General Information

The UPV bodies that are elected through some form of electoral process are as follows: 

Single-person governing and representative bodies: 

• President (male or female) 

• School Principal and Dean of the Faculty. 

• Department Director (male or female) 

• Director of the University Research Institute. 

• Director of an independent research unit. 

Governing bodies and collegial representative bodies: 

• University Senate (and University Senate Executive Committee). 

• Governing Council. 

• School and Faculty Council 

• Doctoral School Steering Committee. 

• Department Council. 

• Board of the University Research Institute. 

• Scientific and Technical Advisory Board of the in-house research unit. 

Governing and Participatory Bodies: 

• School and Faculty Coordinator. 

• Department Coordinator 

• Coordinator of the University Research Institute. 

• Coordinator of an in-house research unit 

Ombudsman’s Office University Ombudsman’s Office 

Students 

• Student Representatives at the Schools. 

• President of the Student Council. 

In the UPV’s electoral processes, the university community votes, which is composed of the following groups: university faculty who are civil servants and tenured faculty members, emeritus faculty, full-time non-tenure-track faculty and researchers, non-tenured part-time teaching and research staff, research staff, technical, management, administrative, and service staff, and students. Each of these groups may vote only in those elections specified by the applicable regulations for each case. 

Weighted voting is a mechanism whereby, to determine the final result of an election, the votes received by each candidate must be grouped according to the demographic group to which they belong, so that the corresponding weighting coefficient can be applied to them. Thus, even if a candidate receives many more votes from a particular group, their influence is limited to the weighting percentage assigned to that group. At our university, this mechanism is applied in elections for the president, as well as in elections for school directors and deans.

If the description above isn’t clear enough, you could include an example and add something like this:

For example, in the case of elections for the position of rector, the following weighting coefficients are established:

• University faculty members who are civil servants and tenured professors: 59%
• Non-tenured teaching and research staff: 4%
• Non-tenure-track research staff: 7%
• Technical, management, administrative, and service staff: 9%
• Students: 21%

If the number of votes received by two candidates from each of the groups were as follows:

Groups	Candidate A	Candidate B	Total votes
Government Officials and PPL	600	400	1,000
Non-permanent PDI	300	450	750
Non-permanent PI	250	270	520
PTGAS	320	230	550
Students	2,500	3,700	6,200
TOTAL	3,970	5,050	9,020

Although Candidate B received 1,080 more votes than Candidate A, when the above weighting coefficients are applied, Candidate A would emerge as the winner with 54.07% of the weighted vote.

Groups	Weighted Vote for Candidate A	Weighted Vote for Candidate B
Government Officials and PPL	35.40% (600 / 1,000 × 0.59)	23.60% (400 / 1,000 × 0.59)
Non-permanent PDI	1.60% (300 / 750 × 0.04)	2.40% (450 / 750 × 0.04)
Non-permanent PI	3.37% (250 / 520 x 0.07)	3.63% (270 / 520 × 0.07)
PTGAS	5.24% (320 / 550 × 0.09)	3.76% (230 / 550 × 0.09)
Students	8.47% (2,500 / 6,200 × 0.21)	12.53% (3,700 / 6,200 × 0.21)
TOTAL	54.07%	45.93%

On the other hand, the first frequently asked question lists the following under “Governing Bodies and Participation”:

• School and Faculty Coordinator. 
• Department Coordinator 
• Coordinator of the University Research Institute. 
• Coordinator of an in-house research unit 

These coordinators report to the directors of each of the units, so it should be:

• Coordinator of school principals and college deans. 
• Coordinator of Department Chairs 
• Coordinator of the Directors of the University Research Institute. 
• Coordinator of Directors of In-House Research Units 

Since voting is a personal and secret process, and given that there is currently no rule preventing candidates from voting for themselves, this option is possible in both electronic and in-person voting.