This manual shows how to create and configure different ballot types and covers available settings including vote allocation, weighted voting, result display options, and self-nomination features for candidates at elections.
Creating the Ballot
When creating a new ballot, you first need to select the appropriate ballot type based on your voting needs, then configure specific settings to customize the voting experience.
To begin, you'll need to provide:
- Title: A clear, descriptive name for your ballot (5-150 characters)
- Question: The specific question or decision being put to vote (6-1000 characters). Make sure that this is formed as a question that can be answered through the voting process.
Then select one of these ballot types:
Yes/No
Includes only "Yes" and "No" options for voters. Ideal for straightforward decisions, motions, or proposals where a simple approval or rejection is needed.
Election Ballot
Designed specifically for selecting individuals from a pool of candidates. With this type, participants and candidate names can be added to the ballot. Perfect for board elections, committee selections, or any scenario where people are being elected to positions.
When adding candidates, these are bound to the participants of the assembly. This enables the participants to run as candidates or to remove their own candidacy while setting up the election ballot.
Alternatively, it's possible to just add names of candidates, which doesn't bind the option to a participant. This is particularly useful when the candidates are not one of the participants, or when the candidate is not a person - but rather e.g. an organization.
Opinion Poll
Allows for custom text options beyond simple yes/no or candidate names. You can create any text-based options for voters to select from - making it suitable for gathering preferences, prioritizing initiatives, or collecting feedback. This is what you choose to support membership fees and similar.
All ballot types allow voters to submit a blank ballot by default, though this option can be disabled in the settings.
Ballot Settings
After creating the specific ballot type, you can configure the following settings:
Allowed number of votes
This setting defines how many votes each participant can cast within a single ballot paper. By default, it's set to 1, meaning each voter can select only one option. Increasing this number allows voters to select multiple options on the same ballot paper. This is particularly useful when electing a board of directors where voters need to vote for multiple candidates to fill all available positions.
For example, if your board requires five members, you should most often set this value to 5, allowing each voter to select their preferred candidates to fill the entire board.
Important: This field is required and cannot be left empty.
The allowed number of votes is required
When you enable this setting, voters must use all their allotted votes before casting their ballot paper. For example, if you set the allowed number of votes to 5, voters must select exactly 5 options to submit successfully.
Remove option to cast blank ballot
When you enable this setting, it removes the option for voters to cast a blank ballot paper. By default, voters have the ability to abstain by submitting a blank ballot. Enabling this setting requires all voters to make a selection if they want to cast their ballot.
Apply weighted votes
When you enable this setting, it applies different weights to individual votes based on predetermined criteria. The weight is set when importing participants. This is particularly useful for shareholder meetings or apartment owner situations where different voters have varying levels of voting power. When disabled, each vote carries equal weight.
Note: See more about how to set up the vote weight for each participant.
Hide ballot winner
When you enable this setting, it hides the winner of the vote from being automatically highlighted when presenting the results to the participants or on the presentation screen. The tally and distribution of votes will still be visible, but the winner won't be explicitly indicated. This is useful for situations where you need to interpret or validate results before officially declaring a winner.
Note: The option is not useful for making the result a surprise or announcement, since the voters will still be presented with the result of the tally when voting closes.
Manually publish result
When you enable this setting, the result will not automatically be published to the participants or on the presentation screen when the voting on the specific ballot closes. The participants will remain in a waiting position while you as an administrator will have the result visible. This is useful for situations where you want to add suspense and announce the winner as a surprise. This is typically used for awards but can sometimes also be useful when electing candidates in elections.
Note: To make the result public after announcing the winner, you need to manually publish the result using the button on the ballot management screen.
Important: The option does not mean that the result can be kept fully secret from the participants - since results will still be published after completing the full assembly.
Ballot Management
Ballot management features are available until voting for the specific ballot is started. These are typically used while in dialogue with the participants of the assembly and the purpose is to finalize the ballot for voting. This phase typically occurs when the assembly is active and the participants are in the room - ready to vote.
Add, edit, or delete options
After setting up the ballot during preparation, there can be a need to adjust the options when getting the feedback from participants. More options can be added based on audience suggestions - or corrections can be needed. Editing options or candidates is possible until voting starts.
Allow Participants to Nominate Themselves as Candidates
This setting is specifically designed for election-type ballots and is not applicable to other voting formats. When you enable it, participants can put themselves forward as candidates directly through the system. This self-nomination feature streamlines the candidate nomination process by eliminating your need to manually add new candidates. It's particularly valuable for organizational elections where you want to encourage broader participation and make the nomination process more accessible.
When candidates nominate themselves using this feature, they immediately show up on the ballot. You can still review and remove nominations before making the ballot final. In order to secure that no wrong candidates end up on the ballot paper, you have the ability to disable this feature right before starting the voting process. This will mean that the ballot options get locked and you can be sure which the ballot paper has the correct listing when voting starts.