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Voter Settings (Platinum Plans Only)

In a poll's Voters tab, you can change the information that BallotBox uses for your voter list by clicking the gear icon. These settings can only be changed if you have a Platinum subscription. Note that to assign Voter Groups to your voters, you do not use Voter Settings. Instead, you start by turning on Advanced Ballot Features, and then setting your questionnaire to use Voter Groups. If you do, when you add voters (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/222861-Adding-voters-to-a-poll), you will...

Adding voters to a poll

There are two ways to add voters to your poll. Both are in the poll’s Voters tab. To add an individual voter, click Add Voter… You will then enter the voter’s name and email address. (Note: If you have a Platinum subscription and you have modified the Voter Settings as described in this article (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/891059-Voter-Settings-Platinum-Plans-Only), you may be asked for different voter information when you add or import voters. Name and Email are the two things y...

Display ballot pages based on previous answers, and repeating questions (Advanced Ballot Feature)

If you have a Gold or Platinum subscription plan, you can tell BallotBox to display a particular page of a ballot only if the voter answered a particular question on a previous ballot page in a particular way. For example, you may only want to ask voters about a particular issue if they have a particular set of experiences. Here is one example: You could ask a group of real estate brokers and agents whether their work is at least 35% commercial, measured in commissions received. If a voter say...

Q&A Components (Advanced Ballot Feature)

While you can create any ballot without using Q&A Components at all, this powerful feature makes certain types of ballots with repeating questions, or repeating choices for different questions, must faster and easier to create and to edit. Here are two examples where Q&A Components are useful: - Create a set of choices that will be used to respond to different questions: You may want to use the same set of choices for multiple questions. For example, a bar association may want to ask how ...

Earning credits against BallotBox fees by referring new customers

Most of our new subscriptions come from referrals made by our valued customers, and we like to show our gratitude. If a new customer tells us when they sign up that you referred them, both you and the new customer will receive a credit toward future renewal or upgrade fees. Right now, the referral credit equals 10% of the price of the new customer's initial subscription, split evenly between the referring customer and the referred customer. (Our referral program is subject to change at any tim...

Importing a ballot questionnaire from one of BallotBoxOnline's templates

When you first click Create a new poll, BallotBox will show you what you can configure. It will look something like this: As one of the steps, you will need to create a questionnaire for the poll. You do that on the Questions tab. When you first get to that tab, it will look like this: If you would like to start from one of our template questionnaires, you can import it into your new poll. You do that by clicking the Import button that is next to the first tip (the first light bulb icon). ...

Importing a ballot questionnaire from a previous poll

When you first click Create a new poll, BallotBox will show you what you can configure. It will look something like this: As one of the steps, you will need to create a questionnaire for the poll. You do that on the Questions tab. When you first get to that tab, it will look like this: If you have a poll that you ran in the past, and its questionnaire would be a good starting point, you can import it into your new poll. You do that by clicking the Import button that is next to the first ti...

Handling email delivery problems (bounces)

You can see email delivery issues on the Voters (or Officers) tabs of your poll. For example, in the following image, you can see there is an issue with the email to Albert because there is a red exclamation point icon beside his email address: The red exclamation point indicates a problem. The green checkmark tells you that BallotBox has not received any indication that there is an email delivery problem. (A green checkmark does not, unfortunately, mean the email was received. For example,...

When BallotBox skips voters you are trying to import into your ballot

When you import voters into a poll, BallotBox may report that some of your voters were skipped. To get ballots to these skipped voters, please follow these steps: * Before you import the voters who were not skipped, click the Download XX Skipped Voters button. (XX will be the number of voters who were skipped.) * Click the Import YY Voters (XX skipped) button, to import the YY voters who were not skipped. * Using a spreadsheet application (such as Microsoft Excel) on your computer or t...

What makes for a strong but memorable password? (What are the password requirements?)

Historically, a password considered "strong" has required a combination of * uppercase letters (A B C D E ...) * lowercase letters (a b c d e ...) * digits (1 2 3 4 5 ...) * punctuation symbols (@ # $ % & ...) BallotBox does not have those sorts of password requirements. They made passwords hard to remember, without actually making them hard for a computer to guess. Here is a quick history lesson, and then what we recommend: The old view of "strong passwords" Sometimes, peop...

What is the best way to combine BallotBox results of a Poll with the offline results from paper ballots or votes recorded at an in-person meeting?

In general, BallotBox does not count paper ballots, or combine those results with the results of your BallotBox poll. If you are a current or prospective Gold or Platinum customer, and you would like BallotBox to give you a special quote for managing your paper ballots in addition to online voting, please let us know.

I would like to use BallotBox for in-person, anonymous voting at my meeting. Can BallotBox support that?

At the present time, BallotBox requires a valid email address for every voter. However, we would like to add the capability to support an in-person “voting booth” if our customers would find that helpful. If you would like BallotBox to add that functionality, please let us know. Whether a particular feature is added to BallotBox will depend on a variety of factors, but the most significant factors are the number of customers, and the number of voters across those customers, that we believe wou...

My organization has a particular way of counting votes (Instant-Runoff, First Past the Post, Condorcet, Borda Count, etc.). Does BallotBox support that?

At this time, BallotBox does not support a variety of tabulation methods. However, that is something on our development roadmap. If your organization has a particular need, we would love to hear about it. Whether a particular tabulation method will be added to BallotBox depends on a variety of factors, but the most significant factors are the number of customers, and the number of voters across those customers, that we believe would find that tabulation method useful.

Can BallotBox provide our election or survey results in a different format?

We have leveraged our many years in this business to create a report of the results that will be helpful to most organizations. In addition to the online (web page) results, BallotBox lets you download an Excel spreadsheet of the results. If you need the results in a different format, you can (independently of BallotBox) find someone with expertise in Microsoft Excel, and have them reformat the results. If you are a Gold or Platinum customer, and you want to see if BallotBox staff can do that...

Some of my voters did not satisfy our requirements for voting before the poll closed. Can I cancel their online votes?

Yes, you can cancel ballots that were cast through BallotBox, so long as you do it before the poll is unlocked. For example, some organizations only let members vote if they are current on their membership dues, but the organization wants to give the members until the end of the poll’s voting period to get the dues paid. In that scenario, the organization would need to be able to cancel the online votes of those members who did not pay their dues by the end of the poll. Here is how to cancel ...

Can we have a poll through BallotBox, but allow our voters to vote using paper ballots, too?

Yes, you can … but before we tell you your options, we would like an opportunity to try to talk you out of it. Consider not having paper ballots after all ... We have been in the business of help non-profit associations with elections and surveys for well over a dozen years. In that time, we have had a number of customers want to move to online voting while continuing to offer paper ballots. With no exceptions, as soon as online voting was an option, the vast majority of ballots were cast onl...

Can I reactivate an Officer that I have deleted?

If you delete an Officer for a poll by mistake, and you have a paid subscription, BallotBox personnel can reactivate the deleted Officer for you. Click Help from within BallotBox and submit a support ticket.

Can I remove an Officer from a poll?

Yes. Each poll has its own set of Officers. To remove an Officer, go to the Officers tab of that particular poll, select the officer, and click the delete button. Note that removing an Officer from a poll that is not yet unlocked could make it difficult, or even impossible, to assemble a quorum of Officers to unlock the results. If that happens, there will be no way to retrieve those results.

One of my voters is concerned that their ballot was not counted. Is there a way to see if an individual voted?

Yes. In the poll's Voters tab, you will be able to search for any voter, and see the history of that voter's participation in that poll - including the date and time of a voter’s cast ballot. (However, no one can tell how the voter voted, unless the question is clearly marked on the ballot as non-anonymous (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/793107-Can-I-turn-off-anonymity--I-need-to-be-able-to-tell-how-each-person-voted-on-some-questions).) In addition, when a ballot is cast, BallotBox sends ...

We had an old or invalid email address for one of our voters - is there a way to change it?

Yes. You can go to the Voters tab of that poll, and edit the information of any voter - before or after the poll is deployed. If you want BallotBox to email a ballot link to the new email address immediately, check the box next to Send Invitation before you click Save Changes.

How can we change when our poll ends – either to give voters more time to vote, or to accelerate when we get our results?

Before you deploy your poll for review, you can change the poll’s start and end dates in its Settings tab, to make the poll end earlier or later. Once the poll is Active, but before it ends, you can come back to the Settings tab and click the Extend Voting Period button. You can pick any date past the current end date, and you can choose whether to email all voters who have not yet participated in the poll to tell them about the extension. BallotBox does not permit you to shorten the voti...

What happens if my paid subscription will expire before my poll's voting period ends?

If you configure a poll so that its voting period includes dates outside your subscription term, the Summary tab of that poll will give you options: * You can change the poll’s dates so that its voting period is within the term of your subscription * You can renew your subscription term so that it includes the dates you need for that poll So long as your poll's voting period does not extend past your subscription term, when the paid subscription ends, your Account will automatically b...

If I upgrade my paid subscription during the middle of my one-year subscription (such as from Silver to Gold), does that change my subscription expiration date?

It does not. Your subscription will continue with the same term, but you will have access to the upgraded features.

Weighted voting – where some voters’ votes count more than other voters

Some organizations allocate a different number of votes to different voters. For example, a homeowners’ association may allocate votes based on the appraised value of each home in the neighborhood. Platinum subscriptions in BallotBox support weighted voting. To use it, go to a poll’s Voters tab, and click on the Voter Settings button (the gear icon) in the upper right corner of the tab. (For general information about the Voter Settings, please see this article (https://support.ballotboxonline.c...

Our logo has changed from when we set up out account. Can we change this logo?

One of the benefits of our paid subscription plans is that you can customize the header your voters will see, including your logo. To change that customization, log into your Admin account, and then click on your name in the upper right corner of the window. In the menu that appears, click on BallotBox Settings, and then the Appearance tab.

Restricted Access questions (Platinum plans only)

Platinum subscriptions offer the ability to mark a question as "Restricted Access." To have access to these features, you first need to go to Ballot Options, using either the Gear button or the link: Select Features: Advanced, and then click Accept. Now when you add or edit a question, you will see the Restricted Access checkbox: If your poll has any questions marked "Restricted Access," you will be prompted to designate at least one of the poll's Officers as having the rights to see the...

What does it mean for an Admin to “subscribe” to a poll?

An organization may have multiple Admins. For example, one Admin may manage polls that are deployed to the board of directors, while another Admin manages polls that are deployed to the entire membership. So that you will only receive emailed notifications about the polls that you are managing, we allow you to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to notifications about each poll. If your Admin account is used to deploy a poll, you will automatically be subscribed to notifications about it. You can chang...

Can we put our logo on the ballot page? How do I do that?

One of the benefits of our paid subscription plans is that you can customize the header your voters will see, including your logo. Customization is disabled for free subscriptions. If you have a paid subscription, you can change that customization at any time: * log into your Admin account * click on your name in the upper right corner of the window * click on BallotBox Settings * click the Appearance tab. If Customization is disabled, BallotBox will use its own header logo (th...

Some of my voters do not have an email account. Can they still vote online using BallotBox?

Yes, but they will have to set up an email account first. BallotBox uses the email account to authenticate the voter. Almost everyone has an email address, these days, but if one of your voters does not, you can suggest that they sign up for an email account on gmail.com, outlook.com, or a similar third party platform – and when they do, you can edit them in the Voters tab to add that email address. Our Platinum customers may also be interested in our VoterSignUp service (https://support.bal...

I have one set of voters for one of my polls, and a different set of voters for another poll. Is that OK? How does that work?

Each poll can have its own set of voters. We would like to see a customer use our system to have its board of directors voting on one set of issues, while a committee is surveyed about another, and the entire membership is voting on a third. Each subscription is limited to a certain number of voters. If you are running more than one poll at a time, BallotBox will not permit you to have more voter email addresses, in all of your simultaneous polls, combined, than the maximum number of voters in ...

Reminder emails - how many should I send to my voters?

Reminder emails are a great way to boost participation in your poll, so long as you do not send so many that it annoys your voters. We usually see a spike in votes being cast every time a reminder is sent. You can schedule reminder emails on the Mailings tab of your active poll. With any paid subscription, you can send as many reminders as you think is appropriate, keeping in mind that if you send too many, you risk annoying your voters. (Free accounts can send a limited number of reminders...

How can we be sure that emails from BallotBox do not get blocked by spam (junk mail) filters?

There is unfortunately no way to be _sure_: There are so many spam filters out there. BallotBox follows best practices to try to minimize the incorrect identification of our emails as spam, but there is no way to ensure it never happens. The single best thing you can do is to encourage your voters to put noreply@ballotboxonline.com into their email contacts, or otherwise to configure their spam filters to allow all email from that specific address, by directing them to this support article (htt...

I have a voter who says he did not receive an email from BallotBox inviting him to vote. What can I do about that?

First, look at the Voters tab for the poll, and search for that particular voter. You can search by any part of the voter’s name or by email address. Here, BallotBox will tell you everything we know about the voter’s email address, and what we know about our attempts to email that address. If there is a green check mark icon next to the email address, we have no information suggesting any email delivery issues. However, that does not mean we can guarantee the email was delivered; it just means ...

What happens if the Officers for my Poll do not approve it by the time it is set to launch?

If your Officers do not approve the poll by the time it is set to launch, BallotBox will send you an email setting forth your options: * You will be given the option to email your Officers, reminding them that you are waiting on them to approve the poll. * If at least a quorum of your Officers have set passwords, you will have the option to “manually launch” the poll even though they have not approved it. * You can cancel the poll. Why can’t you launch the poll anyway, even if your ...

What is the VoterSignUp service, and how does it work?

Often, an organization will not have email addresses for all of its voters – or at least not current, valid email addresses. You can collect good email addresses from your voters any way you’d like – you can call voters, or run into them at a party, or send them postcards asking them to contact you, as just a few examples. For Platinum subscriptions, BallotBox can help with this process. To use this feature, in the Voters tab of your poll, click on the Voter Settings button, which is the gear i...

Some or all of my Officers have forgotten their Officer passwords – how do I get my Poll results?

At least a quorum of your Officers must remember their Officer passwords for BallotBox to be able to decrypt the ballots. There is no other way. That is why we recommend that you have more Officers for a poll than your quorum size; for example, if your quorum size for a poll is 2 Officers (which is the default), we recommend you have _at least _3 Officers for that poll. If you cannot put together a quorum of Officers who remember their passwords, you can: * Ask them to keep trying to reme...

Now that my Poll’s voting period is over, how do I see the results?

After the poll has closed, you (using your Admin account) will go to the Summary tab of the ballot. At the bottom of that page, click Unlock Poll. You will need to have a quorum of your Officers for that poll physically present with you because they will need to input their passwords unlock the Poll Results. As soon as they do, BallotBox will use the Officers’ passwords to decrypt the ballots, and will tabulate the results. A new tab will appear in that poll that will allow you to view the r...

I want to run a poll without its existence being publicized – can BallotBox invite my voters to participate without listing the poll on my BallotBox home page?

Yes indeed. By default, BallotBox will display all of your launched polls on your organization’s BallotBox home page to make it easier for voters and officers to find them. However, that listing is publicly available to anyone on the Internet. There is a checkbox on each poll’s Settings tab called “ Poll not listed on account home page.” If this checkbox is checked, voters and officers will receive emails from BallotBox about the poll, the same way they always do, but the poll will not be list...

How many polls can I run at one time?

A free BallotBox account can only have one active poll at a time. A paid subscription can have as many active polls as you wish, subject to the following two limitations: * You must honor the limits on the number of voters in your subscription. For example, you can’t launch a poll to one set of voters, and then launch the same poll to a different set of voters, to take advantage of the unlimited polls that we offer. * You must comply with our Terms of Service (http://bbx3.ballotbox.online...

Can I add images to my ballot?

One of the “question types” is called Instructions / Information. (We are using the quotation marks because this does not actually seek any input from the voter.) In Instructions/Information, you can include images, as well as HTML formatted text. You can decide whether to display the Instructions/Information only while a voter is voting, only when a voter is reviewing his or her selected answers, or both.

Some of my voters share an email account. Can BallotBox let them each vote, using the same email account?

No. BallotBox requires each voter to have a unique email address. We have allowed duplicate email addresses for voters in the past, and it caused the voters a lot of unnecessary confusion. Really, almost everyone has his or her own email address by now, and if someone does not, there are many services (e.g., gmail.com and outlook.com) that allow free email accounts to be set up in just minutes.

Another person is taking over the Admin role for my organization – how do we do that?

First, you need to add that person as an Admin. Log into your Admin account in BallotBox, and then click on your name in the upper right corner of the window. Select BallotBox Settings. In the page that appears, click on the Admins tab, and then click New Administrator. All you have to do is to enter the name and email address of the new Admin. Click the Create button. The new Admin will automatically get an email from BallotBox asking him or her to set a password. (In the listing of Admins, yo...

How long will BallotBox store the information in my account?

In general, we favor keeping your information in your Account, so long as you are using your Account; that way, if a need to have another election or survey arises, BallotBox will be ready and able to serve you. That said, we will not in any event delete any information in your Account, regardless of how old it may be, without giving all of the Admins associated with your Account at least 90 days’ emailed notice first.

What will happen if I do not renew my organization’s paid subscription before it expires?

If you do not renew before your paid subscription’s expiration date, your account will be automatically converted to a free account, and you will have whatever capabilities are currently offered to free accounts. Your information will continue to be stored in our system and available to you, so long as you continue to use your account periodically. For information about how long we will store your information in your free account, please see this article (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/1119...

What does it mean to “Archive” a Poll?

By default, your BallotBox home page will list your launched but not yet active, active, and closed polls. (Each organization’s BallotBox home page is in the format, https://_organization._BallotBoxOnline.com.) To prevent a poll from being listed there while it is launched but not yet active, and while it is active, you must mark it as private on its Settings tab. (You can change this poll visibility setting before the poll is launched, or while it is active.) To prevent a poll that is now cl...

Can I see partial results while my Poll is live?

No one, not even BallotBox personnel, can see partial results for your poll while it is active (that is, during its voting period). The partial results are encrypted in our database. The only way to see any poll results is to wait for the voting period to end, and then to unlock the results (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/475783-What-is-my-role-as-an-Officer-in-the-process-of-unlocking-the-Poll-and-retrieving-the-results-) using a quorum of your Officers.

Can I see how many votes have been cast so far, while my Poll is live?

If you log into your Admin account in BallotBox, and click on your active poll, the Summary tab will tell you have many voters there are, and how many ballots have been cast. There is also a graph that shows you how many ballots have been cast over time, and you can see on that graph each email reminder that is sent. If you click on the Voters tab for the poll, you can see the status for each voter. If you click on the Status filter, you can see which voters have cast a ballot, which logged ...

What information can I see about my Poll after it is launched, and before the voting period is over?

You can see which voters have voted so far (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/383056-Can-I-see-how-many-votes-have-been-cast-so-far-while-my-Poll-is-live), and the impact each reminder email has had on voter participation. However, you cannot see partial results (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/262287-What-information-can-I-see-about-a-Poll-in-which-Im-an-Officer), or how any individual voter has voted*. *If you specify that a question must be non-anonymous (https://support.ballotboxonlin...

BallotBox is not letting me launch my Poll … why?

Each poll’s Summary tab will alert you as to anything you’ve forgotten to do, and will provide you a “fix it” link.

What can I do if I discover a mistake in my ballot questionnaire or my poll Settings after my Poll has already been launched?

If you discover anything you wish to change about your poll before its active voting period starts, you should log into your Admin account, click on that poll, and – on the Summary tab – click the Cancel Deployment button. Then you can make your changes, and deploy that poll for review again. If the poll is in its active voting period, you can still cancel the poll, if the errors justify it. You would go to the poll’s Summary tab, and click the Abort Active Poll button. However, you will need t...

Who is responsible for proofreading my ballot questionnaire?

Even if BallotBox personnel set up your ballot questionnaire, your poll’s Officers have primary responsibility to proofread the ballot questionnaire. After you deploy the poll for review, each Officer will receive an email from BallotBox asking him or her to review the ballot, and either provide feedback or approve it.

Can my organization have more than one Admin account at a time?

Each customer organization may have multiple Admins. To add or remove an Admin from your organization, log into your Admin account, and then click on your name in the upper right corner of the window. Next, click BallotBox Settings, and then go to the Admins tab.

How many Officers do I need for my Poll, and what is a “Quorum” of Officers?

The short answer: Because of how BallotBox protects the integrity and anonymity (https://support.ballotboxonline.com/354794-How-can-I-be-sure-that-no-one-will-be-able-to-see-how-I-voted) of your votes, you must have at least two Officers. The more detailed answer: A “quorum” of Officers is the number required to unlock the results of a poll. By default, the quorum size is set at 2 Officers, unless you set a higher number on your poll’s Settings tab. The quorum must get together, in person, in ...

Where do I set the start and end times for my poll’s voting period? What other settings are there?

Each poll has a Settings tab. There, you can set the start and end times, change the number of Officers required to constitute a quorum (this is the minimum number required to unlock the poll), change the name of the poll, and change whether the poll will be publicly visible on your organization’s BallotBox home page.

How do I tell BallotBox what questions I want to ask my voters? In other words, how do I edit my ballot questionnaire?

You view or change the content of your ballot using the Questions tab of your poll. This is the most powerful part of BallotBox, and as a result, this article is longer than most. However, we have placed help boxes next to most of the controls within BallotBox – just look for the question mark inside a blue circle. You can click on one of those at any time for a reminder about what that particular control does. The Button Bar. At the top of the ballot editor, there is a button bar: From l...

How do I pick Officers, and what do they do?

To add Officers to your poll, click on its Officers tab and then click Add Officer. You will put in the name and email address of your officer. Recommendations: * You should pick someone that the voters in your organization would trust. * You should pick Officers who will help you proofread your ballot questionnaire. * Your officers will need to get together, in person, in front of the same web browser to enter their passwords when you unlock your results (see Step 10), so you should p...

Voter Groups (Advanced Ballot Feature)

If you have a Gold or Platinum subscription plan, you can use Voter Groups. Voter Groups let you display some pages of a ballot to one group of voters, and not to others. For example, if you were running a state wide election for your association, some offices (e.g., President) may be elected at large, while other offices (e.g., Directors) may be elected on a district by district basis. If you designated one Voter Group for each district, you could design your ballot to allow voters in all V...

What is the overall process of launching an online election or survey?

From start to finish, you can plan and launch your online election or survey (which we generically call a Poll) in 10 easy steps. You may recognize these steps from our How It Works (http://www.ballotboxonline.com/how-it-works/) page, but here, we have added links to some of the details you’ll need to be successful your first time. Please note that if you have a Gold or Platinum subscription, you can ask BallotBox staff to create and launch your poll for you. Step 1. You or another Admin ...

Can I turn off anonymity? I need to be able to tell how each person voted on some questions

All paid subscriptions offer the ability to mark a question as “Non-Anonymous.” BallotBox was built from the ground up to protect the anonymity of your voters. It is at the core of our DNA. However, some association bylaws or state statutes may require you to track how each voter voted. In those rare circumstances when this feature is required, BallotBox lets you designate specific questions as “non-anonymous.” Your voters will be always be clearly notified if a question is not anonymous. All o...