What vote.direct is for

vote.direct runs private member elections and decisions: homeowners and condominium associations, co-ops, nonprofits, clubs, congregations and other organizations whose members vote. You build the ballot, upload your member list, and send each member their own ballot. Each member proves who they are before they vote, can vote once, and gets a confirmation code. When voting closes, the count is frozen and you have a results certificate, exports and an audit log you can hand to your board, your members or your attorney.

Most organizations run their elections themselves. If you would rather have us run it, see Managed elections.

The parts of the product

The rest of Part One covers your account. Part Two covers elections. Part Three covers everything else.

The life of an election

Every election is in one of four states. The state decides what you can still change and what your voters can do. You see it as a badge on the election's card and at the top of its page.

Draft

An election starts as a draft in the Create wizard: five steps called Your Vote, Voters, Schedule, Design and Review. A draft can be changed freely and saved to finish later. You can send yourself a free test ballot that looks exactly like the real one. See Build the election and Test, then publish.

Publish

Publishing opens the election now, or schedules it to open at the start time you set. If the election has a price, you pay at this moment, from your prepaid balance or on a secure checkout page. An election needs at least one voter on its list before it can be published. A scheduled election can still be edited; the questions and rules lock when voting opens.

Scheduled and Live

A scheduled election opens itself at its start time. While an election is live, voters can vote, and you can watch turnout, send the ballot to anyone who has not received it, add late voters, remind people who have not voted, and change the close time. The questions, the voting rules and who can see results are locked, so no ballot is ever judged by different rules from the one before it. See While voting is open.

Closed

An election closes at its close time, or earlier if you press Close Early. An election with no close time stays open until you close it. Once closed, no more ballots are accepted, online or on paper, and the count is frozen. The results, the certificate, the exports and the audit log are on the election's Results tab. See Close, results and the record.

How ballots reach voters

Each voter on your list has a way of voting. Most people get an email. You can set any voter to a different channel, so one election can reach everyone: members with email, members with only a mobile phone, and members who want paper. All of their ballots land in one count.

Some things to know about the channels:

• Email is the default and needs nothing extra. A voter who gets an email proves who they are with a one-time code sent to that address.
• Text messages are included with paid elections. Elections with 25 voters or fewer are free and send email only. Before anyone is texted, you confirm that your organization has their permission to text them, because carriers require it.
• Printed notices, link lists and Voter ID sheets are files you download and hand out yourself. Each carries a code or a link that opens that voter's own online ballot.
• Paper ballots are printed, numbered and tracked in a ledger. You can print and mail them yourself, have us mail them, or have us mail them and enter the returns. See Paper, mail and in-person ballots.

Secret, anonymous or identified

Before an election goes live you choose how the link between a voter and their ballot is treated. This is called ballot secrecy. It locks when voting opens.

Whichever you choose, you always see turnout: who has voted and who has not. Build the election shows the setting itself.

What you hold at the end

• Results. The count for each question, the winners, ties reported as ties, and whether quorum and any required share to pass were met.
• The results certificate. A PDF with the election's details, turnout, quorum, results, how voters were verified, an audit summary and the integrity check.
• Exports. A CSV and a PDF of the results, and for identified elections a per-voter report.
• The audit log. Every action on the election, in order. Each entry is linked to the one before it, so an edited or deleted entry breaks the chain and the integrity check reports it. The chain's fingerprint is printed on the certificate, so a copy you keep can be compared with the record later. This is what makes the record tamper-evident.
• Each voter's confirmation code. A voter can keep it as their receipt and download a confirmation certificate. The code proves a counted ballot exists; it never shows how they voted.

Who is involved

You, the organizer

The person who creates the election, who can do everything on it. In a shared workspace, owners and admins can also close, cancel and export any election, and editors can change one. See Team and roles.

Your team

Other people in your workspace, each with a role: owner, admin, editor or viewer.

Your voters

The people on the election's voter list. Your list is your record of who may vote. vote.direct does not decide who is eligible.

An inspector of elections

Optional in most places: a neutral person who confirms the roster and certifies the count on their own private page. Some states' rules call for one. See Inspectors and state rules.

Counters and receivers

For paper ballots: people you give a link to, so they can photograph returned envelopes or enter ballots without an account.

Our support team

Reachable by phone, text and email. If you give us access to an election to help you, a banner says so on its page and you can revoke it at any time.

What it costs

Elections with 25 voters or fewer are free and send email only. Larger elections have one price, set by the number of voters on your list, charged once when you publish. When each unit gets its own ballot, the list is counted in ballots, not people: 21 owners of 27 units is a 27-ballot election, and the wizard says so beside the price. Email and text verification are included in every paid election, and nothing is charged while you build or test. Paper packets we print and mail are charged per packet, when the mailing is sent. Surveys are free. A subscription can cover your elections instead of paying for each one.

The prices themselves are on vote.direct/pricing, and the wizard shows the price for your list before you pay. See Billing and payments.

What vote.direct does and does not do

Create your account

You need an account to publish an election. You can start building one at vote.direct/create before you have an account; vote.direct asks you to create one before anything is published.

There are two ways to create an account: with your Google account, or with your email address and a password. Open vote.direct/signup. The card reads Create your account. If it reads Sign in to your account instead, press Create one at the bottom of the card.

With Google

Press Sign up with Google and choose your Google account. Google has already confirmed your address, so there is no code to type. You land on your dashboard.

With your email address

1. Type your address in Email address.

2. Type a password in Password. The only rule is length: at least 12 characters. The line At least 12 characters turns green with a check mark when the password is long enough. A few ordinary words in a row make a good password.

3. Press Create Account. The card changes to Enter your code.

4. Open the email with the subject "Confirm your Vote Direct account". It holds a numeric code and no link. Type the code on the card and press Confirm and continue.

Two kinds of password are refused even when they are long enough. A password that is easy to guess gets "That password is too easy to guess. Try a few unrelated words instead." A password found in a known data breach gets "That password has appeared in a known data breach. Choose a different one, ideally a few unrelated words." The card keeps your email address, so you only type a new password.

A small security check from Cloudflare may appear above the button. If it cannot load, often because of an ad blocker or an office network, the card says The CAPTCHA could not load. An ad blocker or your network may be blocking it. You can continue. The button still works.

If you reached the sign-up card while building an election, a green box above the form says what you were setting up and that your account includes one free test election for up to 5 people. It also names the starting price for a real election; prices are on vote.direct/pricing.

The Enter your code screen

The code screen names the address the code went to. Type the code in the large box. It accepts digits only; if you paste a line such as "Code: 48302917", it keeps just the digits. Press Confirm and continue. The code expires in an hour.

• If your address is a Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, AOL or Proton address, a black button such as Open Gmail opens your inbox in a new tab.
• No email after a minute? Check your spam folder, then press resend it in the line "Nothing after a minute? Check spam, or resend it". A new code cannot be sent within a minute of the last one. If you ask too soon, the screen says "A code went out less than a minute ago. Wait a minute, then try again."
• Typed the wrong address? Press Use a different email to start again with an empty form.

If you already have an account

vote.direct and Governance Center share one sign-in. If you have signed up on either product with an address, that address already has an account, and the same password works on both. When you try to create an account with an address that already has one, vote.direct does not make a second account and does not send a code. It emails a link to choose a new password instead, with the subject "You already have a Vote Direct account". The box Already have an account? on the code screen explains this and offers Sign in with this email and Reset my password. Both keep the address you typed.

Sign in

Open vote.direct/login, or press Sign In at the top of any vote.direct page. The card reads Sign in to your account.

• If you signed up with Google, press Continue with Google.
• Otherwise, type your Email address and Password and press Sign In.

You land on your dashboard, or on the page you were trying to open when vote.direct asked you to sign in.

Those are the only two ways in. vote.direct has no emailed sign-in link, no sign-in by text message and no two-step verification of its own. If you sign in with Google, Google's own security settings, including its two-step verification, protect that sign-in.

If you are already signed in, opening the sign-in page or the vote.direct home page takes you straight to your dashboard. To sign out, press Sign Out (see The header).

When sign-in does not work

The card says what went wrong in plain words, and most messages come with a button or link that fixes it. The messages appear under the button, or in a box above the form.

Reset a forgotten password

1. On the sign-in card, press Forgot password?. The card changes to Reset your password.

2. Type your Email address and press Send Reset Link.

3. The card reads Check your email. It says the link is on its way if the address has an account. For your privacy it says this whether or not the address has one.

4. Open the email with the subject "Reset your Vote Direct password" and press Reset Password.

5. A page opens with one button, Continue to reset password. Press it. The next section explains why this page exists.

6. On Reset your password, type a New password of at least 12 characters, type it again in Confirm new password, and press Reset Password.

7. The page says Password updated. Press Go to Dashboard.

The link works once and lasts an hour. If the page says Invalid or expired link, the link was already used or is too old: press Back to Sign In and send yourself a new one.

To change a password you still know, sign in and use Change password in Settings (see Settings reference).

Why email links open a page with a button

A link in an account email from vote.direct, such as the link in a password reset email, does not do its job the moment it opens. It opens a short page with a heading, one sentence and one black button. Nothing happens until you press the button.

This protects the link. Many email systems, especially at offices, open every link in a message before you see it, to check it for danger. If the link did its job by itself, the scanner would use it up, and you would be told your brand-new link had expired. A scanner does not press buttons, so the link waits for you. The page works without anything extra in your browser, even inside an email app.

The heading and button depend on what the email was for. For a password reset, they read Reset your password and Continue to reset password. A request to change your email address reads Confirm your new email and Confirm and continue. If the page is not what you expected, press Sign in another way under the button.

Some email programs cut long links in half. Then the page reads This link is incomplete and offers Go to sign in and Create an account. Sign in with your password or with Google, or send yourself a new email.

Your first visit

The first time you open your dashboard, vote.direct creates a workspace for you. A workspace is where your elections, your team and your settings live; the product labels it Organization in Settings and in the workspace switcher (see Workspaces). You are its owner.

vote.direct names the new workspace after you, for example "Priya Raman's Organization". Rename it to your association's real name in Settings, Organization. vote.direct does not send ballot email under the generated name; until you rename it, messages to your voters fall back to vote.direct's own name as the sender (see Settings reference).

Next, a full-screen welcome asks What do you want to run first? It offers three cards:

Everything a template fills in can be changed in the wizard (see Build the election). Under the cards, the link Already have your member list? Add your community first opens People, where you can load your member list before you build anything (see Voters and your roster).

The line at the bottom says drafts are free and you pay only when you publish, and names the starting price. See vote.direct/pricing for prices.

Home

Home is the page at vote.direct/dashboard, and the Home link in the header. It lists the elections in your active workspace, including the ones your teammates created. Surveys have their own tab.

The top of the page

Two tabs sit at the top: Votes, "Verified, certified elections", and Surveys, "Free, open feedback". The Votes tab is Home.

Below them, a greeting reads Good morning, Good afternoon or Good evening, by your computer's clock. Under the greeting, three counts cover every election in the workspace: Votes is the number of elections, Responses the ballots received across them, and Verified the ballots from voters who passed verification. When elections are open, a red dot and "1 live" (or the number open) follow.

On the right, the dark Create a Vote card starts a new election, exactly like Create in the header. Its small print says elections of up to 25 voters are free and names the starting price for larger ones.

Cards that appear when they apply

Between the top of the page and your list, Home shows a few cards only when they have something to say.

Run a free test vote

One per account. It hides itself once you have used it. See The free test vote below.

Ready to publish

A green banner with the title of an election you built before you signed in, and a Publish Now button. If the election needs payment first, it stays a draft and a message says "Almost there: payment needed to publish"; vote.direct opens the election so you can finish. Press × to hide the banner.

You have an unfinished draft

An amber banner, "Continue where you left off", when you left the election wizard part way through on this computer. Continue Editing returns to the wizard. × discards that unsaved copy.

Getting started

A four-step checklist for new accounts. See below.

Coming up

A reminder of a real election you planned after a test run. See below.

The free test vote

Each account can run one free test vote: a real, small election that emails real ballots to you and up to 4 other people, so you can watch voting and live results before you pay for anything.

1. Press Run a free test vote.

2. Give it a name in Vote name. Left blank, it is called "My Test Vote".

3. Under Also send to, add up to 4 more addresses, one per box. Add another person adds a box. Board members, or a second address of your own, show how several ballots add up in the results.

4. Press Create & send test vote, or Maybe later to close without using it.

The dialog then reads Your test vote is live and lists the addresses a ballot was sent to. Open my ballot opens your own ballot in a new tab and View live results opens the results. Each voter confirms by email, votes, and sees the results change. The test is free and does not affect your billing.

Throwaway email addresses are refused: "Please use permanent email addresses for your test invites." Once the test is used, the card disappears; trying again from another tab gets "You've already used your free test vote. Create a real vote to send more ballots."

The Getting started checklist

A new account sees a box titled Getting started with four steps and a count such as "1/4". The first step not yet done is in bold, with a black button that takes you there.

The checklist reads your real progress, so there is nothing to tick. It disappears when all four steps are done. The × in its corner hides it on this computer.

Coming up cards

After a small election that looks like a test run, its page asks Was this a test run? If you answer Yes, the real one is coming and say when voting opens and about how many voters it will have, Home keeps a card near the top until that election happens. It reads Coming up: followed by the title, and a line such as "Opens Thursday, November 12 (in 46 days), about 115 voters." Its one button, Start it from your test run, starts the real election as a copy of the test's ballot.

Home shows up to three of these. A card goes away once a real election is published after it, or a week after its opening day. A card with no date goes away after 120 days. The card has no close button: change the plan on the test election's page.

Filters and election cards

The filters read All, Live, Scheduled, Drafts and Closed, with a count beside each one that has elections. If none match, the list says "No votes match this filter".

The list puts the most urgent first: live elections (closing soonest first), then scheduled ones (opening soonest first), then drafts (most recently edited first), then closed ones (most recently closed first). Each card shows a status chip, the title, one line saying where the election stands, and the next step on the right. Dates are shown in the election's own time zone. A colored bar down the left edge matches the status: red for live, amber for scheduled, gray for drafts and closed elections.

Press anywhere on a card to open the election at the place where its next step is done. Add voters opens the election's Voters section ready to add people; Results opens its results.

When you have no elections yet

An empty Home shows a large green sparkle and Your audience is waiting, with a large Create a Vote card, the free test vote card if you have not used it, and the link Already have your member list? Add your community first, which opens People.

The Surveys tab

The Surveys tab lists the surveys you created, newest first. Each row shows the survey's status (Open, Closed, Scheduled or Draft), its title, and its number of responses and questions. Surveys are free and open to anyone with the link; New survey starts one, and an empty tab offers Create your first survey. See Surveys and quick polls.

The header

Every signed-in page has the same header: a thin green line along the very top, then a white bar. Its labels are in capital letters. From left to right:

VOTE.DIRECT

The logo. It takes you to Home.

Navigation

Home, People, Announcements and Meetings. The page you are on is shaded, with a green line under it.

Create

A black button that starts a new election (see Build the election).

Plan

If you have a subscription plan, a small box with its name. It opens Billing.

Workspace switcher

The name of the workspace you are in, with a small arrow (see Workspaces).

Bell

Your notifications (see Notifications).

Settings

A gear icon, with the word "Settings" beside it on wider screens (see Settings reference).

Sign Out

Signs you out and returns you to the sign-in page.

How much of this fits on one row depends on how wide your browser window is.

The panel opens under the header and covers the page. Press the button again, or the Escape key, to close it. The switches happen at window widths of 1,280 and 1,800 pixels; the word "Settings" joins the gear at 1,500.

Workspaces on a Governance Center plan see more links, such as Documents and Dues (see Governance Center).

Notifications

The bell in the header opens your notifications. A red number on the bell counts the unread ones, up to "9+". The panel lists your ten most recent notifications and checks for new ones every minute.

• Each notification shows a title, a short line of detail and how long ago it happened: "Just now", "5m ago", "3h ago", "2d ago", or a date such as "Oct 9" after a week.
• Unread notifications have a bold title, a light blue background and a blue dot. Pressing one marks it read and opens the page it is about.
• Mark all read appears at the top when anything is unread.
• Notification settings at the bottom opens Settings, Notifications.
• An empty panel says "No notifications yet".

The notifications you are most likely to see:

A few others cover voter lists and email setup. The first three in the table can be turned off, for each workspace separately, in Settings (see Settings reference).

Workspaces

A workspace holds elections, members and settings for one association. The product labels it Organization. Each workspace has one owner and can have a team (see Team and roles). Your first workspace is created for you on your first visit, and you can belong to several: your own, any you create, and any you are invited to.

Switch workspaces

The workspace switcher shows the name of the workspace you are in. On a wide screen it sits in the header; otherwise open the panel with the three-dot or three-line button. Press the name to see the list titled Organizations. Each row shows a workspace's name and your role in it (Owner, Admin, Editor or Viewer), and a green check marks the one you are in. Choose another workspace to switch; the page reloads with that workspace's information.

Create another workspace

1. Open the switcher and press Create organization.

2. In the New organization dialog, type an Organization name of up to 100 characters. This is the name voters see on ballots and invitation emails.

3. Press Create organization. You become the owner of the new workspace and land in it.

Use at least two characters: the name field accepts one, but the workspace is not created with a one-letter name. You can create up to five workspaces in an hour; after that the dialog says "You have created several organizations in the last hour. Try again a little later."

What the active workspace decides

• Which elections Home lists, and the counts at the top of Home.
• Which workspace a new election is saved in.
• What the Settings pages under Workspace show and change: Organization, Team, Notifications and Sending Domain.
• Which workspace a new AI agent key is filed under.

Connect an AI assistant

If you use an AI assistant that can connect to other services, such as Claude or ChatGPT, you can let it work in your vote.direct account. When the assistant connects, vote.direct shows a page headed with the app's name: "App name wants to work in your vote.direct account".

• It shows the account you are signed in as. Use another account signs you out and brings you back to the same page.
• Under "It will be able to:" it lists what the assistant may do, for example "See your elections and surveys, their status and turnout", "Draft elections and add voters to drafts", and "Create free surveys, which can go live right away for anyone with the link". A draft charges nothing and contacts no one, and sending invitations always stays with you.
• The checkbox Also let it publish elections is off unless you tick it. Publishing charges the election fee from your prepaid balance or plan.
• If vote.direct has not verified the app, a yellow warning appears above the buttons. Allow it only if you started the connection yourself, from an app you trust.

Press Allow or Cancel. You can disconnect an assistant at any time in Settings, AI agents, which also covers keys for assistants that do not sign in this way (see Settings reference).

Report a problem

Every signed-in page has a Report a problem button in the bottom-left corner. Use it when a page shows something wrong, even if nothing crashed.

1. Press Report a problem.

2. Describe what went wrong in your own words, for example "the results page says something went wrong". vote.direct attaches the page you are on and your account, so you do not need to include them.

3. Press Send. The dialog thanks you once the report is in the support inbox.

If the report cannot be sent, the dialog says "That did not send. Please email support@vote.direct or call (512) 222-8191."

If a page fails completely, vote.direct shows Something went wrong with Try Again and Home buttons. The details of the error are sent automatically. You can add a note under What were you trying to do? (optional) and press Send to support. For other ways to reach a person, see Getting help.

Start from your governing documents

vote.direct applies the rules you choose. Your bylaws, your declaration or covenants, your election rules and your state's law decide what those rules should be. Before you build, look up the answers to these questions:

• Who may vote: every owner, one vote per home or unit, members in good standing, the board only?
• Does each vote count the same, or is it weighted by shares, lots or an ownership percentage?
• How many members must take part for the vote to count (quorum)?
• What share of the vote does a measure need to pass: a majority, two-thirds, two-thirds of all members?
• Must the ballot be secret?
• Are proxies allowed, and how many may one person hold?
• How much notice must members get before voting opens, and how?
• Does your state call for an independent inspector of elections?

Your voter list

Your voter list, also called the roster, is the record of who may vote. vote.direct checks every voter against it and does not decide who is eligible. Each row is one person who receives a ballot.

The easiest list to work from is the spreadsheet you already have, straight out of your management software or your secretary's records. The importer reads the columns for you, leaves out headings and totals, tidies names and spacing, and shows every change before anything is imported. If you are building a list from scratch, start from the template at vote.direct/voter-roster-template.csv. Its columns are:

A few situations to plan for:

• Co-owners. If two owners share one home and your documents give the home one vote, give each owner their own row with the same unit and choose one vote per unit (below), or put both addresses in one email cell and let the importer give each a ballot with the first vote counting for the home.
• Members with no email. Give them a mobile number to vote by text, or a mailing address to vote on paper. A voter needs at least one way to be reached.
• You do not have the list yet. The wizard can make a link you forward to whoever has it, such as your manager or secretary. They upload the file without an account, and the voters land on your election. The link works for 14 days.

Everyone you add to an election is also saved to People, your contact book, so next year's election starts from this year's list. See Voters and your roster.

How each voter gets a ballot

Each voter has one way of voting, set on the list and changeable until they vote. Most elections are nearly all email with a handful of exceptions, and that is fine: everyone lands in one count.

Instead of sending emails yourself through vote.direct, you can also hand ballots out: printable notices with a QR code and a personal code, a spreadsheet of each voter's link to send your own way, or a sheet of Voter IDs and passwords. You choose this on the wizard's Voters step under How Voters Get Their Ballot.

One vote per person, per unit, or weighted

One vote per person

The starting point. Every row on the list casts one ballot that counts as one.

One vote per unit

Co-owners of the same unit, lot or household share one ballot. The first of them to vote casts it, and the others are told it has already been cast and by whom. You can also choose how an owner of several units votes them: one ballot for all of their units, or a separate ballot for each.

Weighted voting

Each ballot counts by a number on the voter's record, such as shares, lots or an ownership percentage. A voter with no number counts as 1.

Units and weights come from your list. Make sure the columns are there and filled in before you import. You turn either rule on under Voting Rules on the wizard's Voters step.

Secret, anonymous or identified

Choose one of the three ballot secrecy settings. The choice locks when voting opens.

• Identified if your documents call for a recorded vote: you see how each person voted.
• Anonymous for most secret-ballot elections: you see who has voted, never how.
• Sealed if your rules require the ballot to be permanently separated from the voter. Sealed has consequences to plan for: nobody sees a tally until voting closes, voters cannot change a ballot, paper ballots are not available, and an owner of several units casts one ballot for all of them.

Questions and how they are counted

A ballot can hold as many questions as you need. For each one, decide:

• The question type. Yes / No for a measure, Single choice or Multiple choice for most board elections, and ranked, approval, scored or cumulative voting if your documents call for them.
• How many seats. For a board election, the number of seats to fill. A Multiple choice question limits each voter to that many choices.
• Candidates. Their names, and if you like, a photo and a short statement for each.
• Write-ins and Abstain. Whether voters may add their own candidate, and whether to offer an Abstain choice that counts toward turnout but never wins.
• A required share to pass. For a Yes / No measure that needs more than a simple majority, such as two-thirds of votes cast.

If any members vote on paper, plan to use Single choice, Multiple choice and Yes / No questions: those are the types a paper ballot can be entered for. See Ballot questions and voting methods.

Dates and reminders

• When voting opens. As soon as you publish, or at a start time you set.
• When it closes. A close time, or none, in which case it stays open until you close it.
• Whether online voting closes earlier. For an election decided at a meeting, the web ballot can stop when the meeting is called to order while paper and in-person ballots are still entered until the close.
• Reminders. Automatic reminders are on to start with: voters who have not voted are reminded 3 days and 1 day before voting closes, at 9:00 AM. You can choose another plan, write your own message, or turn them off.

Your governing documents and your state's law set how much notice members must get. Set the dates with that in mind, and leave yourself time to send the ballots once the election is published.

Who sees results, and when

You always see the tally on your dashboard, except with sealed ballots before the close. What voters see is your choice:

Private

Voters never see results. They stay in your dashboard, during and after the vote.

After close

Voters get a results page once voting closes. This is the starting setting.

Live

Voters see a running tally while voting is open. That can influence people who have not voted yet, so it is unusual for elections. Not available with sealed ballots.

With anonymous ballots, voters see a locked screen until a minimum number of ballots are in, five unless you change it. If you appoint an inspector of elections, voters see results only after the inspector certifies them.

If your workspace has a team, you also choose who on it sees results before voters do. Owners and admins is the starting setting: you and the workspace's owners and admins see the tally, and editors and viewers see it when voters do. Everyone on your team shows it to every member, viewers included, so a clerk or a board can watch the count without being able to close or delete anything. They cannot download the results, and on an anonymous ballot they wait for the minimum number of ballots, as voters do. Keep it with owners and admins when people on your team are on the ballot. See Team and roles.

Quorum and the share needed to pass

These are two different things, and many measures need both.

• Quorum is how many must take part for the vote to count at all. Choose No quorum requirement, Minimum voter count or Minimum percentage. On a weighted election the percentage is of the total voting weight. When each unit gets its own ballot, the percentage is of units, not people: 10 percent of 27 units is 3 ballots, and the results page says so beside the quorum. Turnout is checked against quorum after every ballot, and the results page shows when it was reached.
• The share needed to pass is set on a Yes / No question: a simple majority, three-fifths, two-thirds, three-quarters or a custom percentage, measured against the votes cast or against all eligible voters. The results say whether it was met.

An election closes at its close time whether or not quorum was reached. If you close it early before quorum is reached, the product warns you that the results will be advisory only.

Proxies, paper and inspectors

Proxies

The wizard has a proxy voting switch, with a limit on how many proxies one person may hold, from 1 to 10. Members name their own proxy online: once a member has confirmed who they are, with an emailed or texted code, an email link or a voting code, their ballot page lets them name the person who will vote for them, by email address. No vote.direct account is needed. There is no form for you to record a proxy on a member's behalf, so if your members give paper proxies, call or text (512) 222-8191 before you build it.

Paper ballots

If some members will vote on paper, decide who does the work: you print and mail the packets yourself, we mail them and you count the returns, or we mail them and enter the returns for you. Someone must be named to count paper ballots before you can publish, unless we are counting them. Paper ballots must all be entered before the election closes. See Paper, mail and in-person ballots.

An inspector of elections

An inspector of elections is a neutral person who confirms the roster and certifies the count. For a few states, the product will not publish an election until an inspector has been appointed. Even where it is optional, an inspector gives you an independent check if a result is ever challenged. See Inspectors and state rules.

Budget and a test run

Elections with 25 voters or fewer are free and send email only. Larger elections have one price set by the number of voters on your list, charged when you publish. Mailed paper packets are charged per packet. The price for your list appears on the wizard's Voters step, in the corner of the wizard and again on Review, before you pay. See Billing and payments.

Plan a test before the real thing. You can send yourself a free test ballot from any election, which is the real email, link, ballot and receipt, without publishing anything. Some boards also run a small practice vote among themselves first. See Test, then publish.

A planning checklist

Where each decision is made, and whether it can still change once voting has opened. Before then, while the election is a draft or scheduled, everything can change.

Start a new election

Every election starts on the Create page, vote.direct/create. To get there, press Create in the bar at the top of any dashboard page, or press the large Create a Vote card on your dashboard's Home page.

You can open the Create page and build a ballot before you sign in. Adding voters needs an account, because your voter list is kept with it. If you save or publish while signed out, vote.direct asks you to create an account and holds your ballot for 48 hours while you do.

The Create page offers, from top to bottom:

• What do you want to run? Two cards for a first election: Run a board election and Approve a budget or document. Each opens the wizard with a ready-made template filled in: Leadership Election for the first, Budget & Spending Approval for the second. These cards show only until your workspace has its first election.
• Start from scratch. Opens the wizard empty, with one blank question.
• Your Templates. Templates you saved from your own past elections. This list appears once you have saved one.
• Template Library. Templates written by vote.direct, in two groups that open and close: General Templates and HOA & Condo.

Pick a template

Press a template's name to open it. You see a short description, a blue box that reads Pre-fills title with the title it will put in, badges for the settings it sets, and a Use Template button. The template adds this year to its title, so Leadership Election becomes Leadership Election 2026. Press Use Template to open the wizard with everything filled in. You can change every setting afterwards.

If you already have an unfinished election in the wizard, vote.direct asks first: Replace your unfinished draft? Press Use template to discard the unfinished election and start from the template, or Keep my draft to keep it. Discarding cannot be undone.

All four use an invite list and email verification, identified ballots (organizers can see who voted how) and results shown after voting closes. Replace placeholder rows such as Candidate 1 with real names, or delete the rows you do not need. Ballot questions and voting methods explains how placeholder rows are handled.

State templates for HOAs and condominiums

The HOA & Condo group lists templates by state: California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, Illinois, Washington, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Indiana. Open a state to see its templates. Each state has a board election, a budget approval and an amendment of the governing documents, named the way that state names its documents: CC&R Amendment, Declaration Amendment, Dedicatory Instrument Amendment, Master Deed Amendment, Bylaws Amendment or Governing Document Amendment. California adds Special Assessment, Florida has separate HOA Board Election and Condo Board Election templates, and Massachusetts names its election Trustee Election.

A state template is a starting point that prefills settings. It fills in a question, a quorum and, for some votes, a share of the vote needed to pass, and some state templates turn on sealed ballots. It also selects its state, the kind of community and the kind of election in the Compliance section of Step 3, so that the product checks your settings against the rules it holds for that state. A badge such as Sets CA compliance means only that the template selects California for that check. A template does not make an election valid under any law, and its numbers may not match your governing documents. Check each number against them before you publish.

Run an election again

To start from an election you ran before, open it and choose its Settings tab. In the card titled This election, the first line reads "Run it again. Copies the ballot and its rules into a new draft. You choose the roster, schedule and payment fresh." Press Duplicate beside it.

vote.direct shows Making a copy of your vote… while it reads the old election, then opens the wizard with the copy. If it cannot read the election, you see Could not copy that vote; try again, or start from a template.

The copy keeps the questions, the candidates and their bios, and the rules: how voters get their ballot, verification, ballot secrecy, quorum, proxy voting, weighting, one vote per unit, the information you collect from voters, who sees results, and the state. It does not copy the voter list, the opening and closing dates, the online cutoff, payment, or candidate photos, and the design and reminder plan start from their defaults. The title gets (copy) added to the end so you can tell the two apart. Change it to the new title.

A published test election offers another way to copy: its Was this a test run? card has a Start it from this ballot button, which makes the same kind of copy and removes rehearsal words such as Test from the title. See Test, then publish.

Find your way around the wizard

The wizard has five steps. You can move between them in any order and leave a step unfinished to come back to it. Only publishing checks that everything is ready.

The top of the wizard

• The step's name. Step 2 of 5, the step's name, and the line under it.
• The price badge. It shows what publishing will cost as you build: Free for an election of 25 voters or fewer, Set by your list before anyone is on the voter list, Included in plan when your plan covers the election, Custom quote above 5,000 voters, or the price for your list. The price also shows on the Voters step and again on Review before you pay. See vote.direct/pricing.
• Autosaved. Autosaved and the time mean your work is kept in this browser (see Drafts and autosave).
• The step squares. A green square with a check means that step has everything publishing needs. The black square is the step you are on. A gray number still needs something; Review stays gray until the whole election is ready. Design always shows a check, because it never blocks publishing. Press any square to go to that step. On a phone the squares become small dots.
• The green bar. The thin bar under the header fills as you complete the publish checklist. It is full when the election is ready to publish.

The publish checklist

On a wide screen, a panel titled Publish checklist runs down the right side of the wizard. On a phone, and on the Design step, it becomes a bar under the header that reads, for example, 2/3 ready · Next: Voters. Press the bar to open the list.

The rows are Ballot, Voters, Schedule and Design, plus Final checks when your election sends text messages. Each row shows a green check when it is done and one line about what is done or what is missing. The first row that still needs work is outlined in yellow and tagged Next, or Now when it belongs to the step you are on. Design is marked Optional and never blocks you. Press a row to go to the step where you fix it.

Under the rows, Publish price repeats the price badge. When everything is done, the panel reads Everything is ready, and a green Review & publish button takes you to Step 5.

The buttons at the bottom

• Back goes to the previous step.
• Continue goes to the next step. If you left Review to fix one thing, it reads Back to review and takes you straight back there.
• When the step you are on is unfinished, a small line under the buttons says so, for example "Voters isn't finished, you can continue and come back anytime." Continue still works.
• On Review the buttons change to Save draft and one main button. While something is missing, the main button reads Finish setup: followed by the next item, for example Finish setup: Voters, and takes you to it with a yellow box that lists what is needed. When everything is ready, it reads Publish Vote, or Pay & Publish when payment is due. Test, then publish explains both. When anyone on your list votes on paper, it reads Save and set up paper ballots instead and stands alone; see Test, then publish.
• Save draft appears only on the Review step. It stays unavailable until the election has a title.

Step 1: Your Vote

Vote Title is the only required box on this step. Type the name your voters will see, up to 200 characters, for example 2026 Board of Directors Election. A counter under the box shows how many characters you have used, and the election's web address is made from this title when the election is created.

Description (optional) is the text voters read first: the notice, the purpose of the vote, how candidates were nominated. It starts as a plain box that keeps your line breaks. Turn on the Formatting & photos switch to add headings, bold text, lists, links and photos; the box becomes a small word processor, and voters see the text exactly as it looks there. A description holds up to 20,000 characters, and formatting counts toward that limit. Near the limit a counter appears. Over it, a red line says how many characters to remove, and the publish checklist waits until you do.

If you turn formatting off again, vote.direct asks first, because headings, bold text, lists, links and photos are removed. Your words stay.

Documents for voters (optional) comes next, for the amendment, a budget, a cover letter or candidate statements that voters should read. Press Add a PDF and choose one file or several at once. Each must be a PDF of up to 10 MB, and a ballot carries up to 10 documents. Each one appears in a list with an × to remove it. The files upload when you save or publish, and voters open them from the ballot.

Below the documents is the Require electronic signature switch. When it is on, each voter types their full legal name and address and certifies they are the eligible voter before their ballot is cast, and the signature is stored with their ballot. When the ballot also carries documents, each voter must first open every document, read it to the end and confirm they reviewed it, then vote, and sign last. The ballot shows what voters see.

After the election is created, the Ballot card on the election page is where you add or remove documents and change the sender name your voters see.

Below a line, Questions lists your questions with a count beside it. A new election starts with one empty Single choice question. Press Add Another Question for more; there is no limit on the number of questions. Each question is a card with its own type, choices and settings, explained in full in Ballot questions and voting methods.

The Ballot row of the publish checklist names anything missing, for example Add a title for your vote or Question 1 needs text.

Step 2: Voters

The Voters step decides who can vote and how. When your list is empty it opens with a question. Below that are five sections that open and close: Who Can Vote, How Voters Get Their Ballot, Identity Verification and, under the heading Advanced options, Voter Information and Voting Rules. A closed section shows a short summary of its settings on the right.

Do you have your voter list?

While nobody is on your voter list, the step opens with Do you have your voter list? and two answers:

• Yes, I have it (Add them now and publish today). The wizard ends with publishing, as usual. A small link, Don't have the list yet?, stays in case you change your mind.
• Not yet (Set it up and we'll get you the list). The step then reads Waiting on the list. That's fine. You can finish everything else, and the wizard ends with one button, Save & request the list, which saves the election to your account instead of publishing it. Nothing is charged until you publish. To change your answer, press Actually, I have it.

After you answer Not yet, a panel titled Don't have the list handy? appears in Who Can Vote. Press Ask someone for the list to get a link you can forward to whoever keeps the member list, such as your manager or your secretary. They open it without an account and upload the file or paste the addresses, and the voters land on your list. The link works for 14 days, and vote.direct sends you an email when they upload it. The election needs a title before you can make the link.

Who Can Vote

This section holds your voter list. Its first line counts your voters and how each one gets a ballot, for example 212 voters · 198 by email · 9 by text · 5 by mail. Press Add voters to open the window where you paste addresses or mobile numbers, type people in, upload a spreadsheet, or pick a saved group or contacts. Voters and your roster explains that window and the list in full.

Add voters is unavailable until your election has a title. The first time you press it, vote.direct saves your election to your account as a draft, because the list is kept with the election.

Everyone gets their ballot by email unless your file says otherwise. After you publish, you can switch any voter to text or to a mailed paper ballot on the election's Voters tab. If someone on a free election (25 voters or fewer) is set to get a text, a yellow note titled Texts need a paid election explains that they will not be texted, and that you can switch them to links you hand out yourself when you publish, or pay the price of a 26 to 50 voter election for this one and have them texted.

If you are not signed in, this section reads Voters are added from your account, with Create a free account and Sign in buttons. Your ballot stays in this browser while you sign up.

How Voters Get Their Ballot

Choose how your voters first receive their ballot. This is a starting point, not a lock: after publishing, every method stays available, and you can combine them in one election.

Every voter still needs a row on your list, even when you print notices or hand out passwords. For someone with no email address, the wizard suggests a placeholder such as unit-12@your-hoa.invalid. vote.direct does not email a voter you print for or give a password to unless you choose to.

Text messages are set per voter, for voters with a mobile number. Paper ballots that voters mark by hand and return are set up separately, on the election page's Paper ballots screen, and you can set them up before you publish. See Paper, mail and in-person ballots.

Identity Verification

This section sets how a voter proves who they are before the ballot opens.

• Email verification (One-time code sent to email) is always on. Its box is checked and cannot be cleared, with the note Required for invite-list votes.
• SMS verification (Code sent to mobile number) adds a code sent by text message. It is available on paid elections. On an election of 25 voters or fewer, which is free, it cannot be turned on, and the box says "Free elections send email only. SMS is included with every paid election."
• When SMS verification is on, a yellow note explains that carriers require your organization to already have each voter's permission to text them, that you confirm this on the Review step before publishing, and that vote.direct records your confirmation against your account.

If you add someone who has a mobile number and no email address, SMS verification turns on, and the section says how many voters can only be reached by text.

If you chose Print notices yourself or Usernames & passwords, a blue note explains that those voters prove who they are with the code or password you give them, so no email or text code is sent to them. The boxes in this section then apply to any voters you also email a ballot link.

Voter Information

These switches, under Advanced options, ask each voter for information before they submit. All are off unless you turn them on.

With anonymous or sealed ballots, the information you collect is kept on the voter's record and is not shown next to their ballot.

The electronic signature is not here: it is on the first step, under the documents voters read. See Step 1: Your Vote.

Voting Rules

The last section, also under Advanced options, holds the rules that shape how the election counts.

Quorum Requirements

A quorum is the minimum participation your rules require for the result to count. Choose No quorum requirement (the setting when you start from scratch), Minimum voter count or Minimum percentage, then type a whole number in the box that appears. With weighted voting or one vote per unit, a percentage is measured against total voting weight, and the box is labeled Minimum % of total voting weight. If a count is higher than the number of voters on your list, a red line warns that it can never be reached.

A quorum is not the share of yes votes a measure needs to pass. That is a separate setting on each Yes / No question, described in Ballot questions and voting methods.

Weighted Voting

Weighted Voting gives some ballots more weight than others, for example by shares, ownership percentage or delegates. Pick a number field from your contacts in the list; No weighting (equal votes) is the default. Each voter's weight is read from that field, and a voter with no value counts as 1. If you have no number fields yet, the section says so and links to the page where you create one.

One vote per unit

One vote per unit gives one ballot to each unit, lot or household, so co-owners share a single vote. Pick the field that holds the unit; None: standard voting is the default. The first co-owner to vote casts the unit's ballot, and the other co-owners are then locked out. If your spreadsheet has a unit column, uploading it can turn this on for you.

Once a unit field is chosen, Owners of more than one unit offers three choices:

These choices are hidden when ballots are sealed; sealed ballots keep one ballot for all of an owner's units.

Proxy Voting

The Proxy Voting switch (Allow eligible voters to delegate their vote to another voter) is off by default. When you turn it on, Maximum proxies per holder appears: a whole number from 1 to 10, set to 3, for how many voters can delegate their vote to a single proxy holder.

Members name a proxy themselves, on their ballot page, once they have confirmed who they are. No vote.direct account is needed. The election page lists delegations in its Proxy Assignments card; see Voters and your roster.

Randomize option order

Randomize option order shows each voter the choices in a different random order, so the first name on the list gains no edge. A voter who returns sees the same order, and results list the choices in your original order.

Ballot secrecy

Ballot secrecy sets how the link between a voter and their ballot is treated. You choose, and the choice locks when the vote goes live.

Identified

Organizers can see who voted and how. For open board votes, roll calls and decisions that must be attributed.

Anonymous

The setting when you start from scratch. Organizers do not see who voted how, in the results, the ballot view or exports. vote.direct keeps the link between a voter and their ballot in restricted storage.

Sealed (permanent separation)

The ballot is stored with no link to the voter at all. Turnout and quorum are visible while voting is open, but nobody, you included, sees a tally until voting closes. Live results are not available, voters cannot change a ballot once cast, and each voter's confirmation code is shown once on screen instead of being emailed.

Most templates set Identified. Choose the setting your governing documents call for.

Privacy protection

With anonymous or sealed ballots, a box titled Privacy protection appears with Minimum votes before showing results: a whole number from 2 to 100, set to 5. Results and the list of who has voted stay hidden until that many ballots are in, so nobody can work out how the first few people voted.

The price on this step

A panel at the bottom of the step shows what this election costs for the list you have: Nothing to pay yet before anyone is on the list, This election is free for 25 voters or fewer, a flat rate charged once at publish for a larger list, Custom pricing for elections this size above 5,000 voters, or Included in your plan. The price for your list appears in that panel and again on Review before you pay. See vote.direct/pricing and Billing and payments.

For a list of 100 voters or more, or one with voters who vote only by mail, a one-line row under the price offers our paid help with running the election; see Managed elections.

Once your list is in and nothing else is missing, a green box reads Your list is in. This election is ready to go live. It explains that the schedule and design already have working defaults, which you can change later. Its button, Review and pay followed by your price, takes you to Review, where you pay and publish.

Step 3: Schedule

A line at the top sums up the schedule, for example 10/19/2026 → 10/30/2026 (12 days), or Opens immediately, closes manually.

When voting happens

Under When does voting happen?, a gray line names the time zone, for example "Times are in America/New York · EDT. Voting opens and closes at these times there."

• Start immediately is on by default: voting opens the moment you publish. Turn it off to set Opens at, a date and time. If that time has already passed when you publish, voting opens at once, and a yellow line says "This start time has already passed: voting opens as soon as you publish."
• Closes at (optional) ends voting at a date and time. Leave it empty to close voting yourself from your dashboard. The close must be in the future and after the opening.
• Close online voting earlier at (optional) stops the online ballot before the vote closes, for example when your meeting is called to order. Paper and in-person ballots can still be entered until the vote closes. Leave it empty to close online voting with the vote.

Reminders before the close need a close date. Without one, voters who have not voted get one reminder 3 days after their ballot, or your own reminders counted from the ballot if your plan has any.

When voters see results

Under When can voters see results?, choose one of three tiles. You always see the tally in your dashboard; this choice decides what your voters see.

With anonymous ballots, voters see a locked screen until your privacy threshold of ballots is in. With sealed ballots, Live is not available, and nobody sees a tally until voting closes.

When your workspace has a team and voters will not see a running tally, a second question follows: Who on your team sees results before voters do? (for a private election, Who on your team sees results?). Choose Owners and admins, the starting setting, or Everyone on your team. You can change it later on the election's Settings tab under Results, even while voting is open; the election's audit log records the change.

Reminders

Reminders nudge voters who have not voted yet. Send automatic reminders is on by default with the Standard plan: 3 days and 1 day before voting closes, at 9:00 AM in the election's time zone. You can choose another plan (Light touch, Thorough or Long election), change the reminders or add more up to six, pick the time of day, and write your own subject line and message. Each reminder shows the moment it is due to go out. Email reminders go only to voters whose ballot email was already sent and who have not voted. Invitations and reminders covers the reminder editor and the messages in full.

The election's web address

Your vote's address explains that every voter gets their own secure ballot link, and that the election also has an address made from its title, such as vote.direct/v/2026-board-of-directors-election. That address is included with every election.

Use your own domain lets you run the vote on an address such as vote.yourhoa.org. You set it up on the election page after the wizard: you add two records at your domain provider, and publishing waits until they are verified. A one-time fee applies; see vote.direct/pricing.

The state check

The Compliance section lets the product check your settings against the rules it holds for your state. Pick your state from the list. No state selected (skip compliance check) is the default, and the list offers California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. After you pick a state, choose the Community type (HOA (Homeowners Association) or Condominium Association) and the Election type (Board Election, Budget Approval, Bylaw Amendment, Resolution or Other).

A panel then shows the result: red with a count of violations that must be fixed before publishing, yellow with advisory notices, or green when the check found nothing to flag. Press the panel to see each item, the setting it looked at, a suggested change and the statute it cites. If a red result is still there when you publish, publishing stops and the election is kept as a draft until you change the setting it names. Some states also need an inspector of elections appointed on the election page before you publish; see Inspectors and state rules.

The state, the community type and the election type are set when the election is created and cannot be changed later.

Step 4: Design

Design changes how the ballot looks to your voters. Every election starts with the Vote.Direct design, and this step never blocks publishing.

Choose a design

The step opens on Choose a Design, with five groups: Recommended (Vote.Direct, marked Popular), Professional (Clean White, Corporate Navy, Modern Slate, Executive Dark), Colorful (Ocean Gradient, Sunset Warm, Forest Green, Royal Purple), Minimal (Paper, Ink) and Community (Civic Blue, Neighborhood). Each card draws a small ballot with your own title and first question. Press a card to choose it; a check marks your choice.

Customize further

Press Customize further for the full editor. Settings sit on the left, and a Live Preview of your ballot sits on the right, with buttons for a desktop view and a phone view. Back to templates returns to the cards. Two tabs at the top of the settings, BASIC and ADVANCED, divide the controls.

The BASIC tab has five parts:

• Templates: the same designs, as a row of small tiles.
• Brand Match: pick or type one or two brand colors and press GENERATE THEMES to get four designs built from them, named Clean, Bold, Elegant and Dark. Press one to use it.
• Accent Color: seven color squares and a custom color picker. The accent changes buttons and highlights without changing the rest of the design.
• Typography: four fonts, each shown with your title: Inter, Poppins, Playfair Display and your device's own system font.
• Images: Header Image (16:9 recommended) adds a picture across the top of the ballot; after you choose a file, a Crop Header Image window lets you frame it. Background fills the page behind the ballot card.

The ADVANCED tab opens detailed settings in three groups: Style (Background, Colors, Typography), Components (Buttons, Cards, Poll Options) and Advanced (Layout, Animations). Reset returns a changed design to the template you started from.

Step 5: Review

Review shows everything in one place before you publish.

Vote Summary

The Vote Summary card has three parts. Each has an Edit link that opens the step where you change it.

• Your Vote. The title, the description as voters will see it, the number of questions, the design, whether you added a cover image, the documents voters will read, and the electronic signature when you require one.
• Voters. Invite list only, how ballots are sent, the number of voters, how they are contacted when your list mixes email, text and mail, the verification, the ballot secrecy, and anything you collect from voters.
• Schedule. When voting starts and ends, the online cutoff, who sees results and, when set, the randomized order, the quorum, proxy voting, weighting, the state and the reminder plan.

Configured voter experience

This card lists, in numbered steps, what your voters will go through with the settings you chose: how the ballot reaches them, how they verify, how many questions they answer and when they see results. Read it as one of your voters would.

What it costs

Below the summary, a card shows the cost of publishing. For a priced election, Vote Cost lists the fee for your list's size band, Email + SMS verification as Included, and Amount due now. A line underneath says how you pay: from your prepaid balance, or on a secure checkout page. An election of 25 voters or fewer shows Free. If your plan covers the election, the card reads Included in your plan. Above 5,000 voters it reads Custom setup required with a link to ask for a quote. With nobody on your list yet, the card reads Add your voter list to publish instead, because nobody can vote until someone is on the list: Add voters now takes you back to the Voters step and Finish later saves a draft. If someone else has the list, answer Not yet on the Voters step and the wizard ends at Save & request the list. The amounts for your list appear on this card; see vote.direct/pricing and Billing and payments.

When a price is due, more boxes may appear: one suggesting a free test before you pay, and one describing our offer to beat a lower quote from another provider. Test, then publish explains the free tests, and Billing and payments explains the offer.

Consent to text your voters

If your election sends text messages, a card titled Confirm you have consent to text these voters asks you to tick a box. By ticking it you confirm that every voter you are about to text gave your organization prior consent to receive election messages at the number on file, that you are authorized to act for your organization, and that you are responsible for honoring opt-out requests, and you accept the SMS Messaging Terms. Publishing waits until the box is ticked, and vote.direct records your confirmation against your account with the date. If you already confirmed consent when you added text voters, the box is ticked for you. If you are not sure you have that consent, turn SMS verification off on the Voters step and use email verification instead.

Ready to publish

At the bottom, a green box reads Ready to publish and says how publishing will be paid, or a yellow box asks you to pay first and explains that you go to a secure checkout page and that the election publishes when your payment goes through. If your voters get their ballots by email, a blue note reminds you that the next screen has one button to email everyone their secure ballot link, and that nothing goes out until you press it.

Then press Publish Vote or Pay & Publish at the bottom right, or Save draft to finish later. When anyone on your list votes on paper, the one button is Save and set up paper ballots. Test, then publish explains what happens next.

Drafts and autosave

The wizard keeps your work in two ways.

• Autosave keeps your progress in this browser as you type, and the header shows Autosaved with the time. It lasts 24 hours, and only in this browser on this computer; another computer or browser does not see it.
• Save draft, on the Review step, saves the election to your account, where you can open it from any device under Drafts on your dashboard.

Autosave does not keep pictures or files: the cover image, the background image, candidate photos and the documents for voters. Choose them again after a reload. A candidate card names any photos you need to add again, and the first step names any documents.

When you come back to the wizard within 24 hours, it asks You have an unfinished draft, shows the title and when it was saved, and offers Continue Draft or Start Fresh. Start Fresh discards the unfinished election. Your dashboard also shows a banner, You have an unfinished draft, with a Continue Editing button. Pressing × on that banner discards the unfinished election from this browser.

vote.direct also saves your election to your account as a draft on its own the first time you press Add voters, when you ask someone for the list, and when you press Finish setup on Review while something is still missing. That way your work is not lost if you leave, and you find it under Drafts. When you save or publish, the election you saved replaces that draft.

After Save draft, an election with voters on its list opens the Draft saved page; one with an empty list opens its own election page, where you add voters and publish once they are in; and one with voters on paper opens its Paper ballots page, where you choose who prints, mails and counts them before publishing. A saved election is edited on its election page, not in the wizard. See Test, then publish.

What you can change after publishing

Most settings stay editable while an election is a draft or is scheduled to open. Once voting opens, the ballot is fixed.

The question card

Every question on Step 1 of the wizard is a card. The same card is used when you edit the ballot later in the Ballot card on the election page, so everything in this chapter applies there too, until voting opens.

From top to bottom, a card has:

1. The header: the question's number and its text (or Question 1 until you type), with an arrow that folds the card away. A trash can appears when the ballot has more than one question; press it to delete this one.
2. What would you like to ask?: the question itself. Under it, Note under the question (optional) adds a line of up to 2,000 characters that voters see under the question.
3. Nine tiles, one for each question type. The tile with the black border is the type you chose.
4. The choices, for the types that have them, and the Candidate election switch.
5. Settings for the chosen type.
6. Switches for write-ins and Abstain where the type allows them, then Required.
7. Map to contact field, when your organization keeps custom fields on its contacts.

A card with a problem turns red and says what is wrong, for example Question text is required or Add at least 2 options. The Ballot row of the publish checklist names the same problems until you fix them.

The nine question types

Choose a type by pressing its tile. The ballot your voters see changes with it.

Yes / No questions get their Yes and No answers automatically. Rating and Open text have no choices. When you change a question to one of these three types, its choices are cleared.

If the question has candidates with bios or photos, changing it to a type without a candidate list asks first, for example Change this question to Yes / No?, because the candidates, their bios and their photos are removed and do not come back if you change the type again. Press Keep the candidates to leave the question as it was.

Choices and candidates

Single choice, Multiple choice, Ranked choice, Cumulative, Approval and Scored questions need at least two choices. A new question starts with two empty rows, labeled Option 1 and Option 2 in gray. Press Add Option for another row, up to 10 choices per question; the button disappears at 10. Press the × beside a row to remove it, as long as at least two rows remain.

Candidate election: photos and bios

Turn on Candidate election (Add photos and bios for each candidate) to give each choice a photo and a statement. The choices you already typed become the first candidates. Each candidate is a card with:

• Photo: press the square and choose a picture (JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP, up to 10MB). Point at a photo to show Replace and a button that removes it; on a phone they always show.
• A name box, labeled Candidate 1 name in gray until you type.
• A bio box for a statement of up to 2,000 characters, with a counter under it. Line breaks are kept.

Press Add Candidate for another card, up to 10 candidates per question. Press the × at the top right of a card to remove it, as long as at least two remain.

Turning Candidate election off keeps the names but removes every bio and photo. If any candidate has a bio or a photo, vote.direct asks first (Turn off candidate election?), and the removed bios and photos do not come back if you turn the switch on again. Press Keep candidate election to leave it on.

Placeholder names

Templates fill in sample rows such as Candidate 1, Candidate 2 and Candidate 3. vote.direct treats a row that reads Candidate followed by a number, Option followed by a single letter (such as Option A), or Choice followed by a number as a placeholder.

• When a question has at least two real choices, leftover placeholder rows are dropped when you publish. They never reach your voters.
• When it has fewer than two real choices, the publish checklist asks you to fix it: "Question 1: replace the placeholder names (e.g. "Candidate 1") with real choices, or delete the rows you don't need."

Settings for each type

Multiple choice

Voters may select up to sets the most choices a voter can pick. Leave it blank for no limit. The ballot shows Select up to 2, and the limit is enforced when ballots are cast and counted. The number cannot be more than the number of choices, and a gray note beside it says, for example, of 3 options.

On a Multiple choice question this number is also the number of seats: with up to 2, the two candidates with the most votes win. Left blank, the question fills one seat.

Cumulative

Each voter gets a pool of votes to spread across the candidates however they like: all on one candidate, or split among several. Votes per member sets the pool. It is 3 when you choose the type, and it must be at least 2. Seats to fill sets how many candidates win; the highest vote totals take the seats when voting closes.

When the election uses weighted voting or one vote per unit, a switch appears above the pool: Multiply the pool by each voter's entitlement. When it is on, the box is renamed Votes per unit or share: each voter gets that many votes for every unit or share they hold, and the minimum becomes 1. For a board election, set it to the number of seats. The card then works the arithmetic through, for example "A member holding 1,000 shares gets 2,000 votes to spread across candidates."

Ranked choice

Voters put the candidates in order. Counting method sets how the rankings decide the result: "Voters rank candidates the same way under every method. The method decides who wins." The ballot looks the same under every method, and voters see one line under the question that explains how it is counted.

Instant runoff, Condorcet and the contingent vote always elect one winner. Single transferable vote and Borda count fill several seats and add Seats to fill. Three methods add a choice of rulebook, each starting on the default named first: Counting rules for STV, Cycle rule for Condorcet and Point scale for Borda. Every method and rulebook is listed under Counting methods.

Approval

Voters mark every candidate they approve of, with no limit. Seats to fill sets how many of the most-approved candidates win.

Scored

Voters score each candidate independently, from 0 up to the Scale top you set: from 2 to 10, starting at 5. The ballot says "Score each candidate from 0 to 5" and "Leave a candidate unscored to skip them." Skipping a candidate gives them no points; scoring them 0 counts against their average. The highest point totals win, and Seats to fill sets how many.

Turn on Automatic runoff (STAR) to finish with a runoff: after scoring, the two highest totals go to a runoff decided by how many voters scored one above the other. STAR always elects one winner, so Seats to fill disappears while the switch is on.

Yes / No and the share needed to pass

Yes and No are provided for you. Turn on Include Abstain to add a third answer, Abstain.

Require a set share to pass sets the share of the vote the measure must win. It is off unless you turn it on, and it starts at two-thirds of the votes cast. Choose one of:

• Simple majority: more than half.
• Three-fifths (60%), Two-thirds (66.7%) or Three-quarters (75%).
• Custom: type a percentage from 1 to 100 in the box marked % needed.

Under Measured against, choose Votes cast (of the members who voted; abstentions are not counted either way) or All eligible voters (of everyone on the list, whether they voted or not, which is a harder bar). A line at the bottom states the rule in words, for example "To pass, this needs two-thirds of votes cast."

After voting closes, the results show Carried or Did not carry, with the share of yes votes and the share required. While voting is open they show Passing so far or Not yet at the threshold, and Not yet determined appears until a ballot is counted. When a measure falls short, a line says how many more votes in favor were needed. Every result carries the line "A count of the ballots recorded, not a legal determination that the measure is validly adopted."

Rating

Min (1 to 10, starting at 1) and Max (2 to 10, starting at 10) set the scale. Low label and High label add optional words for each end, such as Poor and Excellent. Results show the average rating.

Open text

Placeholder text sets the gray hint in the answer box, and Max characters sets the longest answer, from 50 to 5,000, starting at 2,000. An Open text question starts as not required, so a voter can skip it. Results count the written answers; you read them in the CSV export.

Write-ins, Abstain, Required and contact fields

Write-in candidates

Allow write-in candidates (Voters can add their own candidate to the ballot) is available on Single choice, Multiple choice, Cumulative and Approval questions. On the ballot, voters press Add write-in candidate and type a name. Write-ins per voter sets how many names one voter can add:

• Single choice: one write-in per voter.
• Multiple choice: up to the Voters may select up to number, because write-ins count toward it.
• Cumulative: up to the size of the pool, because each write-in costs at least one vote from it.
• Approval: up to 10.

The most is 10 in every case. In the results, write-in names that differ only in capital letters or spacing are counted together, and a write-in candidate can win.

Abstain

Include Abstain option adds an Abstain answer to Single choice, Multiple choice and Approval questions; Yes / No has its own Include Abstain switch. An abstention counts toward turnout but never wins. Once Abstain is on for a question and your ballot has more than one question that can take it, a link under the switch reads Apply to all 3 questions (with your number). Press it to turn Abstain on for all of them; the link then reads Abstain applied to all 3 questions.

Required

Required (Voters must answer this before they can submit) is on for every type except Open text. Turn it off to let voters skip the question. On the ballot, a required question is tagged Required.

Map to contact field

When your organization keeps custom fields on its contacts, Map to contact field opens a list labeled Save answer to contact field. Pick a field, and each voter's answer is saved to that field on their contact record when they submit. Leave it on None to save nothing. Closing Map to contact field again removes the link to the field. If the fields cannot be loaded, a yellow bar above the questions reads Could not load contact fields. Tap to retry. Press it to try again.

Counting methods

This table lists every way vote.direct counts a question, with the name and the line shown in the wizard. In a weighted election, each ballot counts with the voter's weight under every method. On a Cumulative question whose pool is multiplied by each voter's entitlement, the weight is already in the pool, so it is not applied a second time.

On a ranked ballot, voters see one of these lines under the question: "Counted by instant runoff: the last-place candidate is eliminated round by round until one holds a majority." "Counted by single transferable vote: your vote transfers between your choices until every seat is filled." "Counted by Borda points: each position in your ranking awards points, and the highest totals win." "Counted head-to-head: the winner is the candidate who beats every other in one-on-one comparison." "Counted as a two-round runoff: if no candidate holds a majority, all but the top two are eliminated at once and your vote moves to whichever of them you ranked higher." When a question fills more than one seat, the line adds, for example, "2 seats will be filled."

Seats, winners and ties

How many winners a question has depends on its type:

• Multiple choice: the Voters may select up to number. Blank means one seat.
• Approval, Scored (without STAR) and Cumulative: Seats to fill.
• Ranked choice: Seats to fill under single transferable vote and Borda; one seat under instant runoff, Condorcet and the contingent vote.
• Single choice, STAR and Yes / No: one.

Seats to fill cannot be more than the number of candidates; the box stops at that number, and beside it a gray note says, for example, of 3 candidates. If you delete candidates afterwards, the publish checklist says so, for example "Question 1: 3 seats but only 2 candidates, add candidates or lower the seat count."

While voting is open, the results mark front-runners Leading; nobody is a winner until voting closes. After the close, winners are marked Winner. On a question with more than one seat, a line reads, for example, "This question fills 2 seats, 2 winners elected."

Ties

vote.direct never picks a winner at random. It does not draw lots or flip a coin. Instead:

• When candidates are level during a count but every way of breaking the tie leads to the same result, the count goes on and says so, for example "Candidates finished level for elimination. Every possible order was counted, and each one elects the same winner."
• When a tie decides who wins, the result marks the candidates Tied and does not award the seat. It says the tie has to be resolved under your association's bylaws, and on a question with several seats it counts the seats that are undecided.
• With several seats, candidates above a tie for the last seat win outright. Only the seat the tie blocks stays open.

Resolve a tie the way your governing documents say, whether that is a runoff, a coin toss or something else, and keep a note of how you did it with your election records.

What the results show for each method

Every question's results start with a bar for each choice and its count. On a ranked question the bars show first preferences, and the Winner badge comes from the counting method, not from the longest bar. Below the bars, each method adds its own detail, on your dashboard and on the voters' results page whenever counts are shown. Close, results and the record covers the results pages in full.

Choosing a method

Your governing documents decide how your organization votes. This table matches common wording to the setting that does the same thing. When in doubt, follow your documents and ask whoever interprets them for your board.

The Voters tab

Every election you build in vote.direct has a voter list, also called the roster: the people allowed to vote. Only people on the list can vote. Open the election from your dashboard and four tabs sit under its title:

• Overview: ballot and status.
• Voters: who can vote. A count beside the label shows how many people are on the list.
• Results: tally, submissions and audit. It appears once the election is published.
• Settings: rules, governance and sharing.

The Voters tab holds everything about the people and how they are reached. From top to bottom, a live election shows:

1. Reach voters in more than one way: a summary of how many voters get email, a text or a paper ballot. Hidden once the election is closed.
2. Text voters the link: only when the election sends text messages and is scheduled or live.
3. Distribute ballots yourself: here when you hand out printed notices, links or sign-in sheets yourself, or when anyone votes with a printed voting code. Otherwise it waits further down.
4. Reminders: the automatic reminder plan. See Invitations and reminders.
5. Units with more than one address and Voters with no {field}: roster checks, only when they find something.
6. Voter List: the list itself.
7. Paper ballots: when anyone on the list votes on paper. See Paper, mail and in-person ballots.
8. More ways to deliver ballots and help voters: a fold-out panel with the delivery tools this election is not using yet, and Voter rescue.
9. Proxy Assignments: when proxy voting is on.

Who can change the list: the person who created the election, and teammates whose role is owner, admin or editor. Other teammates can open the list but cannot change it or send anything. See Team and roles.

The Voter List

The Voter List card shows everyone on this election's list, oldest addition first.

Buttons at the top

On a phone the labels shorten to Send ({n}), Remind ({n}), Add and Clear.

The summary line

{n} voters

Everyone on the list.

{n} not sent

People set to get email who have never been sent the ballot.

{n} not texted

People set to get a text who have never been texted the ballot.

{n} invited, waiting

Sent the ballot, not voted yet.

{n} did not arrive

The email service reported that their ballot bounced, was blocked or was marked as spam. These people are also counted in "invited, waiting".

{n} voted

Ballots received, online and on paper.

{n}% turnout

Voted divided by everyone on the list, rounded.

{n} need details

People whose way of voting is missing something it needs, such as a mobile number for a text. Press it to show only those people.

People who vote on paper or with a printed code are never counted as "not sent" or "waiting", because vote.direct never emails or texts them.

Banners above the list

When you deliver by email and some people have never been sent the ballot, a banner explains it:

• On a draft, in gray: {n} voters on the roster: nothing sent yet, with "Invitations go out when you send them after publishing. Nobody is emailed automatically."
• On a live or scheduled election, in yellow: The ballot has not been sent to {n} voters, with a button Send to {n} unsent (or Send the ballot now for one person). If nobody has been invited yet it says "Nobody has been invited yet. Adding people to the roster does not email them: send the ballot when you are ready." Otherwise it says "Voters added after publishing are not emailed automatically. Send them the ballot so they can vote."

If you hand out ballots yourself (printed notices, a links file or sign-in sheets), a gray line says you deliver these ballots yourself, and an Also notify by email button lets you use email for the people set to get it. When anyone votes on paper, a line says how many and that "Their ballots are tracked on the Paper ballots page."

Search and filters

The search box reads Search name, email or unit. It searches name, email, unit, mobile number and mailing address. The chips beside it filter the list: All, Needs details (when anyone needs a detail), and one chip per way of voting when your list mixes them, each with its count. If nothing matches you see "No voters match" followed by your search.

Columns

How they vote

Each person on the list has one way of getting and casting a ballot. People added with an email address start on email unless your spreadsheet says otherwise, people with only a mobile number start on text, and people with only a mailing address start on paper by mail. Change it in the How they vote menu on the row.

• Email link cannot be chosen for someone with no email address.
• The menu is locked once the person has voted.
• If you pick a way of voting whose detail is missing, the row opens its edit form so you can type it in, and the row shows a yellow "needs" chip until you do.
• If you switch someone to Text message and you have not yet confirmed consent to text that person, a window asks you to confirm it. If the election does not send texts yet, it says texting will be turned on. The button is Turn on texting. If you decline, the person stays as they were. The consent statement is quoted in Text your voters.
• If a change cannot be saved, the menu goes back to the old choice and no message appears. Check the row after you change it.
• People on Paper by mail, Paper at the meeting and Voting code are never emailed or texted by vote.direct, including by reminders.

Row actions

On a computer most row actions appear when you point at the row. A Send button for someone never sent the ballot is always visible.

Paper and code voters show a dash in place of email actions. On a phone each person is a stacked block, with an All details link to open the full record.

A voter's full record

Press the arrow at the start of a row to open the full record: Name, Email, Mobile, Mailing address, Unit, Vote weight (on weighted elections), How they vote, Status, Ballot sent and Voted. Two buttons sit under it: Edit details and Remove from roster.

Edit details opens a form with Name, Email, Mobile, Mailing address, Unit and, on weighted elections, Vote weight. Labels marked in yellow name what this person's way of voting still needs. Press Save details to keep the changes.

• The email address is shown but cannot be changed. It identifies the entry. To correct an address, remove the person and add them again with the right one.
• Mobile numbers need digits with an area code. If the number cannot be read you see "That mobile number could not be understood. Use digits with an area code."
• A change that would leave the person with no way to be reached is refused: "This change would leave the voter with no way to be reached. Add an email, mobile number or mailing address first."
• Once the person has voted, a new Unit or Vote weight is refused: "This voter has already voted, and their ballot counts with the unit and weight they had then. You can't change those now." Their other details can still be changed.
• When your election counts one vote per unit, the Unit of someone with an email or mobile number cannot be left empty: "This election gives one vote per unit, so every voter needs a unit. Type their unit, or remove them from the voter list."
• When your election weighs ballots by a number field, the Vote weight of someone with an email or mobile number cannot be left empty: "Type the weight this voter's ballot should carry. A voter with no weight counts as 1, so type 1 for that."
• When a voter's weight comes from their units, a Vote weight is refused: "This election counts one vote per unit, so a voter's weight comes from the units they hold. Change their unit instead."

Status badges

The badge on each row says where that person stands. Point at it to read the explanation shown in the table below. When the email service gave a reason for a failure, it appears under the explanation as "Reported reason".

What to do about a failed email is in Bounced and failed emails.

Add voters

You can open the Add voters window from several places:

• Add Voters at the top of the Voter List, or Add your first voters when the list is empty.
• The yellow notice "You haven't added voters to" your election, shown on the election's other tabs until someone is on the list. Its button is Add voters.
• Add voters on the page you see right after publishing.
• Add voters or import addresses on the Paper ballots page.
• Add voters in the wizard's Who Can Vote section. See Ask someone else for the list for the wizard's other choices.

The window says: "Type someone in, paste a list, drop in a spreadsheet, pick a saved group, or choose from your contacts: they are added to this election and saved to your contacts for next time." Five tabs sit across the top: Paste, Type in, File, Groups and Contacts. You can use more than one before you press the button; the people from every tab are added together.

You can drop a spreadsheet anywhere on the window, whatever tab is open. A dashed outline says "Drop the member list" and "Excel or CSV: we read the columns for you."

Paste

Paste a list of email addresses or mobile numbers. The help line says: "Any list works: one per line, or separated by commas or spaces, straight from a spreadsheet, a document or your email client. Names and header rows are sorted out for you. Mobile numbers work too, for members with no email address."

How a paste is read:

• Each line that holds an email address adds that address. A name written with it, as in Frank Russo <frank.russo@example.com>, is not kept: the person is added by address only. To keep names, use Type in or a spreadsheet.
• A mobile number on the same line as an email address is not kept either. The person is added as an email voter.
• A line with a mobile number and no email adds a text voter. A number is read when it has 10 digits, 11 digits starting with 1, or a plus sign and a country code. Unit numbers and ZIP codes are not mistaken for phone numbers.
• A line that is neither is skipped and named in red, so you can see what was left out.
• Repeats are merged: "{n} duplicates in your paste were merged."

Type in

Type in is for one person at a time, with their details. Each person is a card with Full name, Unit or lot (optional), Email address and Mobile number, and a fold-out Mailing address line: "for a paper ballot, or for someone with no email or mobile" (Street address, Apt, suite (optional), City, State and ZIP). Add another voter adds a second card.

The line under each card tells you what will happen:

• "An email or a mobile number is enough. A name, unit and address are kept on the roster." (before you type)
• "Ready to add." for an email voter.
• "Gets their ballot by text. This election must have SMS verification on to reach them." for a mobile number with no email.
• "No email or mobile, so this member is reached by mail." for a name with a complete mailing address and nothing else.
• In yellow, what is wrong: "That email address does not look right.", "That mobile number is too short to text.", "Add an email, a mobile number, or a full mailing address so this voter can be reached." or "Add an email address or a mobile number."

When a card has both an email address and a mobile number, only the email is kept: the person is added as an email voter and the mobile number is not saved. Add the number afterwards with Edit details on their row.

File

The File tab shows a dashed box headed SMART IMPORT: "Drop a spreadsheet here, or choose a file". Under it: "Excel or CSV, straight out of your management software. It works out which column is which, leaves out the headings and totals, and fixes the formatting. You see every change before anything is imported. Up to 5,000 rows." A link offers Download the template: "every column the importer understands, with one example of each kind of voter." The import itself is covered in Import a spreadsheet.

Groups

Groups are the saved groups from People, such as a building or a committee. The tab says "Choose which groups can vote:" and shows each group with its color, name and number of voters. Pick one or more. The line underneath counts the people "selected after removing overlaps". The groups are added by email address: someone in a group with only a mobile number or a mailing address is not added this way. If you have no groups yet, the tab says "No groups yet" and links to People with Go to Contacts.

Contacts

The Contacts tab lists people already in People who have an email address, with a Search your contacts box. Tick the people to add. It shows your first 100 contacts; to add anyone not listed, use the Paste tab.

The count, the button and what can stop an add

The bottom of the window counts everyone it is about to add, however they are reached ("{n} voters to add"), and the button says Add {n} voters. A few things can appear before it lets the voters in:

• A higher price tier. On a published election that has been paid for, adding people can move it into a higher price tier. A yellow note says so before you press the button and shows the difference you will be asked to confirm. If you go ahead, the window shows the new tier and the amount, paid from your prepaid balance, and the button becomes Pay followed by the amount and and add. A draft is priced when you publish, and a subscription plan that covers the election never adds a charge here. See Billing and payments and vote.direct/pricing.
• Consent to text. If you are adding people who get their ballot by text, and you have not yet confirmed consent for them, a yellow panel asks for it once. It explains that carriers require your organization to already have each person's permission, and that if you are not sure you have it you can give these voters an email address instead or leave them off. Tick the box and the button becomes Turn on texting and add {n} voters. If the election is free (25 voters or fewer), a box adds that the election will not text these voters, because texts come with paid elections. The statement you confirm is quoted in Text your voters.
• Your contact limit. Everyone you add is saved to People, which has a limit. If the new people would go over it, a panel says "This would go over your contact limit." with "Adding {n} voters would put you over your contact limit of {limit}. You have room for {r} more. Remove some people from the roster, or see plans with more room."

Other messages you may see:

After you add

Send now emails everyone you added who has an email address, except people voting on paper or with a printed code. People with only a mobile number are texted from the Text voters the link card. See Invitations and reminders.

Import a spreadsheet

The importer reads the member list your management company or your own records already have. It works out which column holds what, tidies the formatting, and shows you every decision before it adds anyone. The same importer runs in the Add voters window, on the public upload page (see Ask someone else for the list) and in People.

Files the importer reads

• Excel workbooks (.xlsx, .xlsm) and text files (.csv, .tsv, .txt), up to 5 MB.
• Up to 5,000 rows. A longer file is cut at 5,000 rows, with a note such as "File has {n} rows. Only the first 5,000 will be imported." (for a workbook, the note names the tab).
• The heading row is the first row with two or more cells filled in, so a title line above the headings is skipped. A column with data and no heading is named by its letter, such as "Column B". A heading used twice gets a number, such as "Phone (2)".
• A workbook with several tabs opens on the first visible tab that has rows, and a Sheet menu lets you pick another. Only the tab you pick is read.

Files the importer cannot open get a message naming the fix:

The template

Download the template gives you a CSV file with every column the importer understands, and one example row for each kind of voter:

Your own file does not need these exact headings. The importer recognizes the usual names, such as "Owner Name", "E-Mail Address", "Cell Phone", "Lot", "Unit #", "Voting Interest" or "Zip Code".

How rows become voters

• A row with an email address becomes an email voter.
• A row with a mobile number and no email becomes a text voter.
• A row with no email and no mobile, but a name and a complete mailing address (street, city, state and ZIP), becomes a paper voter reached by mail, or at the meeting if Notify By says so.
• Any other row is counted as invalid and left out.

The Notify By column understands words like these, in any capitals and spacing:

A word the importer does not recognize leaves that person on email, and the import window says how many rows that affected. Someone set to get a text who has no usable number is emailed instead.

What we read

The import window is titled Import Voters from a spreadsheet, with the file name and row count under it. It opens with a summary of the file in your terms.

The What we read box says where each kind of information comes from:

• How many rows, or properties when the file lists second owners.
• Email: which column holds the addresses, with a menu to choose another. The first choice, This file has no email column, is right for a list of postal addresses.
• Name: one column, or first and last name columns together. If there is none it says "no name column found; voters are addressed by email".
• Mobile: which column, how many rows have a number, and how many of those have no email and will be texted.
• Mailing address: which columns, and how many rows have a complete address.
• Voting weight, Unit and Notify by, when the file has them.

When the importer could ask an AI model about the columns, a short description of the file may appear at the top, with a note at the bottom: "Column names and value patterns were checked by an AI model. The names, emails, phone numbers and addresses themselves were read and tidied in your browser, and never sent anywhere."

What we fixed

Every change the importer makes to your data is listed, counted and reversible. Show lists up to three examples from your own file. Undo imports that part exactly as written, and Apply turns it back on.

Columns set aside and the column review

Columns that have nothing to do with voting are set aside, each with a reason, for example "empty in every row", "dollar amounts", "a status or category, not a member detail", "the management company's bookkeeping", "a second number" (when a file has two phone columns, only one is texted) or "filled in on 3 of 212 rows". Review columns opens the full column list in four groups:

• In use: columns the importer recognized.
• Verify matches: columns that look like one of your existing contact fields. Confirm all suggestions accepts them.
• Could not place: columns with real content the importer could not place. "Left out unless you keep them. Nothing about who can vote depends on them." Confirm all new fields keeps them as new contact fields.
• Set aside: with their reasons.

Each column has a menu: Ignore this column, Display Name, Member first name, Member last name, Co-owner first name, Co-owner last name, Phone, Notify By (Email / Text), Mailing address, any of your existing fields, or + Create new field (Text, Number, Boolean, Date or Select). A column you have not decided on is left out when you import; it does not block the import.

The preview and detection notes

Preview (first 5 rows) shows the columns in use, with a link to show them all. The email column is tinted green, a weight column violet and a unit column blue. When the importer finds a vote weight column, a note says it will be saved as a number field you can choose for weighted voting.

Owners on several rows

Management exports often list an owner of two units on two rows with the same email address. When that happens, a blue panel says how many owners are listed on more than one row and asks what to keep:

• All their units on one voter (recommended): one voter carrying every unit they own.
• First row only. Their other units are left out of this election.

The same email on several rows with the same unit, or with no unit, is a plain repeat: the first row is imported and the badge "{n} emails repeat, first row kept" lists them.

Voting by unit

When the file has a unit column and you are adding voters to an election, the window asks how the units vote:

• One vote per unit (recommended): co-owners of a unit share its vote. The first to vote casts it, and the others are told it has already been cast and by whom.
• One vote per person. Everyone on the list votes, and the units are kept for reference.

If the window lists units with more than one owner, it says each counts once, for whichever owner votes first. If some owners hold more than one unit, it also asks how they vote, with the three choices described in Units, weights and co-owners.

Your answer changes the election's rules only while it is a draft or scheduled. After you import, a message confirms it ("One vote per unit is on") or explains why not ("Voters added, voting rules unchanged" because voting has already started, or because the election already votes by another unit field).

Text-only rows, paper rows and co-owner email cells

• Text-only rows. Rows with a mobile number and no email are added as text voters. If the election does not send texts yet, the note says it will be switched on and that you confirm consent first. On a free election (25 voters or fewer) the note says nobody is texted unless your plan covers texts, and that you can hand those voters their links yourself, give them an email address, or pay for texts when you publish. If the file has numbers but no column was recognized as Phone, a yellow note tells you to set a column to Phone so those rows are added instead of skipped.
• Paper rows. Rows with no email and no mobile but a name and a complete address are added as paper voters reached by mail. Rows with no name or an incomplete address are counted and skipped.
• Co-owner email cells. A cell with two addresses is a property with co-owners. Only the first address is invited unless you tick Send every address a ballot, first to vote counts. With the box ticked, each co-owner gets their own link and the property still holds one vote.
• Notify By. When the file has a Notify By column, a note counts how many will be texted and how many emailed, and lists any values it could not read.

The counts and Import

Badges near the bottom count what the import will do: {n} valid emails, {n} on paper, {n} by text, {n} invalid (press it to list the rows), {n} emails repeat, first row kept and {n} data fields mapped. The bottom bar stays in view while you scroll, with Cancel and Import {n} voters.

Pressing Import {n} voters adds them; there is no second confirmation in the Add voters window. Price, consent and contact-limit questions still stop the add, as described in Add voters. New fields the import creates, such as a Lot field, are saved to People first, so each person's values land on their contact record.

Units, weights and co-owners

By default every voter casts one ballot worth one vote. An association can count differently in two ways, and both read the person's contact record in People:

• Weighted voting. Each ballot counts by a number on the voter's contact, such as shares, lots or an entitlement percentage. The weight is read when the person submits their ballot. A missing value, or one that is not a number, counts as 1. A zero is allowed and counts as zero. The field must be a Number field.
• One vote per unit. One ballot per unit, lot or household. Co-owners of the same unit share a single vote: the first to vote casts it. The units are read from the person's contact, from the field you choose. Several units can be separated with a semicolon or a comma, and capitals do not matter.

Where you set them:

• In the wizard, under Advanced options, Voting Rules: Weighted Voting and One vote per unit.
• On the election's Settings tab, in the Who can vote group: Weighted voting ("Off: every ballot counts as 1" or a number field) and One ballot per unit ("Off: one ballot per voter" or a field). These change only while the election is a draft or scheduled.
• In the spreadsheet import, with Voting by unit.

If you have no suitable field yet, the menu says so and links to the Fields page in People ("Create one").

Owners of more than one unit

With one vote per unit on, choose how someone who owns several units votes them. This is fixed once voting opens.

With sealed ballots, each owner casts one ballot for all of their units, and the other two choices are not offered. When an election uses both weights and units, each unit can carry its own weight: list the weights in the same order as the units, separated by semicolons. A single number on an owner of several units is their total, not a number for each unit.

What a voter sees when a unit is already taken: "This property's ballot has already been cast by {name}. Each property votes once." for co-owners sharing one ballot, or "All your units have already been voted:" followed by each unit and who voted it. A voter whose contact has no unit in the chosen field sees "No unit assignment found for your account" and cannot vote: give them a unit with Edit details on the voter list, or on their page in People. See What your voters see.

Co-owners

There are two ways to give co-owners of one property their own links while the property keeps one vote:

• Put each co-owner on the list as their own voter with the same unit, and turn on one vote per unit.
• In a spreadsheet, list both addresses in the email cell and tick Send every address a ballot, first to vote counts. Each address becomes its own entry on the voter list and gets its own ballot, and the first to vote casts the property's ballot.

The election's count of eligible ballots counts such a property once. The Voter List shows each co-owner as a separate row.

Proxy voting

You can turn on proxy voting for an election and set how many people one holder may vote for:

• In the wizard, under Advanced options, Voting Rules: the Proxy Voting switch ("Allow eligible voters to delegate their vote to another voter") and Maximum proxies per holder (1 to 10, starting at 3).
• On the election's Settings tab, in the Voting rules group: Proxy voting and Max proxies per holder, while the election is a draft or scheduled.

Delegating happens online, from the voter's side. Once a member has confirmed who they are, with an emailed or texted code, an email link or a voting code, their ballot page shows Name a proxy. They enter the email address of the person who will vote for them and, if they like, their own name. No vote.direct account is needed. The person they name must be on the voter list, if the election has one, and must confirm who they are with that same email address. Their ballot page then lists the ballots they hold, each with Cast proxy ballot, and the member can take the proxy back with Take back until it is used. There is no form for you to record a proxy yourself, on paper or online.

When proxy voting is on, the Voters tab shows a read-only Proxy Assignments card: each holder "on behalf of" the person who delegated, with a badge (Active, Used or Revoked) and the date. With none it says "No proxy assignments yet".

Roster checks

Two cards above the Voter List appear only when they find something.

Units with more than one address

This card finds the same owner listed more than once on one unit, for example under two email addresses. It says how many units are affected and how many extra ballots that unit could cast: "{n} units have the same owner listed more than once, which is {k} extra ballots that unit could cast. Co-owners with different names are not counted here." It adds: "This is often deliberate, so the ballot reaches an owner wherever they read their mail. Confirm and we won't raise it again." Each unit lists its entries with a This is intentional button. Confirmed units move under a "{n} confirmed as intentional" link, where Undo brings one back.

If the entries are not deliberate, remove the extra ones (see Remove voters), or turn on one vote per unit so the unit counts once.

Voters with no {field}

On a weighted election, this card lists voters whose weight field is blank or not a number: "{n} voters have no usable value in {field}, and will each be counted as 1." Each row ends in "Blank" or "Not a number:" with the value found. The card explains that their ballots still count, each carrying one {field}, which is unlikely to match your bylaws, and that a value you add on each contact applies straight away, with no need to rebuild the election. Thousands separators and text such as "N/A" are the usual causes; enter digits only.

Remove voters

To remove one person, point at their row and press the trash can, or open their record and press Remove from roster. The confirmation asks Remove {name} from the roster?:

• On a draft: "They will not be sent a ballot for this election. They stay in your contacts."
• On a live election: "Their ballot link stops working and they are no longer counted toward turnout. They stay in your contacts."

To clear the list, press Remove all and type DELETE to unlock the button.

What stays when you remove people:

• Anyone who has voted. Their ballot is counted and their row stays. On a list where some have voted, the question reads "Remove the {n} voters who have not voted?" and says how many will stay.
• Anyone with a paper ballot already generated, until that ballot is voided on the Paper ballots page.
• Their contacts in People. Removing someone from an election never deletes the person.

After Remove all a line reports what happened, for example "212 voters removed." or "81 voters removed. 131 stayed: 131 already voted."

Removing voters does not lower the price you paid. Removal is refused once the election is closed: "This election has closed. Its roster is part of the record."

Ask someone else for the list

Often the member list sits with a manager or the secretary. The wizard's Voters step lets you finish everything else and send them a link.

1. On the Voters step, the wizard asks Do you have your voter list? and says either answer works. Choose Yes, I have it ("Add them now and publish today") or Not yet ("Set it up and we'll get you the list").

2. With Not yet, the wizard says "Waiting on the list. That's fine." and its last button becomes Save & request the list in place of publishing. Actually, I have it switches back.

3. In the Don't have the list handy? panel, press Ask someone for the list. The election needs a title first. You get a private link with Copy: "Forward this to whoever has the member list. It works for 14 days."

4. Send the link to whoever has the list. They do not need an account.

5. When they upload, vote.direct notifies you in the app and by email, and the people appear on your list. If the wizard is still open, the panel reports how many voters were uploaded and a message says "Your voter list arrived".

The same panel appears on a draft's Overview tab. The link works only while the election is a draft and for 14 days.

The person with the list uploads the file and confirms the columns with Check the columns, the same importer described in Import a spreadsheet, or pastes addresses, and presses Send {n} voters. They see "List received, thank you" with how many were added and how many were already on the list, and can press Add more voters to send more. An expired link shows "This link is no longer active", and once the election is published it shows "This election already launched".

Some decisions stay with you. People uploaded as text voters cannot be texted until you confirm consent on the Voters tab. Uploading never spends money: the price is set when you publish.

People: your contact book

People in the top bar opens your contact book at vote.direct/dashboard/contacts. Everyone you add to any election is saved here, and you can add people here first and pick them later with the Groups or Contacts tabs of Add voters.

The page

The heading reads People, with how many people are in your roster and, under it, how much of your contact limit you have used ("212 / 10,000 people"). An Upgrade link appears when you reach the limit. The buttons across the top:

A Member Accounts button also appears. Member sign-in comes with Governance Center community plans; see Governance Center.

On the left: a search box (it searches names and email addresses, not phone numbers), a Verification card that filters by how people confirmed their identity when they voted, and a Groups card. The table shows, by default, Contact, Verification, Groups, Votes (how many of your elections they voted in) and Last Seen. Columns lets you show Email, Phone, Mailing address, Source, Notes, First Seen and your custom fields, and you can drag the headings to reorder them. The table loads 100 people at a time, with Load more at the bottom.

Tick people to open a dark bar at the bottom of the screen with Add to group, Remove from group, Start a vote (opens the wizard with their email addresses) and Delete. When everyone on the page is ticked and more match, Select all {n} extends the choice to everyone matching.

Add or edit a person

Add Person opens Add a person: "Name and email is enough; everything else can come later." The fields are Full name, Email, Mobile (optional), Also email (optional) and a fold-out Mailing address (needed only for mailed ballots). Press Add person. An email address or a mobile number is needed. If the email address is already on another person, the window asks before using it again, with Add person anyway and Use a different address. The pencil on a row opens the same form as Edit this person.

Import into People

Import file uses the same importer as Add voters, titled Import Contacts from a spreadsheet, with a button Import {n} contacts. It does not ask how units vote, because no election is involved, and it adds an Add to group section where you can put everyone imported into a group, or create one with New group. A row matches an existing person by email address, then by mobile number, then by exact name when it has neither, and updates that person. Success shows "CSV imported" with how many were created, updated and skipped. A file that would go over your contact limit is refused whole, with "Import refused" and a message saying how much room you have. You can import 30 files an hour.

Groups

Groups are labels such as a street, a building or a committee. Press the plus on the Groups card, type a name ("Group name, e.g. Building A or Board"), pick one of eight colors and press Create group. To put people in it, tick them in the table and choose Add to group. The pencil beside a group renames it, changes its color, or deletes it with Delete this group. Deleting a group keeps the people: "only the group label is removed. Open votes that were limited to this group will no longer count them."

Fields

Manage Fields opens Custom Fields: "Define metadata fields for your contacts". Quick Add offers ready-made fields: Unit / Address, Ownership %, Member Since, Department, Position / Title, Lot Number, Building, Membership Type, Notes and Status. Add Field opens a form with Label, Machine Name ("Lowercase, underscores only") and Type: Text, Number, Yes/No, Date or Select. A field's name and type cannot be changed after it is created. Weighted voting needs a Number field. The archive button hides a field; existing values are kept.

A person's field values are edited on their own page, in the Roster details card: click the value, or "Not set", type, and press the check mark. Online ballots read a voter's weight and unit from these fields. Edit details on an election's voter list saves a changed unit or weight into the field that election counts, so you can change them in either place.

Sync from Votes

Sync from Votes adds people who cast a ballot in your elections and are not in People yet, and updates those who are. It shows what it will do before it does it: Sync {n} roster changes?, with the elections it read, how many contacts will be created and updated, and "Nothing changes until you confirm; contact changes are retained in the audit history." Press Confirm roster sync. When there is nothing to do, a message says "Roster already up to date".

Each confirmed sync is listed under Roster sync history. The most recent one has an Undo button: "Undo this roster sync?" with Undo roster sync. Contacts you edited after the sync are kept. You can apply a sync 3 times an hour.

Export

Export CSV downloads a file named with today's date, for example contacts-2026-10-24.csv, with Name, Email, Phone, Verified Name, Verification Level, Source, Votes Participated, Tags (your groups), First Seen, Last Seen, Notes and your custom fields. Mailing addresses are not included. One file holds up to 25,000 people.

A person's page

Press a name to open the person's page: their details with Edit, their groups with Add to group, the Roster details card, Voting History (each election they voted in), Notes with Save Notes, and Delete Contact.

Rules for People

• Changing People needs the owner or admin role in your workspace. Other teammates can look but their changes are refused with "Only workspace owners and admins can manage the roster".
• The contact limit is 5,000 people for an account that has never paid, 10,000 once it has paid for anything, or your plan's limit when that is higher. Adding voters to an election counts against it.
• Removing a voter from an election keeps them in People. Deleting a person from People is permanent: ballots they already cast still count, but in an open election they can no longer vote, even if they are still on its voter list.

vote.direct offers two free ways to try a ballot. The free test vote, on your dashboard, is a small sample election you can run once to see how voting and results work. A test ballot sends you a copy of your own election, exactly as your voters will receive it. Neither one touches your real election, and neither costs anything by email or text.

The free test vote

Your dashboard's Home page offers one free test vote per account: a real, small election with a sample ballot, sent to you and up to four other people. Use it to try voting and to watch results come in before you build your own election. The button reads Run a free test vote, with the line Free · Up to 5 people · See voting + live results in 2 minutes under it. It disappears once you have used it.

1. Press Run a free test vote.

2. In Vote name, type a name, or leave it empty to use My Test Vote.

3. Under Also send to, type up to four email addresses, for example your fellow board members. Press Add another person for each new box. Use permanent addresses; temporary inbox addresses are refused.

4. Press Create & send test vote, or Maybe later to close the window.

The test vote opens at once with a sample ballot of two questions that you cannot change: "Which meeting time works best for you?" (Weeknight at 7:00 PM, Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon) and "Do you approve the proposed 2026 annual budget?" (Yes / No). Each person confirms their email and votes. Results are visible while it is open, and it closes on its own after 7 days.

When it is ready, the window reads Your test vote is live, lists the addresses the ballot was sent to, and offers Open my ballot and View live results. A line at the bottom confirms that the test is free and does not affect your billing.

Send yourself a test ballot

A test ballot tests your own election. vote.direct makes a hidden copy of the election with you as its only voter and sends you the real invitation, so you see exactly what your voters will get: the message and its subject line, the link, the verification code, the ballot and the confirmation code at the end. Nothing you do on it is counted in your real election.

You send a test ballot from the election page. On the Overview tab, a draft's Publish checklist card has a row labeled Test ballot, marked Optional, that reads Send yourself a test ballot. A scheduled or live election has the same row in its Next steps card. Press the row to open the panel.

1. Open your election: from Drafts on your dashboard, or with Continue editing on the Draft saved page.

2. On Overview, press the Send yourself a test ballot row.

3. Choose Email or Text. Your email address is filled in for you; for Text, type your mobile number.

4. Press Send test ballot.

5. Open the message, verify with the code, vote, and note the confirmation code you are given.

The panel keeps a list of every test: where it went, how it was sent, whether it was sent, and, once you vote, Voted with the confirmation code. Open goes straight to that test ballot.

• Limits. Each election gets 5 free email and text tests. The panel counts down, for example "4 of 5 free email and text tests left." An election can have up to 20 tests in all, mailed test packets included. A text test needs an election that has a price (more than 25 voters) or that your plan covers; on a free election the panel asks you to send yourself the email test instead. When your election can mail paper packets, a third choice, Paper packet, mails you a printed test packet, charged like a real one; see Paper, mail and in-person ballots.
• What the copy keeps. The title (so the subject line in your inbox is the real one), the description, the questions, the design, the ballot secrecy and the information you collect from voters. A text test verifies with a code by text; an email test verifies by email.
• What it leaves out. Your voter list (you are the only voter), the opening date (the test opens at once), the state, and the quorum and proxy rules, which shape results rather than what a voter sees.
• When it closes. The test uses your election's close date, online cutoff and time zone when the close is still ahead. If your election has no close date, the test has none either, so it shows no countdown and no deadline, just as your voters see none; it closes on its own 7 days after you send it. If your close date has already passed, the test closes 7 days after you send it.
• What it never touches. The test never appears in your list of elections, costs nothing by email or text, and is not counted in your real election's results, turnout, certificate or invoice.

The invitation itself carries no test marking, so you see it exactly as a voter will. Once you open it, the election's page, the ballot and the final screen with your confirmation code each carry a yellow banner: TEST BALLOT · This is exactly what your voters receive. Nothing you do here is counted in the real election. The verification screens do not show it.

Dry runs and your real election

Many organizers publish a small rehearsal before the real election. vote.direct treats a published election as a possible dry run when its title contains a word such as test, trial, practice, dry run, demo, sample or mock, or when it has 10 or fewer voters. Such an election's success page and its Overview tab show a card that asks Was this a test run?

• Yes, the real one is coming opens a short form titled Your real election: When does voting open? (a date, or tick Not sure yet), About how many voters? (a rough number is fine) and Anything we should know?. Answer what you know and press Save; you can change it later.
• No, this was the real vote closes the card.

Once saved, the card reads Saved to your dashboard with a sentence such as "Your real election opens Monday, October 19, with about 212 voters." It offers Start it from this ballot, which copies the ballot into a new election and removes rehearsal words such as Test from the title, and Change. Your dashboard then shows a card headed Coming up: with a Start it from your test run button. The copy keeps the ballot and its rules, and you add the real voter list and dates; see Run an election again.

The wizard helps too. When a price is due, Review shows a box that begins Want a dry run first? with a Save draft to test first button. It saves your election so that you can send yourself a test ballot from the election page before you pay. If your title contains the word test, Review also reminds you that elections of 25 voters or fewer are free and that a free test ballot sends you the ballot without publishing anything.

Publish from the wizard

On Review, the main button at the bottom right shows what publishing will do. It changes with the state of your election:

Save draft, beside the main button, saves without publishing. Drafts and autosave explains where you land. If your election texts voters and the consent box on Review is not ticked, publishing stops with Confirm SMS consent first.

Publish a saved draft

A saved election is published from its Publish checklist card. The card appears on the Draft saved page you reach after Save draft, and at the top of the election page's Overview tab while the election is a draft.

The header of the card reads Everything is ready, Everything is set except the voter list, or a count such as 3 of 4 done. The badge on the right shows the price: Priced by your list, Free, Included in plan, Paid, or the amount for your list.

The card on the Draft saved page shows those four rows, plus Paper ballots and Counting when voters are set to vote on paper. The card on the election page adds rows when they apply: Compliance (the state check), Web address (your own domain), Paper ballots and Counting (when voters are set to vote on paper), and the optional Voter details and Test ballot. Publishing checks all of them wherever you press the button.

The first row that blocks publishing is outlined in yellow and tagged Next. Press a row to go to where you fix it; on the Draft saved page, most rows open the election page. Pressing Payment opens a box for adding funds to your balance without leaving the page; see Billing and payments.

The main button is always the next real step:

• Finish setup: followed by the step, while something is missing.
• Pay & publish, with a green price stamp, when only payment is left and you can pay by card. The line under it reads "Secure checkout by our payment processor · one-time payment · goes live right after payment", or "opens on schedule after payment" when the opening is in the future.
• Publish now when everything is ready, with a line that says how it is paid and when it opens, for example "Free · live immediately", "From your prepaid balance · opens on schedule" or "Included in your plan · live immediately".

Under the main button sit Continue editing and Preview ballot. A last line lists what you can set up before publishing: Paper & in-person ballots and Voting codes & printable notices. On the election page, once everything is ready, the rows fold away and Show checklist brings them back.

If voters are set to get a text on a free election (25 voters or fewer), a yellow note says it cannot be published while anyone is set to get a text, with a button such as Hand these 2 voters their links yourself. Pressing it moves those voters to links you pass on yourself; nothing is texted. A second button under it, which starts with Pay, takes you to pay by card instead: you pay the price of a 26 to 50 voter election for this one, it publishes when the payment goes through, and those voters are texted.

When publishing succeeds, you see Vote published! with "Your vote is now live and ready for voting.", "Your vote is scheduled and will go live at the set time.", or "The start time you set had already passed, so voting is open now." Then the success page opens.

What publishing does

• It opens voting, now or later. If the opening time is in the future, the election becomes Scheduled and opens on its own at that time. Otherwise it goes Live at once, including when a start time you set has already passed.
• It takes payment. A priced election that your plan does not cover is paid for when you publish: from your prepaid balance, or by card through the checkout described under Paying by card and coming back. Elections of 25 voters or fewer are free. See Billing and payments.
• It checks your settings. Publishing runs the checks described under When publishing is refused, and the election stays a draft until they pass.
• It confirms by email when voting opens at once. When publishing opens voting immediately, vote.direct sends you a confirmation email, unless the election looks like a test run. Publishing a scheduled election sends no email at that moment.
• It fixes the ballot once voting opens. See What you can change after publishing.

After publishing: send the ballots

After publishing you land on the success page. Its header shows LIVE, with a pulsing green dot, or SCHEDULED, then your title and one sentence: for example "2026 Board of Directors Election is live for 212 voters. Send them their ballots below.", or "2026 Board of Directors Election opens October 19, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT." Under it, Manage vote opens the election page and Add voters opens its Add voters window.

The green card holds the next step for the delivery method you chose in the wizard:

Smaller buttons under the main one offer the other methods: Printable notices, Voter links CSV, Credentials CSV and, when you chose a method other than email, Email invites too. Treat a links or credentials file like a list of passwords.

When you press Email your voters their ballots, vote.direct sends the ballot email to every voter set to get email who has not been sent it yet, confirms Invitations sent with the number emailed, and the button changes to Invitations sent. Pressing it again later emails nobody twice. When some voters are on paper, the heading counts only the others, for example "Next step: email your 4 online voters their ballots", and a line under it points the paper ones to the Paper ballots page. Voters set to get a text, and voters on paper, are sent their ballots separately from the election page; see Invitations and reminders and Paper, mail and in-person ballots.

Below the card, Preview link (only you) shows the election's address. It is your private preview: voters get their own secure links, so do not send them this address. At the bottom, Go to dashboard returns to your dashboard.

When publishing is refused

vote.direct checks your election when you publish. If something stops it, the election stays a draft and nothing is sent.

• From the wizard, you see Almost there: this vote is a draft with the reason, and you land on the Draft saved page, or on the Paper ballots page when the reason is the paper setup.
• From the Publish checklist card, a message names the problem, for example Add your voters first, Change a setting first, Fix the voting window or Texts need a paid election, and the page takes you to the place to fix it where it can.

For any other problem, the Troubleshooting chapter lists what each message means; see Troubleshooting.

Paying by card and coming back

Pay & Publish in the wizard and Pay & publish on the Publish checklist card both take you to a secure checkout page run by our payment processor. Before you get there, vote.direct checks the things that would stop publishing, such as the state check, the schedule, the ballot and the paper setup, so most problems show up before you pay. If one does, you see a message such as Checkout failed or Change a setting first with the reason, and nothing is charged.

On the checkout page you can enter a promotion code if we gave you one. Then:

• When you finish paying, you return to the Draft saved page, which shows Publishing your vote... and publishes the election. You see Vote published! and the success page opens. If the payment is still being confirmed, the page waits and tries again a few times.
• If the election cannot publish after payment, you see Payment received, but the election has not published yet with the reason. A card on the Draft saved page names the next step, for example Fix the voting window or Choose how paper ballots are handled, with a button to the page where you fix it. Your payment stays on the election; publish again once it is fixed.
• If you cancel the checkout, you return to the Draft saved page with Checkout cancelled: your draft is saved, and you can pay and publish when you are ready.

Prices, balances, receipts and refunds are explained in Billing and payments.

Nothing is sent when you publish

Publishing makes the election ready to vote in. It does not email or text anyone. Each voter gets their ballot when you send it, and every voter gets their own personal link.

Right after you publish, a page confirms the election is live or scheduled and offers the next step. When you chose email delivery in the wizard, the next step is to email everyone. Further down the same page, the election's main address, vote.direct/v/2026-board-of-directors-election, appears under Preview link (only you): "Your admin preview. Voters get their own secure links: don't send them this URL."

Email your voters their ballots emails everyone on the list who is set to get email and has never been sent the ballot. When it finishes, the button reads Invitations sent and a message says how many voters were emailed. People set to get a text, a paper ballot or a printed code are not emailed: text them from the Voters tab (see Text your voters), and handle paper ballots on the Paper ballots page (see Paper, mail and in-person ballots).

The smaller buttons, Printable notices, Voter links CSV and Credentials CSV, download notices, a links file or a sign-in sheet instead. If you chose to hand out ballots yourself in the wizard, the page leads with that download (for example Download printable notices (PDF)) and offers Email invites too. Every one of these downloads needs Distribute ballots yourself on. Choosing Print notices yourself, Share links yourself or Usernames & passwords in the wizard turns it on for you, so the download works straight away. On an election set to Email invites, turn it on first on the election's Voters tab; until then a download stops with "Distribute ballots yourself is off for this election, so no voting codes were made." A download does not mark anyone as sent. See Other ways to deliver.

If you leave this page without sending, nothing is lost. The election's Voters tab says the ballot has not been sent and offers the same send, and the Overview tab lists it as a step: "Email the ballot to {n} voters", with "Nobody is emailed automatically. Send the ballot so they can vote."

Send the ballot by email

All sending happens on the election's Voters tab. Ballots go only to people on that election's list, and only to people set to get email: someone voting on paper or with a printed code is never emailed, even if you name them.

Send to everyone not yet sent

When some email voters have never been sent the ballot, the Voter List shows a yellow banner, "The ballot has not been sent to {n} voters", with a Send to {n} unsent button (or Send the ballot now for one person). A confirmation asks Send the ballot to {n} voters?: "Each one gets an email with their own secure voting link. People already invited or who have voted are not emailed." Press Send the ballot.

The rows switch to "Invited · hasn't voted" and a message confirms: "Ballot sent" with "Queued {n} of {n} emails." Queued means the email was handed to the email service; vote.direct cannot see whether it reached the inbox, but it shows any failure the email service reports (see Bounced and failed emails).

Send to one person

Point at a voter's row. Someone never sent the ballot has a Send button that is always visible; someone already invited has Resend. A message confirms "Invitation sent" with "Email sent to" and the address.

People added after you sent

Adding people to a live or scheduled election does not email them. Right after you add them, a window asks Send the ballot to the {n} new voters now? Press Send now, or Later to leave them marked "Not sent". The yellow banner then says "Voters added after publishing are not emailed automatically. Send them the ballot so they can vote." until you send.

Guards against sending twice

• Send to {n} unsent, Send now and the button on the page after publishing skip anyone this election's ballot reached in the last 12 hours. Pressing a send button twice never emails the same person twice.
• A single voter's Resend goes at most once every 15 minutes. Inside that window you see "Already sent" with "{address} was sent this ballot in the last 15 minutes. If it has not arrived, ask them to check their spam folder before you send it again."
• One address can be resent to at most 10 times an hour: "Too many sends to this recipient. Try again later."
• Someone who has voted is never sent the ballot again.

Messages after a send

If every remaining voter is on text or paper, the send is refused with a message that says so, for example "No email recipients to send to: all {n} remaining voters are assigned to text messages. Use "Text voters" to reach them."

Who your invitations come from

The name in the From line of every invitation and reminder is your organization's name as the election carries it: the name under the election's title, after "by". With no name, the email comes from "vote.direct". The address the email is sent from is vote.direct's shared sending address, unless you set up your own sending domain (below).

Who is this ballot from?

If the election has no usable organization name when you press Send to {n} unsent or Send now, a window asks Who is this ballot from? It explains that your organization has no name set, so the ballots would come from "vote.direct", and that voters open an email from a name they know. Type the name in Organization name and press Save and send, or press Send as vote.direct to send without it. The window notes that the name is used on every election in this workspace, including the ones you have already built.

The name must be your organization's name, not an email address: "Use your organization's name here, not an email address. Voters see this as who the ballot came from, and mail providers treat a sender name containing an address as spoofing, it lands in spam." The automatic name vote.direct creates for a new account, such as "Priya Raman's Organization", is refused for the same reason. If a ballot does go out under "vote.direct", the notification bell says "Name your organization so voters recognise your ballots".

Change the name

• For the whole workspace: Settings, Organization ("Name and sender identity"). Change Organization name and press Save Organization. Elections that carried the old name, or no name, take the new one. An election you gave a different name of its own keeps it. Only an owner or admin can change these settings.
• For one election: while it is a draft or scheduled, use the Sender name field when you edit the ballot. On a live election, press the pencil beside the name under the title, type, and press the check mark.

The same page has an Email sender name field ("Leave blank to use the organization name."). It applies to invitations and reminders only once you have your own sending domain.

Your own sending domain

By default, mail goes out from vote.direct's shared address with your organization's name. With your own sending domain, invitations and reminders are sent from an address at your association's domain, which can help mail providers trust them. You need access to the domain's DNS settings (usually where the domain was bought).

1. Go to Settings, Sending Domain ("Email authentication"). Owners and admins only.

2. Under Use your own domain, enter the Domain, a domain your association owns (a mailbox domain such as gmail.com or yahoo.com cannot be used), the Mail subdomain ("Usually "em".") and the From address, which must use that domain. Press Create DNS records.

3. Add the records shown at your DNS provider, then press Verify DNS records. "DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate. A failed check does not remove your configuration." Press Retry verification later if needed.

4. When the card says Domain verified with a Ready tag, messages can be sent from your address.

With a verified domain, an election with no organization name of its own uses the workspace's Email sender name, or its organization name. Remove domain asks "Remove this sending domain?" and messages go back to the shared address.

Text your voters

Voters set to Text message get their ballot link by text. Three things must be true before vote.direct texts anyone:

• The election sends texts. It does once you add someone who can only be reached by text, or switch someone to Text message, and confirm consent. You can also choose text verification in the wizard.
• The election is paid. "Text messaging is included with paid elections. Free-tier elections send email only; texts cost carrier fees on every send." An election of 25 voters or fewer is free and sends email only, unless your plan covers texts.
• You confirmed consent. For each text voter, once.

A free election with anyone set to get a text cannot be published as it is. Publishing stops with that sentence, says how many voters are set to get their ballot by text, and offers three ways forward: hand them their voting links yourself (nothing is texted), switch them to email, or pay the price of a 26 to 50 voter election for this one, and they are texted. The button that starts with Pay takes you to pay by card, and the election publishes when the payment goes through. The button Hand these {n} voters their links yourself moves them to printed voting codes and turns on Distribute ballots yourself; after publishing, you download their links from the Voters tab. See Test, then publish.

Consent, once per voter

vote.direct texts a voter only after you confirm that your organization already has their permission to be texted. It asks once for each person who gets texts: when you add them, when you switch them to text, or on the text card before the first send. The statement you confirm when adding voters reads:

"I confirm that every voter I am about to text gave my organization prior express consent to receive election and account notification messages at the number on file, that I am authorized to act for that organization, and that I am responsible for honoring opt-out requests. I accept the SMS Messaging Terms."

vote.direct records who confirmed it and when. Once a person is covered you are not asked again for them. People uploaded through the hand-off link are not texted until you confirm on your own Voters tab. If you are not sure you have permission, give those voters an email address instead.

The Text voters the link card

On a scheduled or live election that sends texts, the Voters tab shows Text voters the link.

• If anyone on text is not yet covered, a checkbox replaces the green line: "I confirm every recipient gave prior express consent to receive election texts at the number on file, and I am responsible for that consent under the SMS Messaging Terms. You will not be asked again for these voters." When only some are new, it names them instead ("these {n} newly added voters"). The button stays gray until it is ticked, and a row's Text button asks you to tick it first.
• Pressing the button asks "Text the voting link to everyone with a phone number on file?" ("Each voter gets an SMS and verifies with a code sent to their number. People who already voted are skipped.") Press Send texts.
• Afterwards the card reports "Sent {n} of {n} texts", the time, and that those voters now read "Invited". Text again brings back the send button for another round.
• To text one person, use Text (or Text again) on their row.
• If voting has not opened yet, the text says when it opens and when it closes, and vote.direct sends a second text when voting opens.
• One send texts up to 1,000 numbers. With more, a message says how many were not texted; send again to reach them, and each send goes first to people never texted.
• You can send 6 text rounds an hour from the card, and 60 single texts an hour from the rows.

STOP and HELP

Every text tells the voter to reply STOP to opt out. A voter who replies STOP gets: "vote.direct: you are unsubscribed and will get no more texts from us. Reply START to resubscribe." From then on vote.direct does not text that number, for any election, except a verification code the person asks for themselves. Replying START resubscribes them. Replying HELP returns: "vote.direct: election invitations, voting notices and verification codes for votes you are invited to. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Help: support@vote.direct. Reply STOP to opt out."

Opted-out numbers do not show on the Voter List. You find out only in the result of a send, for example "{n} voters have replied STOP and were not texted; reach them by email or paper." Switch those voters to email or paper.

Other ways to deliver

The Reach voters in more than one way card at the top of the Voters tab shows how many voters get email, a text and a paper ballot, with links to set up reminders, Open paper ballots, and Open notices and links.

Distribute ballots yourself

Instead of email or text, you can hand each voter a personal voting code: printed on a notice, in a links file you send your own way, or as a Voter ID and password. Anyone holding a voter's code can cast that voter's ballot, so codes exist only while this is switched on. They are created when you first download. If you chose Print notices yourself, Share links yourself or Usernames & passwords in the wizard, it is already on: go straight to step 3.

1. On the Voters tab, find Distribute ballots yourself. It sits near the top when you chose to hand out ballots yourself in the wizard or when anyone on the list votes with a voting code, and otherwise inside More ways to deliver ballots and help voters. While it is off it says: "Off. Turn this on to generate a personal voting code for each voter: printable notices, a links CSV, or a Voter ID + password sheet. Codes are only created while this is on, and turning it off revokes them."

2. Press Turn on. A message gives the address voters use, for example "Voters go to vote.direct/pin/K7RX4 and enter their personal code."

3. Download what you need: Printable notices (a PDF, one page per voter), Links CSV (each voter's link and code) or Credentials (a Voter ID and password for each voter, for the sign-in page at vote.direct/signin). The card says "Treat downloads like a password list."

• A gray line shows the address voters type, vote.direct/pin/K7RX4 in this example, with Copy, so you can print it in a newsletter or read it out at a meeting.
• On a draft, a yellow note warns: "This vote is still a draft. Voting codes only work once you publish, so notices printed now won't let anyone vote yet. Publish first, then distribute."
• The links file has the columns name, email, status, ballot_link, access_code, mobile and election_code. The sign-in sheet has name, email, status, username, password, signin_url, ballot_link, mobile and election_code.
• One notices PDF holds up to 2,000 voters. For a longer list, use the Links CSV.
• The person who created the election, and the workspace's owners and admins, can turn this on and download. Editors and viewers do not see this card.
• To stop, press Turn off & revoke. The card says how many codes will be permanently revoked and that "Notices, CSVs and credential sheets you have already printed or handed out will stop working immediately." Press Revoke {n} codes. It then stays off until you turn it on again, even on an election you set up to hand out ballots.

Voter rescue

When a voter is stuck at the identity check, for example because their emailed code never came, you can issue it for them. Open More ways to deliver ballots and help voters and turn on Voter rescue: "Issue verification on a voter's behalf when they're stuck (e.g. a delayed email code). Every rescue is opt-in, capped, and audit-logged, and the voter is emailed a notice."

• The table lists voters who started confirming but did not finish, with Rescues used (up to 3 per voter) and Send rescue. With nobody waiting it says "No voters are waiting on verification right now."
• Send rescue opens "Rescue a stuck voter". Choose Magic link ("You deliver it") or SMS code ("We text it"). For a code, enter the phone number and tick "I confirm this voter agreed to receive a verification text at this number."
• Write the reason in Reason (recorded in the audit log), at least 10 characters, then press Generate link or Send SMS code. A magic link is shown for you to copy and pass on yourself. It works once.

Automatic reminders

Every new election starts with reminders on: the Standard plan, 3 days and 1 day before voting closes, at 9:00 AM in the election's time zone. You can change the plan in the wizard's Schedule step, under Reminders, or on the Voters tab at any time before the election closes.

The Reminders card

The card shows, from the top:

• On or Off, the plan in one sentence, and when the next reminder goes out. With reminders off it says "No automatic reminders. You can still remind voters by hand." On a live election whose reminders have all passed, it adds "No automatic reminder is left before voting closes."
• A timeline of each reminder, ending at "Voting closes". A reminder you gave its own wording carries an "Own message" tag.
• Who is waiting: how many have not voted, by email and by text, plus notes for people not yet sent the ballot (they are not reminded), addresses that bounced, paper and code voters (never emailed or texted), text voters with no consent on record (not texted), and, in an election with a unit field, owners who have not voted but whose every unit has been voted (not reminded). When nobody on the list votes by email or text, it says that nobody gets a reminder instead.
• Buttons: Preview email, Send me a test and, on a live election, Remind {n} voters now. Change (or Set up reminders when off) opens the editor.

The timeline line under each reminder says where it stands:

An election set up before reminders could be customized shows a note explaining that its 1 day reminder is the email every election with a voter list has always sent the day before voting closes, and that you can keep it, change it or turn reminders off.

Change the plan

Press Change to open the editor.

• Send automatic reminders turns the plan on or off. Off means nothing at all goes out.
• Start from a plan fills in the reminders below:

• Each reminder is a number, days or hours, and before voting closes or after the ballot is sent. Under it, the editor shows exactly when it goes out, worked out the same way the sending does. A reminder counted from the ballot "Goes to each voter" that many days after their ballot is sent.
• Limits: up to 6 reminders; 1 to 72 hours or 1 to 30 days; a reminder after the ballot needs at least 12 hours; two reminders cannot be set for the same time. Messages explain each one, for example "Two reminders are set for the same time. Change or remove one."
• Time of day for day reminders places day reminders at a clock time from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM in the election's time zone. Same time of day as the close keeps them at whole days before the close instead. Hour reminders always go out exactly that many hours before.
• If a reminder would go out between 9 PM and 7 AM, a yellow warning says "That is the middle of the night for your voters."
• Subject line (optional) holds up to 150 characters. Blank uses a subject worded for the time left (see What your voters receive).
• Your message (optional) holds up to 1,000 characters and is printed in every reminder. Write a different message for this one gives one reminder its own wording.
• Also text voters you invited by text appears when anyone gets texts. Text reminders go at the same moments, but never between 9 PM and 8 AM where the election is: a text due overnight waits until 8 AM.
• Press Save reminders. A message confirms "Reminders saved" with the plan in a sentence, or "Automatic reminders are off" if you switched them off.

The election's Settings tab has a Reminders group that summarizes the plan: Automatic reminders (On or Off), When, Time of day and Message ("Standard wording" when you wrote none). Its Change button brings you here.

Preview and test

Preview email opens "What voters receive": a Reminder menu to pick which reminder (when there is more than one), the From name and Subject, and the email exactly as it will be sent, worded for the moment it goes out. Send this one to me emails you that reminder. Send me a test on the card emails you the next reminder. The test goes only to your own account's email address, with "[Test]" in front of the subject and a yellow note at the top: "Test reminder. This is what your voters receive." The test's button opens the election's ballot page; each voter's own email carries their personal link. While you are editing, the preview and the test use your unsaved changes. You can send 10 tests an hour.

Remind now

Remind {n} voters now on the card, or Remind {n} who haven't voted on the Voter List, sends a reminder email right away, using your subject and message. The confirmation reads Send a reminder to {n} voters? "Only people who were sent the ballot and have not voted are emailed. Anyone who got a reminder in the last 12 hours is skipped." Press Send reminders; a message confirms "Reminders sent" with how many were queued and why any were skipped. Addresses that bounced are left out. In an election with a unit field the confirmation reads Send a reminder to the owners who still have a unit to vote? instead, and an owner whose every unit has been voted, by a co-owner or on a paper ballot, is left out; the message counts them as "whose units have all been voted". Reminding by hand sends email only; text voters are reached from the text card.

Who gets a reminder, and when

• Reminders go only to people who were sent the ballot and have not voted: by email to email voters whose address has not bounced, and by text to text voters with consent on record, when texts are on. People not yet sent the ballot are not reminded. In an election with a unit field, an owner is not reminded, automatically or by hand, once every unit they own has been voted, by them, a co-owner or a paper ballot.
• vote.direct checks for due reminders every hour. A reminder never goes out before voting opens, or in the last 30 minutes before it closes.
• Each reminder reaches a voter once. If you move the closing date more than 12 hours later, the reminders before the close go again before the new deadline. Changing the time of day never repeats one.
• A voter is skipped for a reminder if you reminded them by hand in the 12 hours before it, or sent them the ballot in the 2 hours before it.
• A reminder you add after its time has passed never goes out. If a run is missed, a reminder can still go up to 6 hours late; once a later reminder is due, the earlier one is skipped.
• Reminders before the close need a closing date: "Reminders before the close are scheduled once the election has an end date. Set one under Settings, Schedule. Until then, voters who have not voted get one reminder 3 days after their ballot, at 9:00 AM." That one reminder appears on the timeline as "3 days after the ballot is sent, while voting has no end date". A plan with its own reminders counted from the ballot sends those instead.

Bounced and failed emails

vote.direct hears from the email service only when something goes wrong. A row without a failure badge means no failure was reported; it does not prove the voter read the email. When a failure is reported, the row's badge changes, the summary counts it as "did not arrive", and pointing at the badge shows the explanation and the "Reported reason" the email service gave.

A new send clears the badge; if the new send fails too, the badge comes back. Automatic and hand reminders skip addresses that bounced, were blocked or were marked as spam. When nobody else is left to remind, the message says how many addresses bounced: "Fix those on the voter list and send the ballot again."

Changing a person's email in People does not change the address on an election's voter list. See People: your contact book.

What your voters receive

This section shows each message exactly as vote.direct builds it. What a voter sees after opening their link is in What your voters see.

The invitation email

• From: your organization's name (see Who your invitations come from).
• Subject: "{Organization} invited you to vote: {title}", or "You're invited to vote: {title}" when there is no organization name.
• When the election gives owners of several units a ballot per unit, the subject names the unit, using your unit field's own word, for example "(Lot 12)". With a separate email per unit, each unit's email opens that unit's ballot alone.
• The button and the link are the voter's own personal link. Email programs that show plain text get the same content as words: "You've been invited to vote!", the title, "Cast your vote here:" with the link, and the closing date.

The reminder email

The reminder's wording follows the calendar day it is sent, counted in the election's time zone:

Your own subject line replaces the default. Per-unit reminders add the unit to the subject. The button is the voter's own link, the same one their invitation carried.

Text messages

Texts name the organization, the election and the deadline in the election's time zone, and carry the voter's own link. To keep texts short, an organization name is cut at 40 characters and a title at 50, and the title is left out when it matches the organization's name. vote.direct sends three kinds:

• The invitation, from the text card or a row's Text button. Before voting opens, it says when voting opens and closes and "We'll text you when it opens."
• "Voting is now open", sent when voting opens to text voters who were texted before it opened and have not voted: "{Organization} (via vote.direct): voting is now open in "{title}". Vote by {deadline}: {link} Reply STOP to opt out."
• Reminders, when texts are on in the reminder plan. Worded for the time left, like the emails.

On the closing day the reminder reads "last chance, voting in "{title}" closes today ({deadline}) and you have not voted yet". Earlier reminders read "reminder, you have not voted yet in "{title}". Voting closes {deadline}."

The printed notice

With Distribute ballots yourself on, Printable notices builds a PDF with one page per voter, to print and hand out or mail yourself. Each page has a QR code that opens the voter's ballot, the typed address with the election code, and the voter's 6-digit personal code. The opening date appears only while voting has not opened yet.

Treat the notices like a password list: anyone holding a notice can cast that voter's ballot. Turning off Distribute ballots yourself revokes every code. Downloading the notices does not mark anyone as sent (see Other ways to deliver).

The voter's path at a glance

Most voters meet vote.direct for the first time in your invitation. A voter you invited by email takes these steps, each covered in its own section below:

1. Opens your invitation and taps Cast Your Vote.

2. Reads your election page: the title, your description and documents, the deadline, and Vote Now. When the page has nothing of yours to show, vote.direct skips it.

3. Proves who they are with a 6-digit code. A voter who comes from your invitation types nothing: the code is sent to their address automatically.

4. Answers the ballot, one question per screen, and presses CAST YOUR VOTE.

5. Sees the thank-you screen with a confirmation code. A receipt may also be sent by email or text.

Voters you set up for text take the same steps from a text message. Voters with a printed notice or a Voter ID slip skip step 3, because the code they hold is their proof. See Printed notices and Voter ID slips.

The invitation

When you send invitations (see Invitations and reminders), each voter is sent a personal link to the election. The link identifies the voter, which is why a voter who uses it never types their email address. Opening it does not use it up, and you can resend it from the Voters tab.

The invitation email

The email is sent under your organization's name. Its subject reads "Longleaf Ridge Homeowners Association invited you to vote: 2026 Board of Directors Election", or "You're invited to vote:" followed by the title when the election has no organization name. Inside are the heading You're Invited to Vote, a gray box with the election title and the closing time, a black Cast Your Vote button, and the same link written out under it.

The closing time is the online deadline. If you set online voting to close before the election itself closes, the email shows the earlier time. When you give owners of several units a ballot for each unit, the email names their units under the title and in the subject line. With A separate email per unit, each email names one unit, for example "(Lot 14)" at the end of the subject.

The text invitation

Voters you set up for text get a text message instead (see Voters and your roster). If voting has not opened yet, the text names the opening and closing times and promises a second text. When voting opens, vote.direct sends "voting is now open" to each texted voter who has not voted. A text sent while voting is open names the deadline instead: "Vote by Fri Oct 30, 7:00 PM EDT." The invitation text ends with the rates notice and "Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out."

The link in a text works like the email link. A voter who replies STOP is sent no more election texts, but a code they ask for on the verification screen is still sent.

Reminders

If you schedule reminders, they carry the same personal link and are sent only to voters who have not voted yet. On the last day the default subject reads "Last chance to vote: 2026 Board of Directors Election closes today". Each reminder explains why the voter is getting it and says "Reminders stop once you have voted." The schedule and wording are covered in Invitations and reminders.

The election page

The invitation opens your election page, at vote.direct/v/ followed by the election's address, for example vote.direct/v/2026-board-of-directors-election. What it shows depends on the moment.

While voting is open

From the top, as on the right-hand phone in the figure above:

• Your cover image, if you added one.
• A red LIVE tag and a green tag naming how voters prove who they are: Email Verified, Phone Verified or ID Verified.
• Your title, "by" and your organization's name, your description and your documents. A document opens in a viewer on top of the page, with Open in new tab for phones that cannot show it there.
• A countdown headed "Voting closes in", in days, hours, minutes and seconds. If online voting closes before the election does, the countdown runs to that moment instead and reads "Online voting closes in".
• Two boxes: the number of ballots cast so far, labeled Votes cast, and the number of questions. Counts of 1,000 or more are shortened, for example 1.2K. On an Anonymous ballot, until the number set in Minimum votes before results show is reached, the first box reads "Votes are being collected" and "Results available soon" instead. If you keep turnout from voters (see Ballots in Settings), there is no Votes cast box and the questions box takes the whole row.
• A box headed Verification Required: "You'll need to verify your email address to vote", or "You'll need to verify your phone number via SMS".
• A black Vote Now button. If Show results during voting is on, an outlined View Live Results button sits under it.

Before voting opens

Until the opening time the tag reads SCHEDULED and the page becomes a preview, shown on the left in the figure below: a dark panel with your organization's name, Voting Opens Soon, the opening time and a countdown; four tiles named Opens, Closes, Verification and Ballot; and a How to Vote card. In place of Vote Now there is a gray Voting Not Yet Open button with "This page will update automatically when voting begins". It does: once the opening time passes, an open page turns into the live page without the voter doing anything.

The Ballot tile tells voters how private their ballot is before they vote: "Identified", "Secret ballot" or "Sealed ballot", matching your Ballot secrecy choice of Identified, Anonymous or Sealed. The How to Vote card has three numbered steps:

1. "When voting opens, enter your email on this page" on an election limited to your voter list, or "When voting opens, visit this page and click "Vote Now"" on an open one.
2. "Verify your identity via email: you'll receive a secure link", or "Verify your identity via SMS: you'll receive a one-time code".
3. "Cast your vote: 1 question on the ballot". On an Anonymous ballot it reads "Cast your anonymous vote".

A last line suggests "Bookmark this page: it will become your ballot when voting opens".

After voting closes

The tag reads CLOSED and a card says "Voting has ended", "Closed on Oct 30, 2026" and how many ballots were cast, for example "171 votes were cast", as on the right in the figure below. If Show results after closing is on, a View Results button follows. If it is off, the card ends "Thank you to everyone who participated." The count is left out on an Anonymous ballot that closed below your minimum, and on every election of yours when you keep turnout from voters.

When online voting closes early

You can stop online voting before the election closes, for example when your meeting is called to order, with Online voting closes in the Schedule group on the Settings tab. After that moment the election page shows a clock with "Online voting has closed" and "Online voting closed on Oct 30, 2026, 5:00 PM. Ballots may still be cast in person or by paper as described in the election notice." There is no Vote Now button. A voter already on the ballot sees the same message in place of the questions, and the verification screens stop sending codes. See Paper, mail and in-person ballots.

Notices above the title

A few notices appear at the very top of the election page, above everything else:

When voters go straight to the verification screen

If your election page has no description, no attached document and no cover image, a voter who opens their invitation while voting is open skips it and goes straight to the verification screen. The deadline still shows there. Add a description or a document if you want every voter to see something first.

Private elections: the identity check page

An election limited to your voter list is private. When someone opens its address without a personal link, for example a link a neighbor forwarded or one typed from your newsletter, vote.direct shows an identity check page in place of the election page. The voter proves they are on your list before the ballot opens.

The page is a card with the election title and your organization's name at the top, then a box headed About this decision:

• Purpose: your description.
• Deadline, for example "October 30, 2026 at 7:00 PM EDT", and Ballot overview, for example "1 question".
• "Eligibility is based on the private member list supplied by Longleaf Ridge Homeowners Association." and "Your contact detail is checked only to match you to that list and send a one-time code."
• A line about ballot privacy that matches your Ballot secrecy setting. On an Identified ballot it reads "This organizer has configured an identified ballot." On an Anonymous ballot it reads "Your ballot choices are recorded separately from your verified identity." On a Sealed ballot it says the ballot is stored with no link to the voter and the tally opens when voting closes.
• "If you believe the list is wrong, contact the organizer or visit Support."

Under the box, the voter types the email address you hold for them in ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO VOTE and presses CONTINUE. If your election also verifies by text, a link reads Use my mobile number instead, and a voter who came from a text message starts on the mobile field, ENTER YOUR MOBILE NUMBER TO VOTE.

Every voter then reads the same line: "If you are an eligible voter, you'll receive an email with a verification code." The page says this whether or not the address is on your list, so it never reveals who is on it. A code is sent only to an address on this election's list, and not to a voter who has already voted. This code email has no button: the voter types the six digits in VERIFICATION CODE and presses VERIFY, with Change email and Resend code underneath. The ballot opens next. Wrong or old codes read "Invalid verification code", "Verification code expired. Please request a new one." or "Too many attempts. Please request a new code."

Before voting opens, the page sends the voter to the election page and its preview. After voting closes it shows the title and "This vote is not currently open."

Proving who they are

Before the ballot opens, each voter proves who they are with a one-time code sent to an email address or mobile number on your list. The verification screen is a single card. Its top bar reads IDENTITY VERIFICATION on the left and STEP 01 OF 02 or STEP 02 OF 02 on the right. Under it are a thin stripe in your election's color, then your organization's name and the election title, so voters can see who is asking before they type anything. The bottom line reads Secured by Vote.Direct beside two progress dots. Above the card, the page's top bar has a Back link to the election page and three numbered steps, Verify, Vote and Done; on a phone only the numbers show.

Step 1: an email address or a mobile number

The card asks Enter your email, "We'll send you a verification code to confirm your identity.", or Enter your phone number, "We'll send you an SMS with a verification code." Under the heading, a line in capitals gives the deadline, for example CLOSES OCT 30, 7:00 PM EDT, so a voter who skipped the election page still sees it.

• Email: one field labeled EMAIL ADDRESS.
• Phone: a country menu beside the number field. It lists 12 countries, with the United States and Canada (+1) first. Under the field: "Enter the mobile number where you can receive a text message. Include your area code." and a paragraph in which the voter consents to the code and election notices by text.
• The button is SEND ACCESS CODE. Under it: "Questions? Contact whoever sent you this ballot."
• When your election accepts both email and text codes, a link switches between them: Prefer SMS? Verify by phone instead or Verify by email instead.
• At the bottom: "Your email will only be used to verify your identity for this vote. By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy." The phone version names the phone number.

Voters who come from their invitation

A voter who opens the link in their invitation email types nothing. The screen knows their address from the link, sends the code at once, and opens on step 2. They see step 1 for only a moment, with the button reading "Sending code...".

Voters you set up for text

When your roster sets a voter to text (see Voters and your roster), their link opens the phone version of step 1 and adds: "Your organization set you up to vote by text. Use the mobile number ending in 0187." The voter types their number; vote.direct does not fill it in. The setting chooses which screen opens, not which code the voter may use: a voter whose number has changed can press Verify by email instead, and an email code works when your list has an email address for them.

The code text reads: "vote.direct: Your verification code is 617204. It expires in 30 minutes. Reply HELP for help."

Step 2: the six-digit code

Step 2 reads Enter access code and "Code sent to h***********n@example.com", or "Code sent via SMS to +1 ***-***-0187": part of the address is hidden with stars. Six boxes take the digits. The voter can type them or paste the whole code, and the last digit sends it without a button.

• Resend Code (or Resend SMS) sits under "Didn't receive a code?". After a resend it counts down, for example Resend in 59s, before it can be pressed again.
• A code works for 30 minutes from when it was first sent. Pressing resend while it is still good sends the same code again, so a voter holding two code emails can use either one.
• Each code allows three tries. A wrong code shows "Invalid code. 2 attempts remaining." with a TRY AGAIN button. After three wrong tries the code stops working: the next try reads "Too many attempts. Please request a new code." A code older than 30 minutes reads "Verification code has expired. Please request a new one." Either way the screen says "You'll need a new code to continue." and offers REQUEST NEW CODE.
• One address or number can be sent at most five codes in 15 minutes. After that the voter reads "Too many codes sent to this address. Please wait a few minutes and try again."
• Cancel returns to step 1, where the voter can correct the address.

Success

When the code matches, the card's border and stripe turn green, the corner reads VERIFIED, and a stamp says IDENTITY VERIFIED with "Your identity has been confirmed. Redirecting to your ballot." Then the ballot opens.

The ballot opens only in the browser where the code was entered. If the voter moves to another phone or computer, they confirm their address again there; see When something goes wrong.

The code email and its button

A voter invited by email is sent two emails from your election: your invitation, and then, when they reach the verification screen, a code email. Tell voters to expect both. The code email is sent as "Longleaf Ridge Homeowners Association via vote.direct" with the subject "Your verification code from Longleaf Ridge Homeowners Association". It carries the six digits and a black Verify and continue voting button, and says "This link and code expire in 30 minutes." The voter can type the code on the verification screen or tap the button. Either one opens the ballot.

Why the button leads to one more button

Some workplace and school email systems open every link in an incoming message to check it for danger. If opening the link were enough to use the code, such a system would spend the voter's code moments after it was sent, and the voter would then be told their code no longer works. So the button opens a page that does nothing on its own, shown on the left in the first figure of the next section. It shows your organization's name, the election title, "Tap the button to open your ballot. This step makes sure it is you opening the link, not your email provider's security scanner." and CONTINUE TO MY BALLOT. Only a person's tap opens the ballot, in the browser where they tapped. Under the button: "If you did not ask for this, close this page. Nothing happens until the button is tapped."

The button keeps working until the code expires, and it can be used more than once in that time, for example after a double tap or on a second device, until the voter has voted. When it can no longer open a ballot, the page says why and offers GET A NEW CODE, which returns to the election page:

A voter who has already voted is taken to the election page instead, which says "You have already voted in this election. Your ballot was recorded."

Printed notices and Voter ID slips

If you hand out or mail printed notices (see Invitations and reminders), each voter's notice carries a QR code, the address vote.direct/pin/H7RQ4 (your election's 5-character code follows /pin), and a 6-digit personal voting code. It also says "This code works once voting opens and is unique to you." and "Keep this notice private. Anyone with this code or link can cast this ballot." The code is the voter's proof: there is no email step and no code to wait for.

Typing the code at vote.direct/pin

The page reads Enter your voting code, "Enter the 6-digit code on your voting notice or ballot." The election code from the address shows as a badge beside Election code, so the voter types only the six digits, and the last digit sends them. The page then says "Ballot found, taking you there now..." and opens the ballot. Clear empties the boxes; after an error they empty on their own so the voter can type the code again. The blue Go to my ballot button also sends a complete code. The help line reads "Can't find your code? Contact whoever sent you the notice."

A voter who types only vote.direct/pin is asked for the election code when it is needed: "Almost: we also need the election code from your notice. It's the short code in the web address, just after /pin."

Scanning the QR code

Scanning a notice's QR code with a phone camera opens the election with the voter's code already in it. While voting is open, the voter lands on the ballot, ready to vote. Before opening day, the election page shows the preview with a blue line: "Your voting code is valid. Voting opens Mon, Oct 19, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT. Come back then, or keep this page open and your ballot will load automatically." If the code cannot be used, an amber line reads "There was a problem with your ballot link. Try entering your code manually at vote.direct/pin."

Signing in at vote.direct/signin

If you gave voters a Voter ID and password instead, they go to vote.direct/signin. The page reads Voter sign-in, "Enter the Voter ID and password from your credential slip or notice." The fields are Voter ID, which shows "e.g. unit-12" as an example, and Password, the 6-digit password. The button is Go to my ballot. Under it: "Only have a 6-digit voting code? Enter it at vote.direct/pin" and "Can't find your credentials? Contact whoever sent them to you." A wrong pair reads "We couldn't find a ballot matching that Voter ID and password. Double-check both against your slip."

The ballot

The ballot wears your election's design and carries no vote.direct menu and no advertising. From the top, as in the figure below:

• A countdown to the deadline, such as "09d 00h 45m 52s". If the election closes while the voter is on the ballot, they are taken back to the election page, which says voting has ended. If online voting closes first, the questions give way to the "Online voting has closed" message.
• A card with your organization's name in small capitals, the title, your description and your documents.
• A green banner, Identity Verified, with the election's method underneath, such as "Verified via email".
• On a ballot with more than one question, a progress line such as QUESTION 1 OF 3 with a percentage and a bar, and the question's number, for example 01 / 03, above each question.
• The question, its description, a REQUIRED tag when an answer is required, and any hint for the question type.
• At the bottom, BACK on the left and NEXT on the right. On the last question the right button reads CAST YOUR VOTE.

Moving through the ballot

• One question shows at a time. NEXT stays gray until a required question is answered. A question without the REQUIRED tag can be skipped.
• Picking an answer on a one-choice, yes-or-no or rating question moves to the next question on its own after a moment, with a short bar and "Next question...". This does not happen on the last question.
• BACK returns to the previous question with its answer kept.
• On a keyboard, Enter does the same as NEXT once the question is answered.
• Nothing is recorded until the voter presses CAST YOUR VOTE and the thank-you screen appears. While the ballot is being sent, the button reads CASTING... and cannot be pressed twice.
• If you turned on Randomize option order, each voter sees the answers in an order of their own. The same voter gets the same order each time.

Question types as the voter sees them

The way you set up each question decides what the voter sees (see Ballot questions and voting methods):

On a ranked question, the counting-method line reads one of these:

• "Counted by instant runoff: the last-place candidate is eliminated round by round until one holds a majority."
• "Counted by single transferable vote: your vote transfers between your choices until every seat is filled."
• "Counted by Borda points: each position in your ranking awards points, and the highest totals win."
• "Counted head-to-head: the winner is the candidate who beats every other in one-on-one comparison."
• "Counted as a two-round runoff: if no candidate holds a majority, all but the top two are eliminated at once and your vote moves to whichever of them you ranked higher."

The Your information step

If you turned on Collect name, Collect email or Collect address, the ballot ends with one more step. The progress line reads YOUR INFORMATION, and the step is headed Almost there with "The vote organizer has requested the following information." The fields are Full Name, Email address and Mailing Address (street address, city, a state menu and ZIP). Every field you collect must be filled in, and an email address that is not complete stops the voter with "Please enter a valid email address." On an owner's ballots for several units, the step appears only on the first ballot.

The electronic signature

If you turned on Require electronic signature on the wizard's first step, or Electronic signature on the election page (Settings tab, Ballot options), a box sits above the cast button on the last step, as on the right in the first figure of the next section. It reads ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE, Sign your ballot, and "This election requires each ballot to carry the voter's name, address and signature. Typing your name below is your electronic signature." The voter types their Full legal name and Address or unit, then ticks a box beside: "I certify that I am the owner of record or the authorized voter for the address/unit shown, that I am casting this ballot myself, and that typing my name here is my electronic signature." The cast button stays gray until all three are done. The receipt and the certificate say only that a signature was captured; they never show the name or address. On an election with identified ballots, the Per-voter download lists the name and address each voter typed and when they signed.

When a ballot that must be signed also carries documents, it opens with a step headed Review the documents: "Before you vote and sign, open each document and read it to the end. Then tick the box to confirm you reviewed it." Each document reads Not reviewed yet until the voter opens it, reads to the end (a Scroll to bottom button jumps there) and ticks I confirm I've reviewed this document. It then reads Viewed, and the ballot moves on only once every document does. The voter votes next and signs last, so the signature covers the documents and the vote above it.

Voting for more than one unit

When your election gives one ballot per unit (the One ballot per unit setting; see Voters and your roster), what a voter sees depends on how many units they own and how you set Owners of more than one unit.

One ballot for all of their units

With One ballot for all of their units, an owner of several units votes once. A box above the questions reads You are voting on behalf of: with a tag for each unit, such as "Unit 14" and "Unit 15", and "Your vote carries a weight of 2". The tags always say "Unit", whatever your roster calls a unit. If a co-owner has already voted some of the units, the box adds Already voted: with a line for each, for example "Unit 15, voted by Grace Okafor on 10/21/2026", and the ballot counts for the units still open.

A ballot for each unit

With One email, a ballot for each unit, the owner fills in one complete ballot per unit, one after another, as on the left in the figure above. A box at the top names the unit, such as Lot 14, and reads "Ballot 1 of 2. Each of your lots gets its own ballot, so you can vote them differently." with a tag per unit that gains a check mark as each is done. The word for a unit comes from your roster's unit field, so an association that calls them lots sees "Lot". Pressing CAST YOUR VOTE on one unit's ballot opens the next one. Nothing is sent until the last, and then all of them are recorded together.

With A separate email per unit, each email opens one unit's ballot, which says "This ballot counts for lot 14." The owner can vote one unit now and the others later.

On the thank-you screen, a box names the units recorded, for example "Ballots recorded for 14 and 15", and lists each unit's own confirmation code. After a ballot opened from a separate email it reads, for example, "Ballot recorded for 14" and adds "You still have 1 left to vote: 15. Use the link sent for each one."

Co-owners who share one ballot

Co-owners of the same unit share its ballot, and the first to vote casts it. A co-owner who comes later sees a box in place of the questions: Your unit has already voted, a line such as "Unit 14, voted by Harold Jensen on October 21 at 6:14 PM", and "If you believe this is an error, contact the election administrator."

When your roster listed two owners' addresses for one household, each owner is sent an invitation and either may vote. The second learns only on pressing CAST YOUR VOTE, which is refused with "This property's ballot has already been cast by Harold Jensen. Each property votes once."

Voting weight

On an election that weighs ballots, the thank-you screen can show the voter's share in a box headed YOUR VOTING WEIGHT, for example "2 of 212 total" and "0.9% of total voting power". The certificate repeats it.

Proxy ballots

When proxy voting is on and a voter casts a ballot as another member's proxy, a banner in your election's color sits at the top of that ballot: "Voting as proxy for Thao Nguyen" and "This ballot will be recorded as a proxy vote on their behalf." The ballot counts for the member who named the proxy. The proxy holder still has their own ballot to cast, and casts the ones they hold first. If the member votes themselves before their proxy does, the proxy has no ballot left to cast.

When something goes wrong

Each message below appears on the voter's screen exactly as quoted. Answers already entered on the ballot stay on screen after an error, so the voter can fix the problem and press CAST YOUR VOTE again. An error on the ballot shows twice: in a red box above the buttons, and in a short notice headed "Submission failed", at the top of a phone screen or the bottom right of a computer screen.