenda at once.

Export data in Open STV format
for full transparency.

Drill down into voter behaviour with detailed reports.

Add, manage and schedule winning candidates easily.

Track quorum and voting progress
in real time.

Digital and in-person
voting options.

Robust safeguarding
and security features.

Find out how MSL can work for you

Why MSL Elections and Referenda is the Elections platform of choice

Designed with the unique needs of student democracy in mind, MSL’s Elections and Referenda Module powers secure, inclusive, and easy-to-run elections at every level – from course reps to full-time officers.

Ease of use: Once set up, the elections process can be replicated with minimal admin, saving time and reducing errors across repeated or complex voting cycles.
Fairness: From randomly ordering candidate names on ballots to clear, customisable voting rules, every aspect is built to ensure a level playing field and transparent outcomes.
Security: With robust verification processes and data cleansing as standard, only eligible members can vote – no duplicates, no errors, no stress.
Adaptability: Tailor elections by faculty, year group, or role. Let candidates self-define where needed and run elections that reflect your community’s diversity and structure.
Powerful communication tools: Engage students before, during and after voting with integrated email and announcement features all from the same platform!
Support that knows student elections inside out: From your first election setup to your most complex cross-campus vote, our experienced team is on hand with expert advice and responsive support.

MSL Elections is trusted by over 100 students’ unions and institutions because it makes democratic participation simple, secure, and scalable.

Talk to our team

Ready to Take the Stress Out of Elections?

Whether you’re planning your next cross-campus vote or looking to refresh your approach to student democracy, we’re here to help. Pop your details here and one of our friendly experts will talk you through how MSL Elections and Referenda can work for your organisation.

Let’s make student democracy simple, secure, and successful!