Features

 

We take democracy seriously. Using Simply Voting has many advantages and our online voting system sports a vast array of features to meet your requirements.

Branded Voting Website

Simply Voting provides you with an exclusive voting website for your elections with a url like https://myname.simplyvoting.com/. The voting website is branded with your logo & colors, is easy to use, works with all modern browsers, and looks professional. You have the option of publishing voting results to your voting website.

Authentication Methods

Simply Voting provides several options for voter authentication:

  • You provide passwords to Simply Voting with your list of eligible voters
  • Simply Voting generates passwords (and optionally emails out direct voting links)
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against an external website login
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against a POP3 or IMAP server
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against an LDAP directory
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against HTTP Authentication
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against a Central Authentication Service (CAS)
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against a Shibboleth / SAML identity provider
  • Simply Voting authenticates voters against an OpenID Connect provider
  • You generate a single sign-on (SSO) link on your secure website

Flexible Ballot Questions

Simply Voting supports many types of questions to meet your needs. Here's what you can do:

  • Specify ballot or question introductory text
  • Attach photos & descriptions to each candidate
  • Allow for a single winner or multiple winners
  • Allow voting for write-in candidates
  • Control the minimum and maximum number of candidates voters are allowed to select
  • Control whether voters are allowed to abstain from voting
  • Run preferential questions with the Single Transferable Vote (STV) / Hare-Clark / Alternative Voting / Instant Runoff Voting counting method
  • Run preferential questions with the Condorcet Ranked Pairs counting method
  • Run cumulative voting questions
  • Add comment boxes to collect feedback from voters

If you require another type of ballot question please let us know and we can arrange for it. We also offer a time-saving feature that lets you clone ballots, which is especially handy for testing your election setup.

Voter-Verified Audit Trail

Once the electronic ballot has been cast a printable receipt is provided to assure voters that their votes have been recorded as intended. Should you opt to publish the final results, anyone will be able to download a file containing votes and receipt codes. This serves as a Voter-Verified Audit Trail (VVAT) - an independent verification system for voting systems designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results.

Mass Emailing

Schedule initial invitations to vote and periodic reminders to those who haven't voted yet. Our Email Blast feature can optionally include a direct voting link in the message so that the elector can vote immediately, bypassing authentication. The Email Blast also follows best practices such as publishing an SPF record, and signing messages with DomainKeys Identified Mail to maximize message deliverability.

Multiple Overlapping Elections

You can run several elections independently of each other, even simultaneously. If someone is eligible to vote in multiple ballots they will be given the opportunity to vote in each one.

Segmentation of Voters

We provide a system to restrict any question on the ballot to a segment of your eligible voters. To enable segmentation for your account please contact support.

Accessible Ballots

The voting interface is regularly audited against Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 accessibility requirements. This ensures voting websites are compatible with screen-reading technology such as JAWS.

Easy to Administer

You maintain your elections through our Election Manager, a secured and intuitive web interface. No particular computer skills are required. You can also have us manage your elections for you.

Certified Results

An important advantage of having the experts power your election is trust. With the security of an independently managed server and service, your voters can rest assured that their votes will be counted properly. We display a certified by Simply Voting seal on your published voting results. We also provide a Letter of Certification attesting to the validity of your results.

Multilingual Voting Website

We offer many translations of the voting interface so that voters may select their language of preference. If you require a language that's not listed in the Election Manager, please let us know and we can arrange for it.

Paper Voting Support

Some organizations prefer to keep the option of allowing mail-in or live voting on paper ballots. Simply Voting makes such hybrid elections possible by giving you the ability to mark electors as having voted offline and/or entering their votes by proxy, ensuring that nobody can vote twice. To enable paper voting support for your account please contact support.

Telephone Voting

To compliment web voting, let your people vote securely over the phone. We will assign you your own automated local or Toll Free 800 number which will prompt electors for their credentials, read out the questions, and record the votes. Voting instructions and the wording of your ballot will be professionally recorded in a human voice. Of course, our phone election system ensures that nobody can vote twice. To enable telephone voting for your account please contact support.

Online Nominations

We provide a system for open or closed nominations, as well as the ability to publish qualified nominees to the ballot. To enable online nominations for your account please contact support.

Weighted Vote Support

To accommodate shareholder elections or similar situations, the number of shares or vote weight may be specified for each eligible voter. Election results take the weight of each vote into account and tallies the total vote weights exercised. To enable weighted vote support for your account please contact support.

Candidate Withdrawal

If necessary, you can remove a candidate from the ballot once voting has ended and Simply Voting will recalculate the results accordingly. To enable candidate withdrawals for your account please contact support.

Multiple Users

Create and manage multiple administrator users, so that your staff and external auditors can safely access voting event information. Each user has their own password to log into the Election Manager and we provide a log of which users perform which actions. You can assign different access permissions for each user, specifying the features they are allowed to use and the elections they are allowed to access.

Social Media Sharing

Once the voter casts their ballot, integrated Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn buttons appear, encouraging voters to promote the fact that they voted across those social networks. Voters can post a default message or a personalize it. Social media sharing increases awareness of your election, and encourages more eligible voters to participate thanks to positive social pressure.

Mobile Optimized Voting

Thanks to a responsive web design that adjusts according to the type of device being used, the voting website delivers an optimal viewing and interaction experience on a desktop computer, tablet, and smartphone. Voters using a mobile device will not have to zoom, pan or scroll sideways because all the elements on the voting website are properly sized and placed.

Kiosk Support

For organizations that prefer to have physical poll stations, we provide a special version of your voting website. Load it up in a computer at the kiosk and it will logout each voter automatically after they vote, for quick and efficient turnover.