Write-ins allow voters to submit their own choices outside of the candidates or options that have been added by the administrator.
The number of write-ins that are allowed on each ballot depends on the number of candidates that can be voted for. If you have more vacancies than you have candidates, for example, if you have three seats available for a Director position, but only two candidates at the time of the vote, you can specify that you need three vacancies. ElectionBuddy will automatically give you a write-in slot to allow you to try to collect nominations in order to fill that final seat.
Allowing Write-ins with Candidates listed
Please note that only plurality, preferential, and cumulative-type questions allow the option for write-ins.
- On the Ballot Page, create the ballot question you'd like to allow a write-in on.
- Click the "+ Add Position or Question" button.
- Choose the type of question you need from the window that appears.
- Enable the "Add Write-ins" option to allow voters to submit write-in candidates:
If your question has fewer candidates than vacancies, write-ins are enabled by default:
If you select the"Edit Write-In" button to the right, you'll get the following pop-up to potentially help narrow down your voter's write-in options:
Example Ballots
In the ballot below, because only one candidate can be voted for, only one write-in is allowed:
If you have multiple vacancies or more vacancies than candidates, ElectionBuddy sets your ballot up as shown below:
The "+ Add more Write-in" link will open up additional write-in slots for this question, so voters can write in up to three candidates.
Running a Vote with No Candidates
For write-ins only, please select the Nomination Voting method. Currently, this is the only voting method that can be set up to accept write-in votes only. This is common when a position may not have any candidates on the ballot and your organization may want to accept write-in votes only.
There is also an option to "Show nominees to voters". When enabled, it will show the nominations that have been received during the vote on the ballot so future voters can see them, and select them if they wish.
This is how the ballot will appear for voters:
This is an example of how the ballot would appear for the next voters if a nomination had been submitted by a previous voter when "Show nominees to voters" had been enabled.
For any questions, please send us a chat using our Buddy Messenger in the bottom right of the screen