Voting FAQs

Campus-Wide Elections now uses a Plurality voting system. Students can choose a pre-determined number of candidates, and each selected candidate gets one vote. For example, in the First-Year Representative election, voters can pick up to two candidates. The two with the most votes win. If there's a tie, a runoff will be held.

This change aligns the University election policy with the procedures followed by other academic institutions, the state government and the federal government. Under the Plurality system, the "winner takes all." If candidate A receives 500 votes and candidate B receives 501, Candidate B will take the seat.

Runoff elections will be held if there is a tie in votes for the winning candidate(s). Runoff voting will be held two consecutive weekdays after the initial voting election day. An additional $100.00 campaign spending limit can be used for runoff campaigning.

The Election Supervisory Board (ESB) will email the ballot link to students when the voting period begins. Each student that is eligible to vote will log into HornsLink with their UT EID to access the ballot. Until the student clicks "Submit My Vote" at the end of the ballot, the votes are not counted. Up until the polls close, the student may modify selections until they click "Submit My Vote" at the end of the ballot.

Office of the Dean of Students and ITS teams are prepared for a wide variety of challenges related to casting ballots. The most common issue is EID password or login. If a student does not know their EID password, or gets locked out, they should contact the UT Service Desk at 512-475-9400. Students must outreach to the appropriate entity before the voting deadline.

The Office of the Dean of Students and the Election Supervisory Board will independently calculate and verify the results.

Verified, duplicable results and process are reviewed against the Campus-Wide Election code in certification.