The College Council elections at Greenford College had always been an event you could hear before you saw. The morning would begin with candidates handing out flyers outside the cafeteria, music from portable speakers bouncing off the courtyard walls, and friends urging friends to “go vote before lunch.”
And then… the long wait.
A single voting room. Paper lists. Volunteers ticking names by hand. If you were lucky, you got through in 20 minutes. If you weren’t, you stood in a hallway wondering if you’d miss your next class. Some years, rain soaked the crowds outside, smudging ink on flyers and tempers alike.
This was the norm — until last year.
A different kind of election day
When the Student Activities Office announced they were moving the entire process to OnlineVotingApp.com, there were plenty of raised eyebrows. Would it feel less “official” if voting happened on a screen? Would people take it seriously?
Election morning arrived quietly — no crowds, no shuffling queues. Instead, every registered student received a personal link to their secure voting page. They logged in using their student ID and password, confirmed their identity with a quick OTP sent to their phone, and voted in less time than it took to pour a coffee.
By mid-afternoon, something interesting happened: people started talking about the election again. Not about waiting times or missing classes — but about the candidates and their platforms. And because the system locked each vote to a single device, there was no whisper of “vote stuffing” that sometimes made its way around in earlier years.
Why it worked so well
What really surprised the faculty was the turnout. Historically, College Council elections had hovered around 55% participation. That year, it jumped to 83%. Students abroad on exchange programs voted. Commuters who could never make it to campus during election hours finally had a say.
Behind the scenes, the platform handled every stage — from collecting nominations weeks before, to tallying results instantly once polls closed. No one had to count ballots into the night or cross-check lists by hand. It freed up the elections committee to focus on engagement, not logistics.
A new tradition begins
When the results came in, the council president-elect gave a short victory speech in the same courtyard where students had once queued for hours. “We proved we can have a fair, transparent, and inclusive election without wasting half the day standing in line,” she said, smiling into the crowd.
Now, at Greenford, voting week feels less like a bureaucratic chore and more like a campus-wide celebration. Candidates still hand out flyers and play music — but the vote itself has moved to where students live their lives: online, on devices they already trust.
The next election? There’s no question. The paper lists are gone for good.
