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"While we congratulate the winners, we do not have any losers. Whether they won or lost the election, putting their name in the hat and volunteering their time is to be greatly appreciated,” commented Jehangir Jasavala, the 2018 election officer when announcing the results for the Zarthoshti Anjuman of Northern California (ZANC) elections that were held on December 16, 2018. "This is the first time we used the electronic voting system and Simply Voting (the organization that facilitated online voting) was very efficient, secure and the whole process worked very smoothly,” Bomi Patel, the newly elected president for the 2019-20 term, responded to Parsiana.  

 

 

 

According to the results posted on the ZANC website, zanc.org "340 (79.3%) of 429 electors voted in this ballot” that closed at 6 p.m. Patel secured 223 (65.8%) whilst the other contender Adil Engineer got 116 (34.2%) votes. One member abstained from voting. For the post of member-at-large, Kersi Daruwalla got 197 (59.3%) votes and Khurshid Gandhi 135 (40.7%), with eight (2.4%) abstentions. Since there was only one nominee, Kerman Deboo, for the secretary’s post, no voting was required. Daruwalla, being a current trustee, will resign from that seat for as per ZANC by-laws the same person cannot simultaneously serve on the executive committee and be a trustee. The two remaining trustees will therefore select a replacement to serve out the balance of his 2018-2021 term.
Patel, being an office bearer with ZANC since 1994, brings to the current board his past experience as president, vice president, trustee and member-at-large of ZANC, as past president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA), and as current chair of FEZANA’s External Affairs Committee. He currently runs his business BB Travel Experts LLC. A software engineer, Deboo too has earlier served on the ZANC board, was active with the Sunday School and had volunteered for different ZANC events. A customer success manager with the cyber security leader Palo Alto Networks, Daruwalla has worked on earlier ZANC boards as vice president and secretary
When Patel was asked by Parsiana whether the apex body and other member associations use Simply Voting, he mentioned that only 27 associations vote on FEZANA issues. He was not sure whether other associations in North America have taken to Simply Voting. Jasavala responded that he was "thinking of writing to FEZANA so that they can spread the word to their member associations. I am available (zanc2018eo@gmail.com) to answer any questions if anyone in the other associations wants to know or needs help in setting up their election on Simply Voting site.”
Explaining the logistics, Jasavala, who has conducted many ZANC elections in the past and regularly assists the board and committees, mentioned that with the ZANC board’s support he moved to online voting after many community members sought an easier voting process than mailing absentee ballots. He found Simply Voting that has a very well designed site very responsive to his phone calls and emails. Before signing up, ZANC availed of their offer that permits a prospective customer to try out their platform with a free trial run for 10 voters. According to Jasavala they experienced "No hiccups at all. (The election) ran like a charm and there was much less work too since there was no handling of paper ballots and counting, etc. And to top it off, I think it has much less chance of fraud than paper ballots.” The cost of using the Simply Voting portal works out to USD 100 (Rs 7,019) + 0.40 (Rs 28)/voter for a single election or an annual plan that lets the user conduct up to 10 elections at USD 167 (Rs 11,723) + 0.668 (Rs 47)/voter. "After we pay, we can still add voters but it has to be done one at a time since the option to upload a list is removed. We added a handful and there was no extra charge.”
As explained on the website of Simply Voting, there are three steps to conduct online elections: election set-up, voting and results. Their system Election Manager helps create an election specifying the date, time and questions. Thereafter a voter authentication method has to be chosen and a list of eligible voters uploaded. In case of difficulty, their Rapid Support department can be consulted and one of their representatives "will hold your hand through the process (as a premium service, we can even take care of everything on your behalf).” Before voting commences, applicable fees have to be paid and an optional mass-email may be sent out.
To cast their vote on the branded voting website, voters have to authenticate their identity after which they will be presented with a tamper-proof electronic ballot. When the voter submits a ballot, the results are encrypted and kept anonymous. The voter is issued a receipt and blocked from voting for this election again.
Once voting has ended, the results are immediately tabulated and can be viewed in the Election Manager section of the website along with various reports on voting activity before publishing them. Thereafter, the results are made available to the public on the organization’s voting website and anyone is able to verify the results by downloading a file containing votes and receipt codes.