The University of Murcia will experience a second round of elections to choose its rector. Alicia Rubio and Samuel Baixauli will compete for the position on December 14th after failing to achieve a majority in the first round. This scenario forces the candidates to negotiate and seek consensus with the university sectors, creating a more open process but also a period of uncertainty for the academic community.
The electoral backend: a voting system that doesn't fail 🗳️
The voting process at UMU uses its own computer system that manages censuses and counts in real time. The platform, developed by the IT service, supports simultaneous access peaks without crashing, something not all universities can claim. Audit logs guarantee vote traceability, although the source code is not public. A robust design, though improvable in transparency for the more skeptical.
The good side of not having a rector: more time for meetups ☕
The uncertainty until December 14th has its positive side. Research groups can postpone meetings under the pretext of waiting for the new boss. The unions, for their part, enjoy an extra month to draft lists of demands. And the candidates, meanwhile, promise the moon. The only sure thing is that the faculty bar will remain full of discussions about who will win.