School Voting FAQ

School board elections that are government-run (public school districts) must follow state election law and typically require in-person or absentee ballot voting through official election authorities. Vote.direct is not designed for those. However, for private schools, charter school boards, PTA/PTO elections, student government, alumni associations, and parent advisory council votes, online voting is fully permissible. These are internal organizational elections governed by the organization's bylaws, not state election law. Many private school boards and PTAs have adopted electronic voting to increase parent participation.

vote.direct is well-suited for student government elections. Create the election with each candidate listed as an option (include their campaign statement in the description). Upload a student roster CSV to restrict voting to eligible students. Email verification with school email addresses is included in the flat rate, and since each student has a unique school email, this effectively prevents duplicate voting. Enable ballot secrecy so students can vote without peer pressure. Set the voting window to cover 1-2 school days. SMS verification using parent phone numbers is also included in the flat rate.

Yes. PTA/PTO elections are internal organizational elections with no legal requirement for in-person voting (unless your bylaws specifically mandate it). Upload your PTA membership roster as a CSV, set up the election with officer positions and candidates, and share the voting link via your usual parent communication channels (email blast, school app, newsletter). Email-verified voting ensures one vote per parent household. For a typical PTA with 200 members, the entire election costs $19.99 (flat rate for 101-200 voters, email + SMS included), compared to the hassle of organizing an in-person meeting that 15% of parents actually attend.

Absolutely. Private school and charter school boards operate under nonprofit or corporate law, not election law. Board member elections, budget approvals, policy votes, and strategic plan ratifications can all be conducted electronically when authorized by the bylaws. vote.direct supports weighted voting (for boards with weighted seats), multi-question ballots (vote on multiple items in one session), and approval thresholds set on the question itself, which is where a two-thirds or three-quarters supermajority for a bylaw amendment belongs. That is separate from quorum, which counts how many board members vote at all, and you choose whether the required share is measured against votes cast or against every eligible member. The results page reports quorum and the approval threshold separately, and the PDF results export provides documentation for board minutes and regulatory compliance.

For student elections, email verification using school-issued email addresses is the recommended approach. Each student verifies their school email (.edu or school domain), and the system checks it against your uploaded roster. No other personal information is collected or stored. vote.direct does not collect dates of birth, social security numbers, student ID numbers, or any FERPA-protected data. The verification record stores only the email address and a timestamp. For schools that want additional assurance, the voting link can be distributed through your learning management system (Google Classroom, Canvas) so only logged-in students can access it.

Yes. You have two approaches: (1) Create a single election with a combined roster, where all students vote on the same questions; or (2) Create separate elections with different rosters for each grade level, campus, or division. Separate elections make sense when different groups are voting on different positions (e.g., freshman class president vs. senior class president). A single election works when everyone votes on the same slate (e.g., student body president). For multi-campus schools, online voting eliminates the logistical challenge of coordinating physical polling at multiple locations.

vote.direct does not require account creation for voters; students access the voting link directly and verify via email. For students under 13, use parent email addresses on the roster instead of student emails, with the parent casting the vote on behalf of their child (appropriate for PTA elections) or alongside their child (appropriate for student government in elementary schools). The platform does not collect age information, does not use cookies for tracking minors, and does not display advertising. For middle and high school students (13+), school email verification is appropriate and does not implicate COPPA.

Yes, and it is increasingly popular for student elections. Ranked choice voting (also called instant runoff voting) lets students rank candidates by preference instead of picking just one. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to each voter's next choice. This continues until a candidate achieves a majority. Benefits for student elections: it eliminates spoiler effects, encourages positive campaigning (candidates want to be everyone's second choice), and produces consensus winners. vote.direct handles all the math automatically and displays the elimination rounds in the results.

For a student government election with 500 students, the total cost is $69.99 (flat rate for 201-550 voters, email + SMS included). A PTA election with 200 parents costs $19.99 (flat rate for 101-200 voters). For schools that run multiple elections throughout the year (student government, PTA, parent advisory councils, club elections), each election is priced independently by voter count, no subscription required.

Yes. Election administrators can view real-time participation data, who has voted and who has not, without seeing individual ballot choices. This allows advisors to send targeted reminders to students or parents who have not yet voted, monitor for any technical issues, and track participation rates by homeroom or grade level (if your roster includes that information). After the election closes, administrators see the aggregate results and can export them. At no point can any administrator see how a specific person voted when ballot secrecy is enabled.