Welcome to the Pericles Elections Editor. This program is used by elections officers to design ballots, set the settings for  elections and enter enumeration lists. It allows elections officers to change these settings, as long as voters have not yet been notified of their voting information.

The Elections Editor can only be used to configure an election once the elections officers and the election itself have been registered with the Elections Administrator.

The interface of this program is designed so that users are presented with a sequence of dialogue boxes which they can use to enter information. The information and error conditions in one dialgue box depend on the information entered in previous dialgue boxes. It is possible to move back and forth between the dialogue boxes using "OK" and "back" buttons. The dialogue boxes are as follows:

Election Selector Dialogue Box
Login Dialogue Box
Function Selection List Dialogue Box
Change Password Dialogue Box
Edit Election Settings Dialogue Box
E-Mail Dialogue Box
Dates Dialogue Box
Configurations Dialogue Box
Statistics Dialogue Box
Ballot Dialogue Box
Design Question Dialogue Box
Preview Ballot Dialogue Box
Preview E-Mail Dialogue Box

Each dialogue box of the Elections Editor may have error messages associated with it. An error window will appear whenever one of these errors occurs. The only button on these windows will be an "OK" button, which the user must press in order to do anything further in the Elections Editor.

Election Selector Dialogue Box

This dialogue box is used to choose the election which is to be modified.

Choices Available:

Election Code: the code of the election which is to be modified. This code is defined using the Elections Administrator program.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Quit: this button takes quits the Elections Editor.
OK: this button takes the user to the Login Dialogue Box.

Invalid election code: this error appears if the user presses the "OK" button after having entered an invalid election code (i.e. an election code that has not bee registered with the Elections Administrator, an election code of an election that is no longer in progress or an election code of an election which can no longer be modified (this is the case when the date on which voters are notified of their voting information passes)).

Login Dialogue Box

This dialogue box is used to allow elections officers to enter their identification information. If there are more than one elections officers registered for an election, then this dialogue box will appear several times sequentially, once for each elections officer, up to the minimum number needed to change elections settings, as specified with the Elections Administrator.

The Elections Editor will automatically quit if invalid login information is entered three times in a row. This is done to hinder automated attempts to break security.

Choices Available:

Election Officer User Name: the user name of the elections officer, as specified using the Elections Administrator program.
Election Officer Password: the password of the election officer, as specified using the Elections Administrator program. This information is starred out as it is entered, so as to prevent onlookers from reading it.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Election Selector Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Login Dialogue Box for the next elections officer. If the minimum number of elections officers needed to make changes have already logged on, then this button take the user to the Function Selection List Dialogue Box.

Invalid login information: this error appears if the user presses the "OK" button after having entered a username and password that do not match an elections officer registered for the appropriate election, as entered using the Elections Administrator program.
No login information entered: this error appears if the user presses the "OK" button without having entered a username and password.
User already logged in: this error appears if the user enters a user name and password that correspond to the login information of a user who has already logged in under the current session.

Function Selection Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to choose the type of action which they would like to perform.

Choices Available:

Edit Election Settings: this radio button allows the user to design ballots, set the settings for elections and enter enumeration lists. This option should be selected when elections officers wish to initilize the settings for an election or when they wish to edit these settings.
Change Election Officer Password: this radio button allows an election officer to change his or her password. This option has not been implemented in the current version of the software, so it is greyed out.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Login Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Edit Election Settings Dialogue Box or the Change Password Dialogue Box, depending on which option was selected.
Quit: this button takes quits the Elections Editor.

Can no longer edit this election: this error appears if the user selects the "Edit Election Settings" for an election that has already been created and for which the deadline for editing has passed. This deadline is the date that e-mails are sent out to voters or, if no e-mails are to be sent out, the date that voting begins.

Change Password Dialogue Box

This dialogue box is used to allow elections officers to change their passwords in case they are worried that it may have become compromised in some way. This dialogue box is not enabled in this version of the software.

Choices Available:

User Name: the user name of the elections officer, as specified using the Elections Administrator program.
Old Password: the old password of the elections officer. This information is starred out as it is entered, so as to prevent onlookers from reading it.
New Password: the new password of that the elections officer would like to change his or her old password to. This information is starred out as it is entered, so as to prevent onlookers from reading it.
Re-Enter New Password: the new password of that the elections officer would like to change his or her old password to. The information is re-entereded in order to prevent a typo from making an elections officer lose access to his or her account. This information is starred out as it is entered, so as to prevent onlookers from reading it.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Cancel: this button takes the user back to the Function Selection List Dialogue Box without recording any changes to the password of the elections officer.
Accept New Password:  this button takes the user back to the Function Selection List Dialogue Box. It saves the new password of the elections officer.

Invalid username: this error appears if the user presses the "Accept New Password" button after having entered a username that does not correspond to that of an elections officered registered for the current election.
Old password incorrect: this error appears if the user presses the "Accept New Password" button after having entered an old password that does not match the one registered for the user name that was entered.
New password does not match: this error appears if the user presses the "Accept New Password" button after having entered different information in the "New Password" and "Re-Enter New Password" fields.

Edit Elections Settings Dialogue Box

This dialogue box is used to enter the enumeration list for a given election. The enumeration list is a list of information on voters. Not all elections require an enumeration list. If the election in question does not require an enumeration list, then the user can simply click on the "next" button without making any other changes to this screen.

If an enumeration list is used, it must be in the form of a comma-delimmited text file. Each line must correspond to a single voter. There are four fields, which must appear in the following order:

e-mail address, vote weighting, pre-defined username, pre-defined password

All of these fields are optional, and some or all may be left blank. However, the three commas must always be present. Also, a file with only vote weighting values is invalid.

Choices Available:

Create Enumeration List: this button allows the user to enter the data to manually create a new enumeration list. This option is not implemented in the current version of the software, so it is greyed out.
Load Enumeration List: this button allows the user to load a properly formatted enumeration list from disk. The user will be provided with a dialogue box to browse the disk and select an appropriate file. The information contained on the file will be appended onto any existing voters. Repeated information will be overwritten.
Clear Voter Data: this button allows the user to erase any data that has already been read in from an enumeration list. Upon clicking this button, the user will be presented with a dialogue box asking her or him if he or she truly wishes to erase the voter data.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Function Selection List Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the E-Mail Dialogue Box.

Invalid enumeration file selected: this error appears if the user presses the "OK" button after having selected an improperly formatted enumeration list.

E-Mail Dialogue Box

The Pericles Electronic Elections System gives elections officers the options of having the system automatically generate  e-mails to be sent to voters so that they will have all of the necessary information about elections that they are registered for.

Choices Available:

Do not distribute ID information by e-mail: this check box will disable the default of sending voters election information out over e-mail to voters. This option will be greyed out if the enumeration list does not contain e-mail addresses for one or more voters.
Date to send e-mail: this text box allows the user to specify the date and time that voters will be automatically informed by e-mail of the information that they need to vote. This option will be greyed out if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option is selected. This information must be entered in the form YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm.
Message: this text box allows the user to add custom information that will appear at the top of all automatically generated e-mails. This option will be greyed out if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option is selected.
E-mail address of elections contact: this text field allows the specification of the e-mail address that will be distributed to voters over e-mail so that they will have someone to contact with any questions that they might have. This option will be greyed out if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option is selected.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Edit Election Settings Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Dates Dialogue Box.

Date not specified: this error appears when the user does NOT select the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" but does not enter valid information into the "Date to send e-mail" field.
Improperly formatted date entered: this error appears when the user has not used the proper YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm format in the "Date to send e-mail".

Dates Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to set most of the time-related information for an election. All dates must be entered in the  YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm format. None of the choices may be left blank.

This dialogue box displays the current time zone, as is read from the system on which the Elections Server is runnning.

Choices Available:

Date That Voting Begins: the date and time after which voters will be able to succesfully have their votes registered.
Date That Voting Ends: the date and time after which voters will no longer be able to succesfully have their votes registered. This is the information that will be sent to voters if e-mails are to be sent.
Date to Remove Voter Information: the date and time that the enumeration list and all of the voting information relating to individual votes is deleted.
Date to Publish Results: the date and time that the results of the election will be released. See the Statistics Dialogue Box for more information on how results are published.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the E-Mail Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Configurations Dialogue Box.

Improperly formatted information entered: this error appears when the user has not used the proper YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm format in one or more of the date choices. This error also appears if the user presses the "OK" button without having filled in all of the choices.
Improper chronology of events: this error appears when the Date That Voting Ends precedes the Date That Voting Begins, when the Date to Remove Voter Information precedes the Date That Voting Ends, when the Date to Publish Results precedes the Date That Voting Ends or when the Date That Voting Begins precedes the Date To Send E-Mail (as defined in the E-Mail Dialogue Box).

Configurations Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to set the configurations for an election.

Choices Available:

Allow voters to change their votes: this check box allows voters to change their votes if they have already voted, as long as the election has not ended.
Allow weighted votes: this check box allows elections to be held in which different voters have differently weighted votes, such as shareholders elections. The weighting for each voter's vote is given in the enumeration list. This option will be greyed out if one or more voters in the enumeration list does not have a vote weighting specified.
User name and password specified: this check box allows usernames and passwords to be specified in the enumeration list rather than randomly generated, as is the default. This is to accommodate situations such as surveys where voting does not need to be done anonymously or where it is desirable to use existing information such as a valid student numbers as identification information. This option will be greyed out if one or more voters in the enumeration list does not have a user name or password specified. It will also be greyed out if the "Do not require identification information" check box is selected.
Do not require identification information: this check box allows for elections where voters do not need user names or passwords, such as surveys. Voters will be able to log in using the Pericles Voting Client without providing any identification information. This option will be greyed out if the "User name and password specified" check box is selected.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Dates Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Statistics Dialogue Box.

Enumeration list not selected: this error appears if no valid enumeration list was selected in the Edit Election Settings Dialogue Box and the "Do not require identification information" check box is NOT selected.
Impossible for voters to vote: this error appears if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option (as defined in the E-Mail Dialogue Box) is chosen, the "Do not require identification information" option is NOT chosen and ther "Username and password specified" option is NOT chosen.

Statistics Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to make choices about what kinds of election results will be generated when the election ends and about how they will be distributed. There will be two HTML documents produced at the end of each election. The Complete Results Document contains all of the statistics that can be generated by the Pericles program, and the Public Results Document contains only the information specified below by the elections officer(s).

Choices Available:

Report the text of the winning choice: this check box causes the results for each election to include the text of the winning choice in the Public Results Document.
Report the number of votes received by each choice: this check box causes the results for each election to include the total number of votes that each choice received in the Public Results Document.
Report the percentage share of each choice: this check box causes the results for each election to include the percentage share of votes received by each choice in the Public Results Document.
E-mail address to send results files: this text box allows the user to specify an address where the two results documents will be automatically e-mailed. The results are also automatically e-mailed to all elections officers registered in the election.
Results site: this text box allows the user to specify an address where the Public Results Document will be posted. This posting will not be performed automatically by the Pericles system, so this information is only for the purpose of informing voters.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Configurations Dialogue Box.
Done: this button takes the user to the Ballot Dialogue Box.

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Ballot Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to configure the overall settings of the ballot.

Choices Available:

Election title: this text field allows the user to specify the title of the election.
Allow refusal of ballots: this check box allows voters to refuse their ballots before reading them. This is a mechanism which voters can use to express dissatisfaction with an election.
Allow questions to be spoiled: this check box allows voters to have the option of spoiling individual questions in an election. This is a mechanism which voters can use to express dissatisfaction with a particular question.
Number of questions on ballot: this text field allows the user to specify how many questions will be presented on the ballot.
E-mail address of elections contact: this text field allows the specification of the e-mail address that will be distributed to voters on ballots so that they will have someone to contact with any questions that they might have. The same value that was entered under in the "E-mail address of elections contact" (on the E-Mail Dialogue Box) will be the default value for this field.
Overall ballot Comments: any information entered in this text field will appear at the top of all ballots.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Statistics Dialogue Box.
OK: this button takes the user to the Design Question Dialogue Box.

Improperly formatted information entered: this error appears when the user enters anything but a positive integer value entered in the "Number of questions on ballot" field or if the field is left blank.

Design Question Dialogue Box

This dialogue box allows users to enter the settings for a question that will appear on the ballot for an election. This dialogure box will appear once for each question, up to the number specified in the "Number of questions on ballot" field of the Ballot Dialogue Box.

Choices Available:

Comments: this text box allows the user to specify any comments that will precede the question. This field may be left blank.
Question: this text box allows the user to specify the text of the question.
Choices: is where the possible choices that the voter may pick between are entered.
Add: this button adds the choice in the Choices field to the registered list of questions on the right.
Remove: this button removes the selected choice from the registered list of questions on the right.
Help: this button takes the user to the help screen for the Elections Editor.
Back: this button takes the user back to the Ballot Dialogue Box. If the information for one or more questions has already been entered, this butotn takes the user to the previous Design Question Dialogue Box instead.
OK: this button takes the user to a new Design Question Dialogue Box so that the next question may be entered. If the number of questions specified in the "Number of questions on ballot" field of the Ballot Dialogue Box has been reached, then this button brings up the Preview Ballot Dialogue Box.

No question entered: this error appears if nothing is entered into the "Question" field.

Preview Ballot Dialogue Box

This dialogue box displays the ballot to the elections officer(s), exactly as is will appear to voters. This is to ensure that it looks exactly the way that it should.

Choices Available:

Back: this button takes the user back to the last Design Question Dialogue Box.
Accept: this button only appears if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option was NOT selected in the E-Mail Dialogue Box. It takes the user to the Preview E-mail Dialogue Box.
Done: this button only appears if the "Do not distribute ID information by e-mail" option WAS selected in the E-Mail Dialogue Box. It stores the election information in the database and quits the Election Editor after telling the user that the information has been succesfully stored on the database.

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Preview E-Mail Dialogue Box

This dialogue box displays the automatically generated e-mail that will be sent to voters. This is to ensure that it looks exactly the way that it should.

Choices Available:

Back: this button takes the user back to the Preview Ballot Dialogue Box.
Done: this button stores the election information in the database and quits the Election Editor after telling the user that the information has been succesfully stored on the database.

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Questions or comments: cory@uoguelph.ca

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