ElectionBuddy offers administrators multiple ways to send notices to voters to provide them with their voting credentials. When email or SMS notices are enabled, ElectionBuddy will send these notices at the scheduled start date and time of the vote.
You may want to provide voters with their credentials before when voting starts. ElectionBuddy has features in place for you to do this; however, the credentials need to be sent from your own systems (email, newsletter, etc.).
Please note that providing voters with their credentials before voting starts may cause confusion and an increase in voter questions.
Printed Notices
When Printed Notices are enabled, you are given a PDF of all notices once the vote setup is complete, payment is made, and the vote is scheduled to start. You can print these notices and include them in mailings or distribute them at a meeting. You can print notices before a vote starts.
Please note that editing the setup after printing the notices can carry significant repercussions for the vote. When access to the ballot is set to high integrity, ElectionBuddy generates random access keys for each voter. If any edits are made to the vote after high-integrity notices are printed, ElectionBuddy voids those keys and generates new ones.
Create Notices Yourself
When Access Keys is enabled, ElectionBuddy will provide you with a CSV of all voter credentials to distribute through your own system, such as mail merging to an email list or including these in a voter's monthly newsletter. You can download voter credentials before a vote starts.
Please note that editing the setup after downloading the credentials can carry significant repercussions for the vote. When access to the ballot is set to high integrity, ElectionBuddy generates random access keys for each voter. If any edits are made to the vote after downloading high-integrity credentials, ElectionBuddy voids those keys and generates new ones.
Medium Integrity
When voter access to the ballot is set to medium integrity, the administrator creates custom credentials that the voters use to cast their vote, which can be distributed outside of ElectionBuddy before the election's start date and time. Depending on your notice settings, ElectionBuddy will also send these out when the election formally starts. Therefore, this would allow you to distribute credentials and the link to the ballot in advance, on your end, to allow you to ensure your members have received them.
Please refer to the article on credentials for more information.
Voters Must Be Present to Vote
Organizations often require that all eligible voters be sent notice to vote, but must be present at a meeting (virtually or in-person) to cast their ballot. ElectionBuddy has several features in place to assist with this requirement:
- Two Factor Authentication (2FA) - when using High Integrity voter access to the ballot
- Vote Key - when using MeetingVote
Both of these options ask for a password from voters after they have entered their voting credentials. The password can be shared during a live or virtual meeting to allow only those present to access the ballot.
For any questions, please send us a chat using our Buddy Messenger in the bottom right of the screen.