Ballots App Overview
Run structured, auditable votes across your organization — approve a document or elect a person — with a frozen voter roster, comment rules, live results, and a complete history of every change.
What is the Ballots App?
The Ballots App turns informal polls into governed decisions. Every ballot has a defined audience, a voting window, and a recorded outcome, so you always know who was eligible, how they voted, and what was decided. It fits everything from policy approvals and vendor selection to committee elections and appointment confirmations.
Core Value Proposition:
- 🗳️ Two subjects × two styles — vote on a Document or a Person, in Yes/No or Election form
- 🔒 Frozen eligibility roster — the voter list is snapshotted at publish, so later group changes can’t alter who could vote
- 💬 Comment policies — make a comment optional, required, or not-allowed per choice
- 📊 Live results & turnout — real-time tallies (or hidden until close), with an auto-approval threshold for Yes/No
- 🧾 Full audit trail — every open, vote, edit, and decision is logged
At a Glance
| 🎯 Subjects | 🧩 Styles | 👥 Eligibility | 🧾 Audit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document · Person | Yes/No · Election | Frozen roster (can_vote) | Every action logged |
Perfect For:
- 🏢 HR & Ops — policy adoption, code-of-conduct approval, SOP sign-off
- 👥 Committees — chair elections, representative selection, appointment confirmations
- 📈 Leadership — budget approvals, vendor selection, proposal decisions
Subjects × Styles
A ballot has a subject (what’s being voted on) and a style (how votes are cast):
| Yes/No (single choice) | Election (multiple choice) | |
|---|---|---|
| Document | Approve/reject a policy, SOP, budget | Choose among proposal versions |
| Person | Confirm an appointment | Elect a chair / representative |
- Yes/No records one choice per voter: Affirmative, Negative, or Abstain (labels are configurable in settings).
- Election lets voters pick candidates — up to the number of seats (1 = single choice). The top-seats candidate(s) are declared the winner(s).
The Ballot Lifecycle
publish (opens later) cron @opens_at
Draft ───────────────────────▶ Scheduled ─────────────▶ Open
│ │
│ publish (opens now) │ cron @closes_at
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────▶ ▼
Closed – Pending decision
│
creator/admin records the outcome ───┤
Yes/No: Approve → Approved │
Reject → Undecided │
Election: Approve → Winner Declared │
Decline → Declined │
- Draft — being authored; editable; visible only to its creator (and admins).
- Scheduled — published with a future open date; the voter roster is frozen at publish. The system opens it automatically at the open time.
- Open — voting is live. A “closing soon” reminder goes out in the final 24 hours; the system closes it at the close time.
- Closed – Pending decision — voting ended, awaiting a verdict. Yes/No ballots with auto-approval on can approve automatically at close; Elections always wait for a manual decision.
- Terminal outcomes — Yes/No resolves to Approved or Undecided; an Election resolves to Winner Declared or Declined. (An election is never “Approved” — it declares a winner.)
After a ballot is closed or resolved, a creator/admin can Re-open it (new close date, votes kept) or Re-circulate it (a fresh round — prior votes and roster cleared, audience re-snapshotted).
Eligibility & the Voter Roster
When a ballot is published, its audience is resolved into a frozen roster — a point-in-time snapshot. Each member on the roster carries a can_vote flag:
- Members with voting rights (
can_vote = true) are the eligible voters; only they count toward turnout. - Members without voting rights are on the roster but are not participants — they don’t affect the turnout denominator.
Because the roster is frozen at publish, later changes to the source group never change who could vote on that ballot. Admins can adjust individual voting rights or recorded values through the ballot’s Actions menu, and every such change is logged.
Voting, Comments & Results
- Casting a vote — Yes/No voters pick one option; Election voters select up to the seat count. Revoting is allowed if the ballot permits it (the prior vote is superseded and kept for history).
- Comment policy — per choice, a comment can be optional, required, or not-allowed (e.g., require a comment on a Negative vote). Comments left with a vote appear alongside the discussion in the Comments tab, tagged with the voter’s choice.
- Results & turnout — the Results tab shows the tally and turnout percentage. Results can be real-time or hidden until close, per ballot.
- Auto-approval (Yes/No only) — set a threshold; if the affirmative share meets it at close and auto-approval is enabled, the ballot approves automatically.
Where to Find Your Ballots
- Dashboard — an overview of ballot activity relevant to you: Open Ballots, Awaiting Your Vote, Avg. Turnout, Closing Soon, Recently Updated, and Recent Outcomes.
- My Ballots — a filterable list with three tabs: All Ballots, Created by Me, and I’m Voting In. Filter by type and status (Draft, Scheduled, Open, Closed, Approved, Declined, Winner Declared).
Key Settings
- Who can create ballots and default behaviors (auto-approval, threshold, allow revoting, live results).
- Custom Yes/No labels (e.g., rename Affirmative/Negative).
- Notifications — toggles for open, closing, edit, re-circulate, approve, and added-voter events.
FAQ
Can an election be “Approved”?
No. An election declares a Winner (Winner Declared) or is Declined. “Approved” is a Yes/No-only outcome.
Who can see a ballot?
Members see ballots they created or are eligible voters on; admins see all ballots in the business. Drafts are visible only to their creator (and admins).
What happens if I change my vote?
If the ballot allows revoting, your new vote replaces the old one while voting is open. The previous vote is kept in the audit history but no longer counts.
Does everyone on the roster count toward turnout?
No — only members with voting rights (can_vote) are counted. Roster members without voting rights are not participants.
What’s the difference between Re-open and Re-circulate?
Re-open resumes the same ballot with a new close date and keeps existing votes. Re-circulate starts a fresh round — it clears prior votes and re-freezes the roster from current membership.