Electronic Voting allows communities to conduct official votes and elections digitally. Since every community operates under different regional legislation and governance structures, Electronic Voting offers a range of global settings that can be tailored to fit your specific needs. This user guide outlines how to configure Electronic Voting settings for your community.
For an overview of the Electronic Voting feature, refer to the guide below:
Electronic Voting Overview
1. Select Setup from the user menu in the top right corner.
2. Pick Proxy Voting from the main menu.
You will then see the global settings that dictate how voting is handled in your community. You only have to configure these settings once, and they will then apply to all of your voting events.
3. Input a custom name for the feature. This is what staff and residents will see listed on the main menu. The default option is Proxy Voting.
4. Enter Terms & Conditions for using the Proxy/Electronic Voting feature. These will be shown to residents before they submit their votes.
5. Select the appropriate proxy form for your community — Ontario Specific, General or Electronic Voting. Each form has been configured with different question and answer options. Refer to the following guide for a detailed breakdown of each form: Proxy Form Comparison.
Enable/Disable the following settings to meet your community's needs:
6. Signature Drawing: Turn this on if you want residents to have the option to sign their name when agreeing to Terms and Conditions (otherwise they just type their name). This is only applicable for Ontario Specific and General form.
7. Voice & Text Reminder: Turn this on if you want to send Voice/Text message reminders for your Proxy/Electronic Voting events.
8. Allow Bios for Candidates: Turn this on if you want to add candidate bios and photos to the election form.
9. Hide Results for Active Proxies: Turn this on if you do not want to see voting results while the event is still active.
10. Cumulative Voting: Turn this on if you want voters to be able to distribute their allocated votes across candidates in any combination, rather than being limited to one vote per candidate (e.g., you have 5 votes total - you can cast 2 votes for Candidate A, 3 votes for Candidate B and none for Candidate C).
Note: Cumulative Voting will not apply if you're using the Ontario Specific Form.
11. Select the appropriate voting weight option for your community.
Equal Voting: One unit equals one vote.
Fractional Voting: Units are weighted by percentage ownership.
Share-Based Voting: Units are weighted by number of shares.
If you select Fractional or Share-Based Voting, you will be prompted to download and complete a template with the ownership percentage or number of shares for each unit in your community.
Note: These options are not available if you're using the Ontario Specific Form.
All active Proxy/ Electronic Voting events most be completed and closed before you can upload the template.
Additional Resources
- How to Setup a Proxy/Electronic Voting Event
- Electronic/Proxy Voting Dashboard Summary
- Virtual & Hybrid Meeting Overview