ElectionChamp
Cumulative Voting Online for Board Elections
Give each voter one vote per open seat and let them spread or stack those votes. ElectionChamp counts the totals the moment voting closes.
Cumulative voting online works like a paper cumulative ballot. Each voter gets as many votes as there are seats to fill. Voters can give all their votes to one candidate or spread them across several. The candidates with the highest totals win. ElectionChamp counts cumulative questions automatically, and weighted voting works alongside it. Use cumulative voting only where your bylaws or state corporate law provide for it.
How cumulative voting works
In a standard multi-seat election, each voter marks up to one candidate per seat. Cumulative voting keeps the same number of votes but drops the one-per-candidate limit. A voter electing 3 directors has 3 votes. They can give 1 vote each to three candidates, 2 votes to one and 1 to another, or all 3 to a single candidate.
Putting several votes on one candidate is called stacking, or plumping. The candidates with the highest totals fill the seats. This lets an organized minority concentrate its votes and win at least one seat. Under one-vote-per-seat plurality, a majority bloc can fill every seat.
Cumulative voting example with a minority bloc
A housing co-op elects 3 directors. 100 members vote, each with 3 votes, so 300 votes are cast. A group of 60 members backs Alex, Bea and Carl. A group of 40 members backs Dee.
Under cumulative voting, the 60 members spread their 180 votes unevenly across their three candidates. The 40 members stack all 120 of their votes on Dee. For comparison, the last column shows a one-vote-per-seat plurality ballot where the 40 members mark only Dee.
| Candidate | Cumulative votes | Result | Plurality votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dee | 120 | Elected | 40 |
| Alex | 70 | Elected | 60 |
| Bea | 60 | Elected | 60 |
| Carl | 50 | Not elected | 60 |
With cumulative voting, the minority wins one of three seats. With plurality, the majority's three candidates tie at 60 and take every seat. To guarantee one seat, a bloc needs more than the total votes divided by the seats plus one. Here that is 300 divided by 4, which is 75, so 76 votes. That takes 26 members stacking all 3 votes.
Combining cumulative voting with weighted votes
Some organizations vote by shares or units instead of one member, one vote. Turn on Weighted ballots in the Start step, and the Voters step adds a Weight column. Each voter gets a whole number, such as 1, 2 or 10. Decimal weights are not supported, so convert percentages by multiplying them all by the same factor (2.5% becomes 25).
Weights work with every voting method, including cumulative. Results show weighted totals, so a voter with weight 50 counts 50 times as much as a voter with weight 1. Compare the weighted totals against the rules your documents set.
Cumulative voting for board elections: check your rules first
Whether you may use cumulative voting is a legal question. Articles of incorporation, bylaws, shareholder agreements and state corporate law all affect it, and the answer differs from one organization to the next. Rules for HOAs and cooperatives vary too.
Read your governing documents before you build the ballot. Confirm with your bylaws and counsel, including what your state corporate law says about director elections.
How to run cumulative voting online in ElectionChamp
- On the Start step, name the election and pick when voting opens and closes.
- On the Ballot step, add a ballot item and choose Cumulative.
- Add the candidates and set Total winners to the number of open seats. The Ballot step explains the question for you, for example: "Each voter has 3 votes to give all to one candidate or spread among several."
- Write voter instructions that explain stacking. The ballot already tells each voter: "You have 3 votes. Give them all to one candidate or spread them among several."
- Add your voters on the Voters step. If votes follow shares or units, turn on Weighted ballots in Start first and fill the Weight column.
- Check the phone preview, then launch.
When voting closes, results show each candidate's total and the winners, and you can download them as CSV. Anonymous ballots and an exportable audit log help if a group questions the outcome. Cumulative voting is on every plan, priced per election. See pricing.
Cumulative Voting Questions
Each voter gets as many votes as there are seats. They can spread the votes across candidates or stack them on one, and the highest totals win.
It lets a minority group concentrate its votes and win at least one seat. Under one-vote-per-seat plurality, a majority bloc can fill every seat.
More than the total votes cast divided by the number of seats plus one. With 300 votes and 3 seats, that is 76 votes.
Yes. Turn on Weighted ballots in the Start step, then add a whole-number weight for each voter on the Voters step. Results show weighted totals.
It depends on your articles, bylaws and state corporate law. Confirm with your bylaws and counsel before you use it.
Set up cumulative voting for your next board election
Every voting method, weighted voting included, is on every plan. Free up to 20 voters, $10 flat for 21 to 200, then $0.05 per voter.
Questions? Email support@electionchamp.com