You will want to make sure that conducting your vote or election online is allowed by Federal, State, and Local law as well as the bylaws of your organization. The most frequent limitation that we run into is bylaws that require a paper ballot. Although it may take some time, this limitation is fairly easy to overcome by updating the bylaws of your organization.
In general, online elections see greater participation rates than traditional paper ballot elections because it is generally far easier and more convenient for people to vote online then to have to receive and send back a paper ballot, or go to a specific voting location.
Some organizations will offer prizes to bump up member participation. For example, they might give away anything from a $10 gas card to an ipad to a randomly selected individual who participated in the election. Other clients will provide a reward to the subset of members with the highest participation rate. For example, offer a free breakfast to the job-site with the highest participation rate.
Online elections can also offer you the opportunity to see who has and hasn’t submitted a ballot in real time. This can help you target reminder messages to those individuals that haven’t yet submitted their vote.
Implemented correctly, online voting can be as secure (if not more secure) than your traditional paper ballot. Hiring a neutral third-party to oversee the election virtually eliminates the potential for personal prejudice to influence the election results.
Whether or not a vote is anonymous (voter name cannot be tied to ballot) depends on client requirements and preferences. In most cases, votes are conducted anonymously. However, we can also accommodate situations in which a secret ballot is not desired. Please note that in order to prevent multiple votes, we must store a list of who has submitted a ballot, but depending on your requirements, it may or may not be possible for this list to be tied back to an individual ballot.
The cost of running an online election varies greatly based on the complexity of building your ballot, the number of eligible voters, whether your handling technical support requests directly or directing your members to us for support, your turnaround time, and whether you need any assistance marketing and promoting your election.
Smaller projects such as electing a slate of officers may run in range of $100-$300.
If you should experience any difficulties logging in, accessing, or submitting your ballot, we are here to help. In most cases, we will get back to you within 1 business day (or less), depending on the support package purchased.
