Union election services from $199
vote.direct runs union officer elections, contract ratification votes and bylaw amendments end to end — ballot build, member roster, notices, reminders, quorum monitoring, close, tally, and a result certificate with the audit package — from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 members.
The local keeps the parts that are the local’s: nominations, eligibility, observers, counsel. We do the administration, and we say plainly which is which.
What you can hand over
| Service | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & Launch | $99 | We build the ballot, load the roster, write and send the notices, and hand you a live election. |
| Full Managed Election | $199 | Everything in Setup & Launch, then we run it: reminders, quorum, voter support, close, tally, certificate. |
| Managed + Mailed Packets | $199 plus $6.00 per packet | A full managed election where the members who need paper get a printed packet with a postage-paid return envelope, and their returned ballots land in the same tally. |
| Managed + Inspector of Elections | $499 | A full managed election where vote.direct also serves as your inspector of elections — Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona only. |
| Above 100 members | Quoted | Same scope, priced on your roster (the platform itself is quoted above 1,550 voters). |
Inspector of elections is a homeowners-association role under state statute, so that last tier is not something a local buys. A union officer election gets its independent eyes from candidate observers under LMRDA §401(c), appointed by the candidates, not by us.
What we do for a union election
vote.direct will run your whole election for you — ballot build, roster, notices, reminders, quorum monitoring, close, tally, and a result certificate with the audit package — from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters. Here is that scope with the union-specific part of each line, and the rows that stay with the local.
| Task | Who | What that means for a local |
|---|---|---|
| Ballot build | vote.direct | Every office on the ballot, the candidates as nominated, and any referendum, ratification or bylaw question running with them. |
| Roster load and dedupe | vote.direct | We load the member list the local certifies, and flag duplicates, shared household emails and addresses that will bounce. We do not decide dues status. |
| Notice drafting and send | vote.direct | We draft the notice and send the electronic copy. The mailed notice is a physical mailing — say so at intake and we price it with the packets. |
| Reminder cadence | vote.direct | Reminders go to the members who have not voted, on a schedule built around shifts rather than office hours. |
| Voter support inbox | vote.direct | Members email and call us, not the hall — any day of the week including weekends, while the ballot is open. |
| Quorum monitoring | vote.direct | A daily count against whatever participation threshold your constitution and bylaws set, with a warning early enough to act on. |
| Close and tally | vote.direct | We close on the schedule the election committee set and tally it, with the count scheduled so candidate observers can be present. |
| Result certificate and audit package | vote.direct | A result certificate plus the exported record — roster as it stood, notices sent, and a hash-linked event log — for the union’s one-year retention file. |
| Paper packets (optional) | vote.direct | $6.00 per packet for members with no device or no internet. Their ballots land in the same tally as the online ones. |
| Inspector of elections (optional) | Either | A homeowners-association role under state statute, not a union one. In a union officer election the equivalent is the candidate observer, and that is the local’s appointment, not ours. |
| Nominations and candidate statements | The local | Nominations, eligibility rulings and challenged ballots belong to the election committee. We publish what you certify. |
| Legal review | The local | Whether the design meets the union’s obligations is a question for the local’s counsel, against the DOL guidance below. |
| Adopting election rules | The local | The constitution, the bylaws and the election rules are yours. We build the election the rules describe. |
Email and text deliver the ballot link and the reminders. Members cast the ballot in a browser — vote.direct does not accept voter ballots by text or by phone.
What makes a union election different
An HOA election answers to a state statute and a set of CC&Rs. A union officer election answers to a federal one. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (29 U.S.C. §§401–531) sets the floor, the constitution and bylaws sit on top of it, and the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards investigates when a member complains.
The rules a managed election has to work inside
| Requirement | Where it comes from | What vote.direct does about it |
|---|---|---|
| Secret ballot | LMRDA §401(e) — 29 U.S.C. §481(e) | You pick the secrecy mode before ballots open. Anonymous mode withholds the member-to-ballot link from the local, from results and from every export. Sealed ballot mode stores the ballot with no link to the member at all, and the box is mixed at close. |
| Adequate safeguards, including a candidate’s right to an observer at the polls and at the count | LMRDA §401(c) — 29 U.S.C. §481(c) | We schedule the close and the count so observers can be present, and walk them through the same screens and the same audit package the committee sees. There is no separate observer login — observation is a procedure the union runs, and a log is evidence, not a substitute for it. |
| Equal right to vote and a reasonable opportunity to cast a ballot | LMRDA §401(e) — 29 U.S.C. §481(e) | Members without a device, without internet or needing an accommodation get a mailed packet at $6.00 each — outbound, pre-paid return and handling — counted in the same tally. |
| Notice mailed to each member’s last known home address at least 15 days before the election | LMRDA §401(e) — 29 U.S.C. §481(e) | We draft it and send the electronic copy. An email invitation from vote.direct should not be treated as the statutory mailed notice unless counsel confirms the rule permits it; if it has to go by post, we mail it with the packets. |
| Ballots and election records preserved for one year | LMRDA §401(e) — 29 U.S.C. §481(e) | The audit package is exported at close as PDF and CSV, hash-linked so a later change is detectable. It files alongside the union’s nominations, eligibility rulings, observer records, returned mail and challenges. |
| Officer elections at least every 3 years (locals), 4 years (intermediate bodies), 5 years (nationals) | LMRDA §401(a)–(d) — 29 U.S.C. §481(a)–(d) | The date is yours; the lead time is ours. Give vote.direct 10 days before ballots open, and longer if packets are being mailed. |
Section numbers are Title IV of the LMRDA as codified at 29 U.S.C. §481. This is general information, not legal advice; coverage, the constitution and bylaws, a consent decree, or public-sector rules can add requirements.
Every shift, every worksite, and the members with neither
The equal-opportunity rule is what most often decides whether an online election holds up. A local spread across three shifts, six job sites and a set of retirees is exactly the case an in-person vote at the hall serves badly — and it is also the case where a browser-only election leaves someone out.
So the managed default is both: the ballot is open for a window long enough to cross every rotation, and the members who cannot use it get a printed packet at $6.00 each, returned in a pre-paid envelope to our neutral election address and counted in the same tally.
Nobody has to tell the local they could not vote online, which is the part that keeps that list honest.
What the Department of Labor tells you to check
OLMS has published guidance for remote electronic voting systems. It approves no vendor and creates no safe harbor. It directs union officials to examine whether the system:
- preserves a secret ballot so no person can identify how a member voted
- provides every eligible member a reasonable opportunity to vote
- lets candidates observe appropriate parts of the process
- prevents ineligible and duplicate voting
- protects credentials and election data
- produces records sufficient to investigate and recount
- addresses members who lack devices, Internet access, digital skills, or needed accommodations
- is tested before use
We will walk that list with your election committee, item by item, and tell you where our answer is “the software does this” and where it is “this is yours to arrange”. Read the DOL guidance.
Three calls we will not make for you
Who is a member in good standing
Email and SMS verification demonstrate control of a credential. An assisted government-ID check adds evidence about the person holding the ID. Neither one determines dues status, eligibility dates, or entitlement to a particular ballot. The local certifies the roster; we load it.
Nominations, eligibility rulings and challenged ballots
These are the election committee’s under the constitution and bylaws, and they stay there. We publish what the committee certifies and we record what happened; we do not adjudicate a challenge.
Whether the election satisfies the LMRDA
That is the union’s call, with counsel, measured against the Department of Labor guidance on remote electronic voting systems. The guidance approves no vendor and creates no safe harbor. vote.direct supplies the software and does the work; it does not certify the election.
Pricing
Published, not quoted. A local can put this in front of its executive board without booking a call first.
Have us run it
Setup & Launch
$99We build the ballot, load the roster, write and send the notices, and hand you a live election.
- We build the ballot from your notice, bylaws and candidate list
- We load the roster, dedupe it, and flag the addresses that will bounce
- We draft and send the notices your documents and state law require
- We hand the election over to you at open
Platform flat-rate fee included, up to 100 voters. You run the election from open onward.
Full Managed Election
$199Everything in Setup & Launch, then we run it: reminders, quorum, voter support, close, tally, certificate.
- We build the ballot from your notice, bylaws and candidate list
- We load the roster, dedupe it, and flag the addresses that will bounce
- We draft and send the notices your documents and state law require
- We run the reminder cadence to the members who have not voted
- We answer the voters — the support inbox is ours, not your manager’s
- We watch quorum daily and tell you early if it is not going to be met
- We close the election, tally it, and issue the result certificate and audit package
A digital election — email and SMS ballots, no mailed packets — of up to 100 voters, platform flat-rate fee included. Give us 10 days before ballots open. Add packets below, or ask for a quote above 100 voters.
Managed + Mailed Packets
$199 plus $6.00 per packetA full managed election where the members who need paper get a printed packet with a postage-paid return envelope, and their returned ballots land in the same tally.
- We build the ballot from your notice, bylaws and candidate list
- We load the roster, dedupe it, and flag the addresses that will bounce
- We draft and send the notices your documents and state law require
- We print, stuff and mail the ballot packets — first-class, tracked out of the mail house
- Every packet carries a return envelope with the postage already paid, addressed to our neutral election address. The member drops it in a mailbox. They never buy a stamp.
- We open the returns, record them, and count them in the same tally as the online ballots
- We run the reminder cadence to the members who have not voted
- We answer the voters — the support inbox is ours, not your manager’s
- We watch quorum daily and tell you early if it is not going to be met
- We close the election, tally it, and issue the result certificate and audit package
$6.00 per packet, charged on the packets actually mailed. The $6.00 covers the trip both ways: the packet out, and a return envelope that already has the postage paid on it, so the member never buys a stamp. There is no separate postage line on your invoice. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches our election address by the close date in your notice — received by, not postmarked by, so nobody has to adjudicate a smudged postmark after the count has started. We work backwards from your close date at kickoff and give you the mail-by date to print on the packet. Paper and online ballots are counted together.
Managed + Inspector of Elections
$499A full managed election where vote.direct also serves as your inspector of elections — Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona only.
- We build the ballot from your notice, bylaws and candidate list
- We load the roster, dedupe it, and flag the addresses that will bounce
- We draft and send the notices your documents and state law require
- We run the reminder cadence to the members who have not voted
- We answer the voters — the support inbox is ours, not your manager’s
- We watch quorum daily and tell you early if it is not going to be met
- We close the election, tally it, and issue the result certificate and audit package
- An appointed inspector confirms the roster before ballots go out, oversees the count, and signs the certification
Not available in California: Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) bars a vendor under contract to the association from serving as inspector. We will help you find an independent one instead.
Or run it yourself
The same platform, self-serve, starting at $4.99 a flat-rate election. The local builds the ballot, loads the roster and sends the notices; setup and launch from $99 is the middle option, where we hand you a live election and you run it from open.
| Election size | Per election |
|---|---|
| up to 50 voters | $4.99 |
| 51–100 voters | $9.99 |
| 101–200 voters | $19.99 |
| 201–550 voters | $39.99 |
| 551–1,550 voters | $79.99 |
| Above 1,550 | Talk to us |
What the managed price does not include: nominations, candidate statements, legal review, observers, the postage on a statutory mailed notice, and any arbitrator, parent-body or consent-decree process the local is under. Scope and price are agreed in writing before any work starts.
Questions locals ask
Can vote.direct run our local’s officer election for us?
Yes. vote.direct runs union elections end to end from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 members: we build the ballot from your election notice and the nominations the committee certifies, load and dedupe the member roster, draft and send the notices, run the reminder cadence, answer the members ourselves, watch participation against quorum daily, close, tally, and issue the result certificate with its audit package. Setup and launch only is $99, where we hand you a live election and the local runs it from open. Give us 10 days before ballots open, longer if packets are being mailed. Nominations, eligibility rulings, observers and legal review stay with the local.
Is online voting allowed for a union officer election?
The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act does not require any one voting system, and the U.S. Department of Labor has published guidance for remote electronic voting systems rather than banning them. That guidance approves no vendor and creates no safe harbor: the election still has to satisfy the secret ballot, equal-opportunity, safeguard, observer, notice and one-year record-preservation requirements of Title IV, and the union remains responsible for compliance. Your constitution and bylaws may also have to authorize remote voting before you can use it. vote.direct supplies the software and does the administration; the union and its counsel decide whether the design holds. DOL guidance: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/compliance-assistance/tips/remote-electronic-voting-systems
Can we run secure, real-time voting during a union election?
The parts that should be live are live: the ballot opens on your schedule, members vote from any browser the moment it does, and vote.direct watches turnout against quorum in real time so the committee knows on day three whether the election is going to make its threshold. The running tally is a separate setting, and for an officer election we recommend turning it off — a visible count while members are still voting is campaign information. In sealed ballot mode nobody can read the tally at all, including the local and including vote.direct, until the box is mixed at close.
How do you keep ballots secret from the local’s officers?
You choose the secrecy mode before ballots open and it cannot be switched afterwards. In anonymous mode vote.direct withholds the member-to-ballot link from the local, from the results page, from per-ballot admin views and from every export, keeping it in restricted application storage for vote changes and recounts. In sealed ballot mode the ballot is stored with no link to the member at all: the roster records that a member voted, the audit trail names who voted but never which ballot, and the box is re-materialized in random order at close. Both modes leave a tamper-evident, hash-linked record of the election, and neither one relieves the local of the observer and safeguard duties in LMRDA §401(c).
What about members who don’t have a phone or internet?
They get paper, and it counts the same. LMRDA §401(e) gives every member in good standing an equal right to vote and a reasonable opportunity to cast a ballot, and the DOL guidance asks specifically about members who lack devices, Internet access, digital skills or needed accommodations. On a managed election vote.direct prints, stuffs and mails a ballot packet to those members at $6.00 each — that is the round trip, including the pre-paid return envelope to our neutral election address and the handling when it comes back, so there is no separate postage line — and the returned ballots join the same tally as the online ones. No member has to tell the hall they could not vote online to get one. A mailed ballot counts when it reaches our election address by the close date in your notice — received by, not postmarked by, so nobody has to adjudicate a smudged postmark after the count has started. We work backwards from your close date at kickoff and give you the mail-by date to print on the packet.
What does the price include, and what is not included?
$199 covers a digital election of up to 100 members with the platform fee included: ballot build, roster load and dedupe, notices, reminders, the voter support inbox, quorum monitoring, close, tally, result certificate and audit package. Above that roster size it is quoted, and mailed packets are $6.00 each on what is actually mailed. Not included: nominations and candidate statements, eligibility rulings, candidate observers, legal review, the postage on a statutory mailed notice, and any parent-body, arbitrator or consent-decree process the local is under. If you would rather run it yourself, the same platform is self-serve from $4.99 per election and is quoted above 1,550 voters. Scope and price are agreed in writing before any work starts.
Tell us the local, the offices and the date
We will come back with the scope in writing and a price from this page — or tell you the election is one you should run yourself. Give us 10 days before ballots open, and longer if packets are going in the mail.
The number reaches the founder, who is also the engineer who builds the product — call or text it any day of the week including weekends. Or email [email protected].
All managed election services · Union election software · Pricing