Frequently Asked Questions

  • What information do I need to get started?
    • Electionbuddy sends out the secure voting keys to your voters by email, so you'll need a list of all your voters email addresses in order to get started. If you don't have email addresses for all (or a portion) of your voters, then you can still use electionbuddy and distribute voting keys yourself. Other than that, all you need is a list of positions up for election and candidates for each position, and you're good to go!
  • What type of elections do you support?
  • Do you allow a comments only election?
  • Yes, You can create an election to gather voter comments, and the comments you collect can be free form (text answers)
    • Choose the "referendum only" election type
    • Add at least one question and check "Allow comments for this question"
    You can also set up questions to group comments. For example if you want people to comment on the candidates and general election information, you could create two questions: "General Election Comments" and "Candidate Comments". Voters can leave comments under one or both questions, and comments will be grouped for each question on your results page.
    Alternatively, you can add a question to see if people like something or not. For example: "What can we do better?" can have 2 answers: "Lots - see my comments" or "Nothing - here's why"
  • What do we do with the email addresses used in elections?
    • Nothing, other than when you use them to distribute your ballots. We do not sell or market to your email addresses. To learn more - view our privacy policy
  • How does electionbuddy help increase voter turnout?
    • It's way easier to click on a link in an email and vote, then take a trip in a car and vote in person. You can even remind voters who haven't voted to vote with a few clicks of your mouse! We have found that email elections increase response by 30-40% on average. This makes electionbuddy great for student elections or associations and organizations with a widely dispersed membership.
  • Do you support proxy voting?
    • Yes! Voters can assign their votes to other voters by email or via notification to the returning officer.
  • Anything else?
    • You'll need to have Javascript and cookies enabled on your browser in order to set up an election, but in order to make voting as accessible as possible, Javascript does not need to be enabled in your voters' browsers.