Voting
Sooner or later members must decide something: approve the accounts, change a rule, pick a day. A show of hands leaves out everyone who could not come, and nobody is sure afterwards who was allowed to vote. Voting lets every member who may vote do it in the app, in secret if you wish, and keeps the result as a record.
- Open Voting in your organisation's menu and press New vote. Choose a Motion (something to decide, answered Yes or No; anyone may abstain) or a Poll (a question with your own answers).
- Write what is asked. For a poll type the answers, and say how many a member may choose.
- When: give the day and time it opens and closes, or leave them empty and open and close it yourself.
- How it is decided: a motion passes with more Yes than No, with two thirds, or with three quarters. If your rules ask for a quorum, type the share of members who must vote for it to be valid.
- Who may vote: leave it as it is and every current member may. Or set your rules: only some kinds of member, a member for at least so many months, fees paid, only active members, never expelled, at enough meetings.
- Save. The page of the vote shows Who may vote with these rules, and why anyone is left out. Check it, then press Open the vote now (or Open it at its time).
- Members find it under My memberships, your organisation, Votes. They choose and press Cast my vote.
- When the time is over the vote closes by itself (or press Close and count). The result is shown to you and to everyone who could vote.
The list is fixed when the vote opens. Someone who joins or pays afterwards is not added, and nobody is taken off. This is what makes a vote fair, and it is why an opened vote can no longer be changed.
Secret vote: Azonation keeps who voted apart from what was voted. Nobody can see what a member chose: not you, not us. Without the tick (an open vote) the people who run the vote see who chose what once it is closed.
No count before the end: while a vote is open you see only how many have voted, never how it stands.
The receipt: after voting a member is shown a short code, once. When the vote is closed they can type it under the result to check that their vote was counted. It does not show what they chose.
Reminders: members are told when a vote opens, those who have not voted are reminded a day before it closes, and everyone is told when the result is in. To remind them sooner press Remind those who have not voted.
A member who may not vote sees the vote with the reason in plain words (for example "Your membership fee is not paid up").
With branches: a vote of a branch is for that branch's members.
See it work with a demo. Before you trust a vote to Azonation, watch one. On the Voting page press See it work with a demo and choose a motion, a poll or an election. Azonation makes a vote with 24 pretend members: nobody real is asked or told anything. For a motion or a poll, most of the pretend members have voted already. Now try it: cast your own vote under My memberships, Votes and keep your receipt; press Let the pretend members vote; close the vote; look at the result; check your receipt. The demo election lets you run every step: it starts with the voter list, where one pretend member is left out and asks you to look again; then nominations, where pretend candidates come forward; you accept or reject them, announce the final list, open the ballot, close it, certify the result and make it final. The pretend people have names of your own language. Every demo ends differently, because the pretend members choose by chance. It counts for nothing, and you can delete it when you have seen enough.
Try it first with a practice vote. On a vote you are still writing, press Try it first with a practice copy. The copy works the same in every way and counts for nothing: open it, vote in it, close it, look at the result. Choose Only the organisers (other members see nothing and are told nothing) or Everyone who may vote (everyone has a go, and is told it is a practice). A practice vote wears a yellow Practice label everywhere, stays out of your reports and minutes, and can be deleted at any time. When you are happy, go back and open the real vote; or on the practice press Make the real vote from this.
A code before voting: tick Ask for a code before voting. The member presses Send me a code and types the code they receive. It goes by email; by text message (SMS) to the phone number you have for the member, where Azonation has SMS for that country and your organisation has text messages left this month; and on WhatsApp when they use it with Azonation. The code is never shown in the app. For SMS the member's phone number must be written with its country code, such as +880 1712 345678.
Sign in again before voting: with this tick, someone signed in for more than half an hour is asked to sign in once more, then comes straight back to the vote.
Votes on paper, in the room: tick Members may also vote on paper. While the vote is open, the page of the vote has Votes on paper: tick each member as they hand in their paper (they can then no longer vote in the app), count the papers by hand and type the totals. Who voted and what the papers say are kept apart.
A vote given to another member (a motion only): type how many votes one member may hold for others. A member who cannot take part then types the other member's membership number or email under the motion; that member's choice counts for both. It can be taken back until they have voted.
By order of choice (a poll): under How it is counted choose By order of choice. Members tap the answers in their order. If no answer has more than half, the last is taken out and its votes go to the next choice, round by round. The result shows each round.
Into the minutes: a motion that belongs to a meeting writes its result into the decisions of that meeting's minutes when it closes.
A member who pays no fee: on the member's page tick Does not pay a membership fee (an honorary or life member). They are never shown as owing, never reminded, and count as paid up when a vote asks for fees paid.
Two choices that are off unless you turn them on: "Some votes count more than one" (one kind of member has more votes than another) and "Members may change their vote until it closes". Use them only when your own rules say so: both make a result harder to defend if someone questions it.
Kept as a record: a vote that was held cannot be changed or deleted. Voting is for your organisation's own decisions under its own rules; if a law says how you must vote (some trade unions and co-operatives), follow that law.
Try it with your own organisation
Free for up to 100 members, for as long as you like. No card, no sales call.