Student Elections: A Practitioner’s Guide

Student Elections: A Practitioner’s Guide is a practical handbook for anyone responsible for administering, supporting, or overseeing student elections in post-secondary institutions.

Written from the perspective of an experienced election administrator, this book provides clear guidance on the full election cycle, including pre-nomination planning, candidate certification, campaigning, discipline, voting, counting, referendums, by-elections, appointments, post-election transition, and governance continuity. It is designed for Chief Returning Officers, student association staff, board members, election committee members, student leaders, and anyone seeking to strengthen the fairness, transparency, and credibility of student democratic processes.

Rather than treating student elections as simplified versions of public elections, this guide recognizes the unique challenges of campus democracy: short timelines, online voting, campaign conduct, accessibility, social media, student governance structures, institutional risk, and the need for procedural fairness. With practical explanations, operational checklists, examples, a glossary, and an index, the book is intended to be both readable and useful during a live election.

Whether you are running an election for the first time or refining an established process, Student Elections: A Practitioner’s Guide offers a grounded, accessible, and practitioner-focused resource for building better student elections.

Pages: 172

ISBN: 978-1-0677602-0-5