Running an Election
This section is for the person creating and administering an election or poll on BetterVoting. If you were sent a voting link and just want to cast your ballot, see For Voters.
The path from idea to results
Every BetterVoting election follows the same lifecycle, and this section is ordered to match it:
- Draft it. Name it, pick a voting method, add your races and candidates, and decide who can vote and how tightly to verify them. Running it on paper instead? See Paper Ballots. While the election is a draft you can edit everything and cast test ballots.
- Finalize it. Finalizing locks the setup and clears the test ballots; the election opens on its start time, or immediately if you didn’t set one. Share the voting link with your voters.
- Get results. Decide whether voters see a running tally while voting is open (Preliminary Results), read the results page, and know what happens on a tie. Want to verify the count yourself? See Hand Count.
In this section
- Setting Up Your Election — every decision you make before voting opens: who can vote, how ballots reach them, and how the election moves from draft to live.
- Counting and Results — how votes are counted, how to read and share results, and how ties are resolved.
- Reference — answers to common questions, and settings outside the normal setup flow.