Union Election FAQ

It depends on the election and governing authority. The U.S. Department of Labor says the LMRDA does not prescribe a particular voting system for covered officer elections, but a remote electronic system must still meet secret-ballot, candidate-observer, member, safeguard, and one-year record-preservation requirements. NLRB-supervised representation elections follow a different government-run process. Do not reuse an officer-election workflow for ratification, strike, representation, or other votes without checking the union constitution, bylaws, and counsel. DOL guidance: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/compliance-assistance/tips/remote-electronic-voting-systems

Upload the eligible-member roster as a CSV with the email addresses or phone numbers approved for verification. vote.direct can restrict the ballot to matching roster credentials and accept one ballot per eligible credential. The union must define good standing under its constitution and bylaws, resolve dues status and shared contacts, and freeze or document the list used for the election.

The platform can present a yes/no or yes/no/abstain browser ballot, restrict it to a member roster, and record the tally and platform events. The union must set the notice, information, discussion, eligibility, window, observer, secrecy, approval, and retention procedure required by its constitution, bylaws, agreement, and applicable law. The audit trail is hash-linked and tamper-evident; it does not prove that every outside procedural step was proper.

Yes. Set a defined voting window so members on different shifts and at different sites can open the browser ballot from a phone, tablet, or computer. That reduces scheduling friction, but it does not guarantee higher turnout or eliminate any polling-place, mail, accessibility, or observer requirement that applies to the election.

You choose the secrecy mode per election. In Anonymous mode, vote.direct verifies an eligible credential and withholds the voter-to-ballot link from union organizers, result pages, per-ballot admin views, and exports; the link is kept in restricted application storage for vote changes, proxies, and recounts. In Sealed ballot mode the ballot is stored with no link to the voter at all — the audit trail records who voted but never which ballot, and the box is shuffled at close. The election committee and counsel must decide which mode, plus the complete observer and procedural design, meets the secrecy requirement for the election.

vote.direct supports multiple election formats for officer elections: (1) Multiple choice: one vote per position, each candidate listed; (2) Multi-select: for at-large positions where members select up to N candidates from a larger slate; (3) Ranked choice: members rank candidates by preference, with automatic runoff elimination. Each candidate can have a bio and statement included on the ballot. For executive board elections where multiple positions are voted on simultaneously (president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, etc.), create a multi-question ballot with one question per position.

vote.direct can run a roster-restricted yes/no browser ballot and display the result against the participation or approval threshold you configure. The union must obtain the actual threshold, notice, eligibility, secrecy, and authorization procedure from its constitution, bylaws, bargaining context, and counsel. SMS verifies control of a phone number; it does not establish dues status or make the result immune from challenge.

An audit trail is not a substitute for candidate observers. DOL guidance says covered officer elections must provide adequate safeguards, including the candidate right to an observer at the polls and ballot count, and explains how that right applies to remote electronic systems. vote.direct can export timestamps, participation data, result records, and a hash-validation report for the committee and observers to review. Plan observer access, testing, challenges, and record preservation before launch. DOL guidance: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/compliance-assistance/tips/remote-electronic-voting-systems

With vote.direct's flat per-election pricing, email and SMS verification are included with no per-voter fees. Self-serve tiers run from $4.99 up to 2,000 voters, and a 2,000-member ratification vote is handled on the Enterprise plan or a custom quote. Compare this to the logistics of in-person voting: venue rental, printed ballots, ballot boxes, election committee travel for multi-site units, and the lost productivity of pulling members off shift. For unions that run multiple votes per year (officer elections, ratification, strike authorization, bylaw amendments), subscription plans provide significant savings and include API access for integration with your membership system.

vote.direct does not provide an employer role or automatically notify an employer. Access is controlled by the organizer accounts and links the union configures, with data encrypted in transit and at rest. The union still must secure its administrator accounts, recipient lists, devices, support process, and communications and decide what information it shares outside the election committee.