Blog

Insights on voting & governance

Guides, best practices, and product updates from the vote.direct team.

Browse governance guides by organization

All172 Education82 Compliance55 Use Cases14 Product6 Clubs3 Associations3 Pricing3 HOA2 Church2 Cooperatives2

Illustrative vote: three yes, two no and two abstentions. Three yes passes a majority-of-votes-cast rule but fails a majority-of-seven-present rule.

Abstain vs. Recuse: How Each Affects a Board Vote and Its Record

Three yes votes can pass one rule and fail another. A worked example and practical recordkeeping guide explain abstentions, conflict recusals and quorum.

September 5, 2026Read

Four distinct participation methods: member proxy, personal director vote, authorized live remote attendance and permitted action without a meeting.

Education

5 min read

Can a Board Director Vote by Proxy? Separate Board Votes from Member Votes

A proxy accepted at the annual membership meeting may be invalid at the board table. Learn which capacity a person is voting in and what alternatives to check.

September 5, 2026Read

A balance weighing several different ballot types against each other, illustrating the choice between voting methods

Education

5 min read

Voting Methods Explained: How to Choose the Right One for Your Election

Ten ways to decide the same election, and they do not all produce the same winner. This is the index to our series on every voting method, with a comparison table and a decision guide for picking the one your bylaws actually allow.

September 1, 2026Read

A flow diagram running from motion to vote called to result declared, illustrating a simple plurality count

Education

5 min read

Plurality Voting Explained: How First Past the Post Works, and Where It Fails

The most votes wins, even if that is 34 percent. Plurality is the default almost everywhere, which is exactly why its two failure modes catch boards by surprise. Here is how it counts, when it is fine, and when it hands the seat to the wrong person.

September 1, 2026Read

Members casting ballots into a single box for a multi-seat board election, illustrating block voting

Education

5 min read

Block Voting Explained: How "Vote for Up to Three" Really Works

Almost every multi-seat board election uses block voting without naming it: pick up to three, top three win. It is simple, familiar, and the least proportional method there is. Here is the arithmetic, and why some members deliberately vote for only one candidate.

September 1, 2026Read

Several hands submitting ballots into one box, illustrating approval voting where each voter can back many candidates

Education

4 min read

Approval Voting Explained: Tick Everyone You Support

One ballot, no limit, tick everyone you would be happy to see elected. Approval voting is the simplest fix for vote splitting ever proposed, it counts as easily as plurality, and Fargo and St. Louis both use it. Here is the mechanics and the honest downside.

September 1, 2026Read

A grid of scored cards with verification marks, illustrating voters rating each candidate on a scale

Education

5 min read

Score Voting Explained: Rating Every Candidate Instead of Ranking Them

Ranking tells you the order. Scoring tells you the gap. Score voting asks members to rate each candidate independently on a scale, which captures strength of support that no ranked ballot can express. Here is how it counts and the one setting that trips people up.

September 1, 2026Read

A funnel narrowing many candidate cards down to a few elected seats, illustrating single transferable vote transfers

Education

5 min read

Single Transferable Vote Explained: Quotas, Surpluses and Transfers

STV is the method that makes a board actually look like its membership. It is also the one people find hardest to explain. Here is the quota, the surplus transfer and the exclusion rule in plain language, with a worked count and the three published rulebooks.

September 1, 2026Read

An ordered stack of ranked bars descending in weight, illustrating how Borda count awards points by position

Education

4 min read

Borda Count Explained: How Positional Points Pick a Consensus Winner

Borda does not ask who you love, it asks who everybody can live with. Each position in your ranking awards points, and the highest total wins. Here is the arithmetic, the Nauru variant, and the strategic weakness every board should know before adopting it.

September 1, 2026Read

A network of nodes connected to every other node, illustrating the head-to-head comparisons in a Condorcet count

Education

5 min read

Condorcet Voting Explained: The Candidate Who Beats Everyone Head to Head

Condorcet asks a question no other method asks: for every pair of candidates, which one would win a straight two-way race? Where an answer exists it is hard to argue with. Here is the pairwise matrix, the paradox that breaks it, and the three published fixes.

September 1, 2026Read

Bars of unequal height representing units with different entitlements, illustrating weighted voting

Education

4 min read

Weighted Voting Explained: When One Member Does Not Mean One Vote

Condos allocate by percentage interest. Co-ops allocate by shares. Strata allocate by unit entitlement. In all three, a ballot is not worth one vote, and getting the arithmetic wrong is how a result gets overturned. Here is how weighting actually works.

September 1, 2026Read

An aerial view of a community with a verified ballot marker over each home, illustrating one ballot per unit

Education

5 min read

Per-Unit Voting Explained: One Ballot Per Home, Whoever Owns It

Your bylaws almost certainly say one vote per lot. That single sentence creates three problems nobody thinks about until election day: two spouses on one deed, an investor who owns nine units, and what quorum is actually a percentage of.

September 1, 2026Read

Page 2 of 15

Explore by Use Case

Voting solutions for every organization

Deep dives into how vote.direct serves different industries and organization types.

HOA & Condo Boards

Compliant board elections with verified identity.

Non-Profits & Associations

Member votes and board elections with audit trails.

Union Elections

DOL-sourced officer-election guidance and platform record tools.

Churches & Religious Orgs

Congregation votes and pastor elections.

Creators & Communities

Verified polls for audience engagement.

PTA & School Voting

Accessible, multilingual voting for school decisions.

Startups & Teams

Transparent team decisions for distributed orgs.

Corporate Shareholder

Proxy votes and board elections with weighted voting.

Professional Associations

Chapter elections and standards adoption votes.

Cooperatives

One-member-one-vote with audit trails.

Property Management

Multi-community elections from one dashboard.

Credit Unions

Board-election tools and Article V support records.

Petitions & Signatures

Verified signature collection for recalls and amendments.

NYC Co-ops

Weighted shareholder voting with official BCL source links.

Stay in the loop

Get the latest articles and product updates delivered to your inbox.

Insights on voting & governance

All articles

Abstain vs. Recuse: How Each Affects a Board Vote and Its Record

Can a Board Director Vote by Proxy? Separate Board Votes from Member Votes

Voting Methods Explained: How to Choose the Right One for Your Election

Plurality Voting Explained: How First Past the Post Works, and Where It Fails

Block Voting Explained: How "Vote for Up to Three" Really Works

Approval Voting Explained: Tick Everyone You Support

Score Voting Explained: Rating Every Candidate Instead of Ranking Them

Single Transferable Vote Explained: Quotas, Surpluses and Transfers

Borda Count Explained: How Positional Points Pick a Consensus Winner

Condorcet Voting Explained: The Candidate Who Beats Everyone Head to Head

Weighted Voting Explained: When One Member Does Not Mean One Vote

Per-Unit Voting Explained: One Ballot Per Home, Whoever Owns It

Voting solutions for every organization

HOA & Condo Boards

Non-Profits & Associations

Union Elections

Churches & Religious Orgs

Creators & Communities

PTA & School Voting

Startups & Teams

Corporate Shareholder

Professional Associations

Cooperatives

Property Management

Credit Unions

Petitions & Signatures

NYC Co-ops

Stay in the loop

Have an election coming up?