You may be new to ElecitonBuddy, or to electronic voting in general. Either way, it is important to ensure that your vote will work to meet your requirements and that the voting experience is easy and the ballot is accurate for voters.
Test voting allows you to experience and learn ElectionBuddy’s vote setup before a Live vote, and Test Votes are free for up to 5 voters! There are two main ways that you can test your vote setup within ElectionBuddy. The method you should choose should depend on what you're looking to test.
Setting up a Test Vote
This option allows for testing the entire vote setup, notice delivery, and running a vote. Setting up a Test vote is exactly like setting up a Live vote, except for two key differences:
- On the Details Page, under Vote Options select "Test"
- On the Voters Page, you can only have up to 5 voters on the list. If you try to add more than five voters it will generate a message stating "We've noticed that you're trying to insert a list with more than five voters on it"
- Test votes are free. If on the Review Page, you're being asked to pay, please return to the Details Page of your vote set up to ensure that you have "Test" selected (be sure to scroll down and save the page).
A Test Vote is the only true way to test the entire voting experience. Your test voters will receive notices exactly like voters would receive in the actual vote. They will go through the full voting process in the same way and cast votes in the test.
Votes submitted will count in your test vote, so you will be able to interact with and analyze the results in the same way that you would for your “Live” vote.
We have created a natural flow from test votes to your real vote. Once you have found your perfect vote setup from test votes, you can Duplicate a Vote to use the same setup for a new vote. You will be required to review the setup, so you can make small changes if necessary.
In the new vote, make sure you have changed "Test" to Live" when working with a duplicated test vote, or else you will not be able to add more than five voters. For additional information please also see Next Steps After Test Vote.
Testing the Ballot
This is a great option, and highly recommended when you already know the votes setup is correct, and want a final opinion on the ballot and voting experience. For example, to ensure that candidate names are spelled correctly, or that you're allowed to only vote for the correct number of candidates.
Have others test your ballot:
- On the Review Page, select the action "Test" for the Test the Ballot task
- Once you submit the test ballot, select the green link "Have others test"
- A window will open, asking you to enter the email addresses of up to five people to test the ballot. You will only see one email address space, but you can select the orange "Add more emails " link to open four more email address entry spaces
- Select "Send Test Ballot" to send an email with a link to test the ballot to those email addresses.
This process is not the same as running a formal Test Vote. Testing the Ballot is designed to test the ballot for accuracy and overall voter experience when casting a vote. Since the vote is not running at the point when you test, votes cast when testing the ballot do not count or get tallied in the results. It is purely a simulation of how the ballot works.
The email that your testers will receive is not the same as the email notice your voters will receive in your Live vote. It simply informs them of what you're trying to accomplish and includes a link to your ballot. Any feedback will need to be sent directly to you and the administrator's email address from the account is outlined in the test ballot notice.
If the testers do not receive the email, you are unable to re-send it, so we suggest asking your voters to add invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com to their contact list to minimize the risk of them not receiving the email.
Happy with your Test Vote? Please see our article on the Next Steps After Test Vote to start your Live vote.