the official procedure for presidential elections goes something like this: the second-to-last meeting of the semester is presidential nominations. at this meeting, anyone or anything can be nominated to be swil president, regardless of whether or not it has been dismembered, is alive, is corporeal, etc., provided it receives a nomination and a second. obviously, it is also possible for any live nonmember who will be at swarthmore for the next calendar year to be nominated. if this happens, the nominated party should indicate whether they would actually serve if elected. if the answer is yes, then this party is considered to be a serious candidate.
the election meeting goes on for a very long time, but everyone has fun at it, so it's all good. it's useful to bring a piece of chalk and drag in the chalkboard so that the nominations can be written on it. obviously, the presidents should also write them down.
the meeting after this (the last meeting of the semester) is elections. all serious candidates should present platforms at this meeting, and anyone present is welcome to present a platform for any of the nonserious candidates. there are no particular rules for platforms except that, like sentience proofs, they shouldn't take absolutely forever. the good serious presidential platforms i've seen have a silly aspect, plus some actual points about what the candidates plan to do as president, and possibly why we should believe they will.
then voting happens. voting is in two stages, and is done on a large number of slips of paper (whoever is running the election should provide these). in the first stage, each present nonmember casts up to three votes (no more than one for each candidate). votes can be cast for any of the nominees, or any write-in candidates, and each vote is worth one point. votes are tallied by the presidents or other election administrator, and the top-scoring 5-10 candidates go on to the next round of voting.3
in the second round of voting, each present nonmember can vote for up to three of the candidates who survived the first round.4these votes are ordered. a first-place vote is worth 5 points, a second-place vote 3 points, and a third-place vote, 1 point. the election administrator tallies the votes and announces the total. (tallying takes awhile, in both rounds, so it is a good idea to have non-swilbusiness while it is happening.)