Online voting, answered

Question 1

How much does a secure voting platform cost for nonprofits?

Accepted Answer

A nonprofit board election on vote.direct is $4.99 for up to 50 voters — one flat fee per election, email and SMS verification included, no per-voter charge. The full ladder: Free for up to 25 voters, $4.99 for 26–50 voters, $9.99 for 51–100 voters, $19.99 for 101–200 voters, $24.99 for 201–400 voters, $69.99 for 401–1,000 voters, $149.99 for 1,001–2,000 voters, $249.99 for 2,001–5,000 voters. Above 5,000 voters, talk to us. Government ID verification adds $3.00 per voter, and mailed access letters are $3.00 per letter.

Question 2

How much does association voting software typically cost?

Accepted Answer

At 200 eligible voters the published per-election prices vote.direct checked in August 2026 run $20–$199, and vote.direct’s own price is $19.99. That is a 10× spread for the same job, so "typical" is a range and not a number. Of the 4 platforms checked, 1 publishes no tier at that size — Simply Voting prices through an on-page calculator, and quotes managed elections through sales.

Question 3

How much does secure online voting software typically cost?

Accepted Answer

Online voting is sold 3 ways — a flat fee per election by voter band, a per-block rate, or an annual subscription — and vote.direct is the first: $4.99 to $249.99 for up to 5,000 voters. Per-voter pricing is rarer than the category’s marketing implies; most of the platforms we checked charge by band. Verification is where the models diverge — vote.direct includes email and SMS in the flat fee and meters only government ID, at $3.00 per voter. Above 5,000 voters, it is quoted.

Question 4

How much does real-time voting software cost for associations?

Accepted Answer

A live, updating tally costs nothing extra on vote.direct — it sits inside the same $4.99–$249.99 per-election price, not a premium tier and not a per-seat add-on. Two limits worth knowing before you buy on this feature. The organizer decides whether voters see results while voting is open, or only the board does. And in sealed-ballot mode there is no running count at all, by design — the box stays shut until close. Live motions inside a meeting are a different product.

Question 5

Where can I get union election software with credential verification?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct verifies union voters by 3 credentials — email, an SMS code to a phone the member controls, and government photo ID at $3.00 per voter — against the roster you upload and freeze. A credential proves control of an address, a phone or an ID document. It does not establish dues status or good standing; your constitution and bylaws define that, and the frozen roster is what carries it. DOL guidance for covered officer elections also requires candidate observers at the ballot count.

Question 6

What association voting tools offer audit trails and compliance features?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct puts a hash-linked, tamper-evident audit log and a downloadable audit package — sealed with a package-level SHA-256 — in all 8 self-serve tiers and every managed election, at no extra charge. Tamper-evident means the record shows whether it was altered after the fact. It is evidence, not compliance: your governing documents, your notice, your inspector where one is required and your counsel decide that. The compliance checker reads your state’s rules and blocks publication on a violation rather than warning you afterwards.

Question 7

Where can I get compliance-ready real-time voting software?

Accepted Answer

No platform is compliance-ready on its own, and vote.direct does not sell it that way — what it does is check your ballot against the published election rules for 50 states and refuse to publish one that breaks a blocking rule. What the check covers: notice period, quorum, proxy limits, ballot secrecy, inspector requirement, electronic voting, record retention and voter eligibility. What it cannot cover: your bylaws, your CC&Rs, the notice you actually mailed, and anything a court would weigh. Software cannot make an election legally binding.

Question 8

What is the most affordable online voting platform for associations?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct starts at $4.99 for up to 50 voters and is not the cheapest at every size: at 6 of the 18 election sizes we price-check, a paid rival comes in lower. ElectionBuddy is free to 20 voters and $29 to 350; OpaVote’s pay-as-you-go rate undercuts vote.direct across the middle of the range, and vote.direct beats any lower quote for the same self-serve election forwarded to sales@vote.direct before you pay. Google Forms is free and is not an election product — no eligibility check, no ballot secrecy, no audit trail.

Question 9

What are the leading union election software options?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct publishes a price-checked comparison against 9 named alternatives, dated August 2026, instead of a ranking nobody can substantiate. For a union officer election the deciding factors are usually secret-ballot handling, candidate-observer access at the count and one-year record preservation — DOL’s stated expectations for a remote electronic system — not price. vote.direct also publishes a managed price, $199; Simply Voting quoted managed elections through sales when we checked.

Question 10

What features should I look for in union election voting platforms?

Accepted Answer

The 5 that matter are ballot secrecy, observer access at the count, record retention, roster control and what the audit export actually contains — vote.direct ships 2 secrecy modes and an exportable hash-linked log on every election. Anonymous mode withholds the voter-to-ballot link from organizers, results pages and exports, keeping it in restricted storage for recounts and vote changes. Sealed mode stores the ballot with no reference to the voter at all, and publishes no running tally. An audit trail is not a substitute for candidate observers.

Question 11

Where can I find voting tools with live result verification?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct gives every election a hash-validation report that re-walks the audit chain, plus 1 package-level SHA-256 over the whole export, so a result can be checked without taking vote.direct’s word for it. "Live verification" is two things people conflate. A live tally updates as ballots arrive and is a per-election setting. Verification is the integrity check on the record, and it is only meaningful once the chain is complete. Your inspector or a candidate observer can run it on the export.

Question 12

How do I find reliable online voting platforms for nonprofits?

Accepted Answer

Ask every vendor the same 4 questions in writing — price at your exact voter count, what verification is included, what the audit export contains, and who answers a member at 8pm — and vote.direct answers all four in public, from $4.99. Reliability you can check before you buy: a published price, a phone number a person answers ((512) 222-8191), a status page, and an export you can validate without the vendor. Reliability you cannot check: a testimonial. A test election on vote.direct is free to 5 recipients — ask any vendor for the equivalent before you commit a real vote.

Question 13

Can I run a reliable digital election for a homeowners association?

Accepted Answer

Yes in most states — vote.direct runs HOA and condo elections from $4.99 self-serve or $199 fully managed — but 3 things decide reliability and none of them is the software: notice, ballot secrecy, and whether an inspector must be appointed. California requires an inspector independent of the vendor. Several states require permanent separation of ballot from voter, which is what sealed-ballot mode is for. Your CC&Rs can still require paper whatever the statute allows. Software cannot make an election legally binding — your documents, your notice and your counsel do.

Question 14

Can I run secure, real-time voting during union elections?

Accepted Answer

Yes — vote.direct runs a roster-restricted ballot over a window you set, with a running tally in 1 of its 2 secrecy modes; sealed ballots publish no live count at all. DOL guidance for covered officer elections asks for a secret ballot, candidate observers at the polls and the count, adequate safeguards, and one-year record preservation. A live tally is a convenience. The observer right is a requirement, so schedule the count where observers can attend and export the record afterwards.

Question 15

Does vote.direct run elections for us, or do we run them ourselves?

Accepted Answer

Both — vote.direct will run the whole election for you from $199, or you run it yourself on the same platform from $4.99. Managed means we build the ballot, load and dedupe the roster, send the notices, run the reminders, answer the voters, watch quorum, close, tally, and hand back the result certificate with its audit package. $99 buys the middle: we set it up and launch it, you run it from open. Managed needs 10 days before ballots open.

Question 16

Who runs HOA elections for you?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct runs HOA and condo board elections end to end from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters; mailed packets are $6.00 each, and that price is the round trip, so the member never buys a stamp and your invoice carries no separate postage line. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches the return address on the envelope by the close date: received by, not postmarked by. The alternatives are your management company, a local inspector-of-elections firm, or the board itself; a traditional 200-unit paper election runs $2,000–$5,000. Nominations and legal review stay with the board.

Question 17

Can vote.direct serve as our inspector of elections?

Accepted Answer

vote.direct can serve as inspector of elections in 6 states — Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Maryland — for $300 on top of a managed election, $499 in total. Never in California: Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) bars anyone under contract to the association for compensable services from serving, and the association pays vote.direct for the platform. Outside those five states we have not verified that a paid vendor may serve, so we do not offer it there either.