Navigate to Elections from the church admin menu. Fill in the name and optional description, then choose the results visibility setting:

• Admins Only — Only administrators can see results. This is the default and is appropriate when you want to review results internally before announcing them.
• Voters — Results are visible to anyone who has cast a ballot on the public voting page. Use this if you want participants to see results after voting.
• Public — Results are visible to anyone with the public voting link, regardless of whether they voted. Use this for fully transparent elections.

Click Create to add the election. It starts in Draft status. You can change the results visibility at any time, even after the election is open or closed.

Before opening the election, create your ballots and sync the voter list. The election acts as a container — you can run multiple ballots (for example, one for board positions and one for a resolution) within a single election.

• Draft — The election is being configured. Ballots can be created and edited, the voter list can be synced and reviewed, and voter codes can be generated. The public voting page is not accessible in Draft.
• Open — Voting is active. The public voting link is accessible and voters can cast their ballots. While the election is Open, the voter list cannot be re-synced and voter codes cannot be regenerated — the voter roster is locked. Voting emails can only be sent while the election is Open.
• Closed — Voting has ended. The public voting page no longer accepts submissions. You can view results, certify individual ballots, and close out the election.
• Archived — The election is locked permanently. Archived elections cannot be reopened, but they remain visible in the election list. Archiving can be toggled (archive or unarchive) at any time from Draft, Closed, or Certified state.

The typical flow is: Draft → Open → Closed → Archived. An Open election can be Closed. A Closed election can be Reopened (unless archived) if additional voting time is needed.

Note: opening an election automatically re-syncs eligible voters and issues codes to any voters who do not yet have one. This sync uses the election's open timestamp as the eligibility date.

The Results Visibility setting determines what the public voting page shows after a voter submits their ballot. It can be changed at any time — even while the election is open or after it is closed — using the visibility control on the election list.

• Admins Only — After submitting, voters see only a confirmation message. No results are shown publicly. Administrators can view results from the admin ballot list at any time.
• Voters — After submitting their ballot, a voter who has cast at least one vote can see current results for open ballots. This lets participants see live or final results.
• Public — Any visitor to the public voting link can see current results, regardless of whether they voted. Use this for fully open transparency.

Every ballot uses one of three modes. The mode determines how votes are tallied and how a winner or outcome is determined.

Standard

Standard mode is used for elections with a list of candidates or options where one or more will be selected by plurality. You set two numbers:

• Seats Available — How many candidates will be elected. The top N candidates by vote count win, where N equals Seats Available.
• Max Selections — How many choices a single voter can make. In most cases this equals Seats Available (vote for up to N candidates). You can set it lower if you want voters to vote for fewer candidates than the number of seats.

Winners are determined by plurality: candidates are ranked by vote count, and the top Seats Available candidates win. If candidates are tied at the cutoff seat position, a runoff ballot is automatically generated when the ballot is closed (see Runoff Ballots below).

Yes/No

Yes/No mode is used for a simple up-or-down vote with no configurable threshold. The ballot has two options: Yes and No. The outcome is determined by simple majority: if Yes votes divided by total Yes-plus-No votes is 50% or greater, the ballot passes. Abstentions (cast ballots with no selection) are not included in the denominator — only voters who chose Yes or No count toward the outcome.

Yes/No mode always has Max Selections = 1 and Seats Available = 1.

Resolution

Resolution mode is for votes that require a specific approval percentage to pass — for example, a vote to amend the church constitution. You choose an Approval Threshold:

• 50% — Simple majority. Yes must be at least 50% of Yes-plus-No votes.
• Two-Thirds — Yes must be at least two-thirds (approximately 66.7%) of Yes-plus-No votes.
• Three-Fifths — Yes must be at least three-fifths (60%) of Yes-plus-No votes.

Like Yes/No, abstentions are excluded from the denominator. Only voters who chose Yes or No count toward whether the threshold is met. Resolution mode always has Max Selections = 1 and Seats Available = 1.

From the ballot list for an election, click New Ballot. Fill in the following fields:

• Name — Required. The ballot title shown to voters on the voting page.
• Instructions — Optional. Text displayed to voters above the option list. Use this to provide context, such as the number of candidates to select or a description of the resolution being voted on.
• Mode — Standard, Yes/No, or Resolution. See Ballot Modes above for a full explanation of each.
• Seats Available — For Standard mode: how many candidates will be elected. For Yes/No and Resolution: fixed at 1.
• Max Selections — For Standard mode: how many options a voter can select (usually equal to Seats Available). For Yes/No and Resolution: fixed at 1.
• Allow Abstain — When checked, voters can explicitly abstain instead of selecting an option. An abstention counts toward the total cast but not toward any option's vote count. On the paper ballot PDF, an Abstain line will be printed.
• Approval Threshold — Resolution mode only. Choose 50%, Two-Thirds, or Three-Fifths.

Below the ballot settings, add the options voters will choose from. Each option has a label (required) and optional details (shown in italics on the paper ballot — useful for adding a title or brief bio for a candidate). Click the + button to add more options. Drag the grip handles to reorder them.

For Yes/No mode, add two options labeled 'Yes' and 'No'. The system identifies them by label prefix when computing outcomes.

Click Save Ballot. The ballot is created in Draft status. It is not visible to voters until it is opened.

A ballot can be edited while it is in Draft status and no votes have been cast. Once any voter casts a ballot on it, the ballot becomes read-only — options, name, instructions, and settings cannot be changed.

A ballot also becomes read-only if the election is archived.

A Closed ballot with no votes reverts to Draft automatically when closed, allowing you to edit and re-open it.

If you need to make changes to a ballot that already has votes, you should close it, duplicate it (creating a new Draft copy), edit the duplicate, and open the duplicate as a new ballot. The original votes on the original ballot remain in place.

• Draft — The ballot is being configured and is not visible to voters on the public page.
• Open — Voters can cast their vote on this ballot via the public voting link. The ballot is visible on the voting page.
• Closed — Voting has ended. The ballot is no longer visible on the public voting page for voting. Results can be viewed. If a tie exists at the seat cutoff, a runoff ballot is automatically created in Draft status. If no votes were cast, the ballot reverts to Draft instead of Closed so it can be edited and re-opened.
• Certified — The results have been officially certified. The ballot is permanently locked — it cannot be reopened or edited. Certify only after you have reviewed and accepted the results.

A ballot can be opened from Draft or Closed status. This means you can re-open a ballot after it has been closed (useful if voting time needs to be extended), as long as the ballot is not Certified and the election is not archived.

Click Duplicate on any ballot in the ballot list to create a copy. The duplicate is created in Draft status with the name 'Copy of [original name]'. It copies the mode, instructions, seats, max selections, allow abstain setting, approval threshold, and all options.

Duplicating does not copy votes. The duplicate starts fresh with zero votes.

Duplication is useful when you need to manually set up a runoff ballot (before the automatic runoff feature existed), create a variant with different options, or create a second ballot with similar settings for a different question.

For Standard mode ballots, when a ballot is closed, the system automatically checks for ties at the cutoff seat position. A tie occurs when two or more candidates have the same number of votes and those candidates straddle the boundary between winning and losing a seat.

For example: there are 3 seats available, and the vote counts are A: 40, B: 35, C: 30, D: 30, E: 20. Candidates A, B, and C/D are tied for the third seat. The system detects that C and D are tied at 30 votes for one remaining seat, so a runoff is needed.

When a tie is detected, a runoff ballot is automatically created as a Draft. The runoff ballot is named '[original ballot name] – Runoff'. It includes only the tied candidates, and Seats Available is set to the number of contested seats (in the example above, 1). The runoff ballot is linked to the original ballot.

The runoff is created as a Draft so you can review it before opening it for voting. Open it like any other ballot when you are ready to run the runoff vote.

Runoff generation is idempotent — if you close a ballot multiple times, only one runoff ballot is ever created for it.

Runoff ballots are only generated for Standard mode. Yes/No and Resolution ballots do not generate runoffs.

Click Voters on the election to open the voter management page. From there, click Sync Eligible Voters + Codes to pull the current list of eligible voters from your church records.

A person is eligible to be a voter if all of the following are true:

• They are an Active Member of the church.
• They are 15 years of age or older as of the sync date. For pre-open syncs, this is the current date. When the election is opened, the open timestamp is used.
• They are not archived.
• They are not marked as deceased.

Sync can be run multiple times before the election opens. Each sync updates the voter list: eligible members who were not previously in the list are added (Seated), members who were previously added but no longer meet eligibility criteria are set to Inactive, and members who were already present are updated as needed.

Once the election is opened, the voter list is locked. Sync cannot be run while the election is Open. The election open action automatically re-runs sync once more when opening.

The flash message after a sync shows: how many voters are now eligible, how many were created (new), how many were updated, how many were inactivated (removed from eligible), and how many codes were issued.

The voters page shows a collapsible Needs Age Review section if any Active Members are missing a complete date of birth (no birth date at all, or only a birth year without month and day). These members cannot be automatically verified as 15 or older, so they are not added to the voter list by default.

For each person in this section, you have two options:

• Mark Eligible — Manually overrides eligibility for this election and adds the person to the voter list as a Seated voter. Use this when you know the person is of voting age even though their date of birth is not recorded.
• Leave Out — Take no action. The person will not be added to the voter list.

Eligibility overrides apply only to the specific election — they do not affect future elections. Overrides can be removed before the election opens, which returns the person to the Needs Age Review section.

Eligibility overrides can only be added or removed while the election is not Open. Once the election is Open, the voter list is locked.

Each seated voter receives a unique 4-character alphanumeric voter code. Voter codes serve as the voter's credential on the public voting page — they enter their code to access the ballot and cast their vote.

Codes are unique per election: the same person in two different elections has two different codes. Codes are stored securely and are not visible in the database in plain text.

Administrators can see voter codes on the voter list page and in the voter codes PDF. The public voting page only accepts valid, active (non-revoked) codes.

Codes are issued automatically when voters are synced (if Sync Eligible Voters + Codes is used) or when the election is opened. A voter who already has an active code is not issued a new one.

If voters were synced without issuing codes (or if new voters were manually added), use Generate Missing Codes to issue codes only to seated voters who do not yet have an active code. This does not re-sync the voter list or affect voters who already have codes.

Generate Missing Codes can only be used while the election is not Open — the voter list and codes are locked while the election is Open.

Click Export Voter Codes PDF on the voters page to download a printable two-column PDF listing voter names alphabetically by last name alongside their voter code. This is useful for in-person or hybrid voting scenarios where an administrator hands out codes at the door.

The PDF shows only seated voters who have not yet cast a ballot. This means as voters submit their ballots, they drop off the list, so re-exporting the PDF during voting gives you an up-to-date list of who still needs to vote.

The PDF includes a footer with the total count of remaining voters.

Voting emails can only be sent while the election is Open. Click Send Voting Emails on the voters page to open the email form.

The email subject and body can be customized. Use the following tokens in your subject or body and they will be replaced with the voter's actual information:

• {VOTER_NAME} — Replaced with the voter's full name.
• {VOTER_CODE} — Replaced with the voter's 4-character code.
• {VOTING_LINK} — Replaced with the full URL to the public voting page for this election.
• {ELECTION_NAME} — Replaced with the name of the election.

The default subject is '{ELECTION_NAME}: voting is now open'. The default body includes a greeting, the election name, the voting link, the voter code, and step-by-step instructions.

Emails are queued in the bulk email system and may take up to 15 minutes to deliver depending on queue volume. After sending, a summary message shows how many emails were queued, how many voters were skipped due to a missing email address, and how many were skipped due to a missing voter code.

Voters without an email address on file cannot receive voting emails — their code must be delivered in person or by another means. Voters without an active code are also skipped; use Generate Missing Codes to issue codes to all seated voters before sending emails.

Click Results for any ballot in the ballot list to open the results page. Results are available while the ballot is Open, Closed, or Certified.

The results page shows the following metrics:

• Eligible Voters — The number of seated voters in this election who are eligible to vote on this ballot.
• Votes Cast — The total number of ballot submissions received (including abstentions).
• Turnout — Votes Cast divided by Eligible Voters, shown as a percentage.
• Abstentions — The number of submissions where the voter did not select any option. Abstentions are counted in Votes Cast and Turnout but excluded from outcome calculations for Yes/No and Resolution ballots.

For Standard mode, each option shows its vote count and a Winner badge if the option is in the top Seats Available by vote count. Tied options are highlighted. If a tie exists at the cutoff, the results page shows a notice and, if a runoff ballot was generated, a link to it.

For Yes/No and Resolution mode, the results page shows the vote count for each option and a Pass or Fail indicator based on whether the threshold was met. The threshold calculation uses only Yes and No votes — abstentions are excluded from the denominator.

Standard Mode — Plurality

Candidates are ranked by total votes received. The top N candidates win, where N is the Seats Available setting. In the case of a tie at the N-th position, all tied candidates are flagged and a runoff ballot is generated automatically when the ballot is closed.

Yes/No Mode — Simple Majority

The outcome is determined by: Yes votes / (Yes votes + No votes). If this ratio is greater than or equal to 0.5 (50%), the ballot passes. Abstentions — submissions with no option selected — are not included in this calculation. If no one voted Yes or No (all abstentions), the outcome is indeterminate (neither Pass nor Fail).

Resolution Mode — Threshold

The outcome is determined the same way as Yes/No — Yes / (Yes + No) — but compared to the configured threshold rather than 50%. The three thresholds are:

• 50% — passes if Yes / (Yes + No) >= 0.5
• Two-Thirds — passes if Yes / (Yes + No) >= 0.667 (approximately)
• Three-Fifths — passes if Yes / (Yes + No) >= 0.6

As with Yes/No, abstentions are excluded from the denominator. A Resolution outcome is indeterminate if all submissions are abstentions.

From the ballot list, click Print Ballot (Paper PDF) to download a PDF containing all ballots for the election formatted for paper use.

The paper ballot PDF includes:

• The election name as the title.
• A blank line where the voter writes their 4-character voter code.
• Each ballot numbered and titled.
• Instructions text if provided for the ballot.
• Each option with a blank line for the voter to mark their choice.
• An Abstain line for ballots with Allow Abstain enabled.
• Option details (if any) displayed in italics below the option label.

This is useful for congregations that prefer in-person paper voting or as a backup when digital voting is not possible. Administrators can then enter paper ballot results into the system digitally.

After closing a ballot and reviewing the results, click Certify to officially certify the outcome. Certification moves the ballot to Certified status, which permanently locks it — it cannot be reopened, edited, or have its results changed.

Only Closed ballots can be certified. Certify each ballot individually from the ballot list after you have verified the results are correct.

Certification is a one-way action. If you need to change something after certification, you would need to archive the election and start a new one. Plan accordingly — certify only after the results have been formally accepted.

Use the Archive toggle on the election list to archive a completed election. Archived elections cannot be opened or have their voter list changed. All ballots in an archived election become read-only.

Archiving is a toggle — you can archive and unarchive an election at any time, as long as it is not in Open status. This allows you to temporarily archive an election to prevent accidental changes, then unarchive it if further action is needed.

Archived elections remain visible in the election list and their results and records remain accessible.

Church elections are controlled by the church.elections.manage permission. Users with this permission can:

• Create, edit, open, close, archive, and delete elections.
• Create, edit, open, close, certify, and duplicate ballots.
• Sync voters, generate codes, and send voting emails.
• View results for all ballots at any time.
• Export voter codes and paper ballot PDFs.

Voting itself does not require a login. Voters access the public voting page using their election's unique voting link token and authenticate using their 4-character voter code. This means anyone with a valid code can vote — voter codes should be kept private and distributed only to eligible voters.