How to set up an election, step by step

Before you start

Have your member list open in Excel or Google Sheets: you paste it in step 3. No list yet? Save what you have and add the voters later.

Then choose how to begin. On your first visit, My elections offers two ways:

• Start from a template: the ballot, settings and invitation are filled in for common votes, such as a board election, an annual HOA meeting, union officers, a bylaws amendment or a budget approval. Press Browse templates, then Use This Template on the one you want. You can change anything before you launch.
• Start from scratch: a blank ballot. You write the questions and choose how members vote.

Once you have an election, the same two choices are under the New election button at the top of My elections.

The five steps at a glance

The steps run across the top of every setup page. A finished step shows a check mark.

Step 1: Start

Start puts the name, the voting dates and the settings on one page.

1. Type the Election name (up to 60 characters) and the Organization (up to 120). On a new election, the organization from your last election is filled in for you.
2. Add a Logo if you like: a PNG or JPG up to 1.5 MB. It appears on the ballot and in the invitation emails.
3. Set Voting opens and Voting closes. Press Now to open voting as soon as you launch, and use Open for (3 days, 1 week or 2 weeks) to set the close. Check the time zone named under the dates.
4. Under Settings, choose who can see results while voting is open, how voters get their key (Email, Text message, Hand out keys, or more than one), and any extra columns for your voter list (Voter label, Ballot IDs, Weighted ballots).
5. Press Continue to ballot. Saving Start the first time creates your draft.

The Your election so far panel beside the form sums up your choices as you go. Read more about voting dates and the time zone, results visibility, how voters get their key and weighted voting.

Step 2: Ballot

Each question or position gets its own card, such as Board of Directors or Approve the 2027 operating budget.

1. Type the Question or position.
2. Pick a Voting method: Plurality, Nominations, Ranked or Cumulative. The i button beside it explains each one.
3. Set Total winners. On a Ranked question it's also how many candidates each voter can rank, and on a Nominations question how many names each voter can write in. For Plurality, also choose whether voters pick Up to or Exactly that many. A sentence under the counts says how the question works, in plain words.
4. Type the candidates or options, pressing Enter after each name, or paste a whole column of names. Every method but Nominations needs at least 2.
5. Add a photo and bio, voter instructions, an Abstain choice, a random order or a comment box if you need them.
6. Press Add another ballot item for the next question. When you're done, press Continue to voters.

The What voters see panel shows the question you're editing as voters will see it on a phone. See build your ballot for every option.

Step 3: Voters

Your voter list is a grid with the columns your settings call for: Email, SMS Phone, Label, Ballot ID and Weight.

1. In Excel or Google Sheets, copy your list with its heading row. Click a cell in the grid and paste: the columns are matched by name.
2. Or drop a CSV file on the page, or press Upload CSV, and match its columns.
3. Fix any cell that turns red. If any row has a problem, nothing is saved until it's fixed.
4. Add Spare keys if members may join after launch, and the keys you'll hand out yourself if you use Hand out keys.
5. Check Price so far, then press Continue to invitations.

Names are optional, and each voter gets a private key when you launch. See add your voter list.

Step 4: Invitations

The invitation email and text message are written for you. A banner says who gets them and when, such as “Invitations go to 230 email addresses when voting opens, Tue, Nov 3 at 9:00 AM.”

• Change the wording if you like. Labels such as [Election name] and [Deadline] are filled in for each voter, and [Voting link] always stays in.
• The What voters see panel shows the real email on a phone.
• Press Email me a test to get the email yourself.
• Press Continue to launch.

If you hand out every key yourself, there's nothing to write on this step. See edit your invitations.

Step 5: Launch

The Launch step checks everything, takes the payment if there is one, and launches the election.

• Your election sums up the ballot, voters, voting dates, privacy and results, and invitations, with an Edit link on each line.
• Before you can launch lists anything left to do, with a link to the step that fixes it.
• What happens next shows when keys are made, when voting opens and when it closes.
• The Price panel shows the total. A paid election adds a Card field.
• Press Try the ballot first to vote through it without anything being counted, then press Launch election.

See launch and pay.

Moving between steps and finishing later

• Click any step at the top to go to it. Once your draft exists, every step is a link. The Back buttons work too.
• Save keeps you on the page. The Continue button saves and opens the next step.
• The Ballot, Voters and Invitations pages ask before you leave with changes you haven't saved.
• To finish later, just leave. My elections shows your draft with its next step and a button to carry on. See My elections.

You can change anything until you launch. To try it out first, see test your election before you launch.

After launch

You land on the election's dashboard, and we email you the vote link to post where your members will see it. Voting opens at the time you set, and the invitations go out then. Members vote from any device, with no account: their key is all they need.

• Watch turnout on the dashboard, and send a reminder to those who haven't voted: click Send reminder to N, then confirm.
• While voting is open, add a voter with a spare key from the Voters tab.
• Close voting early if your rules allow it.
• When voting closes, see the results on the Results tab and click Send results to members. The results link works from then on, so you can post it too.

The setup is locked once an election launches. View election setup, in the More menu, shows it, read-only: see view a launched election's setup.