You can assign a meaningful ballot identifier (i.e. a Ballot ID) to make it easier to manage voter lists and identify voters.
Without a ballot identifier, voters are listed by their contact information like email, cell phone number, or address; ElectionBuddy uses the contact information of your voter as that voter's unique identifier. However, with Ballot IDs turned on, the Ballot ID becomes the unique identifier associated with the voter, not the contact information.
Since Ballot IDs replace the contact information as the unique identifier, you can use duplicate voter contact information! If you use multiple notification methods, ballot identifiers are mandatory and enabled automatically. Ballot IDs are not equivalent to Voter Labels, as voter labels do not need to be unique.
The following are examples of Ballot IDs:
Membership Identification Number
Unit Number
House Number
Apartment Number
Account Number
Student Number
Or any unique combination of numbers!
To create a list of sequential numbers to use as Ballot IDs through Excel or Google Sheets, begin typing a list of numbers in a column, highlight the numbers, and drag the blue dot down to create a descending list of numbers.
Setting Up Ballot IDs
If you use multiple notification methods, Ballot IDs are mandatory. They’ll become automatically enabled and don’t need to be turned on.
On the Voters Page of your vote setup, choose "Ballot IDs".
In the "ID" column, add unique identifiers for each voter in your voter list.
You can also import a list with Ballot IDs for each voter already included, in the same way as importing a regular voter list with just emails.
When to Use Ballot IDs
A common scenario when Ballot IDs are necessary is when one or more members of an organization share one email address, but each is entitled to cast a vote. This is common when multiple individuals from one family are members. Because one email address will receive two or more emails, we also recommend adding Voter Labels to your voter list to ensure voters are clear on which person each email is being sent to.
We also know organizations often have two or more email addresses on file for one voter. This is common for homeowners or condominium associations because homes/units may have two or more owners, even though only one vote can be cast for a home/unit. If you want to send notices to multiple email addresses, we suggest using a similar Ballot ID for the household (e.g., 123-1 and 123-2) and then spoiling the extra ballot.
For any questions, please send us a chat using our Buddy Messenger in the bottom right of the screen.