ElectionBuddy has a feature specifically for the nomination or registration process before a vote.
It's called the "Announcement" feature. It can be found on the first page of your vote set up (the "Details" page):
When this is selected, the "Details" page will change to ask for three dates/times:
Vote start date/time - the start date is included in the announcement notice to let voters know when voting opens.
Announcement start date/time - when the nomination period begins and announcement notices are sent to voters.
Announcement end date/time - is when the nomination or registration period is over.
The "Ballot" stage of setup is also different from a regular election, as only two question types ("Nomination" and "Plurality") are available when doing an Announcement.
The "Nomination" question type is for collecting your nominations.
"Plurality" is available in the event that you'd like to poll your members, or put something to a "Yes"/"No" vote prior to the election, such as a Registration question.
When you click "+ Add position or question", you will see the following window:
When you create a "Nomination" question, you will need to set the number of candidates that a voter can nominate:
This results in a ballot with two spots for writing in the names of the candidates being nominated.
When you create a "Registration" question, you will end up with the following when using the default choices:
This question can be used in advance to your meeting/vote to collect who is planning on attending. You can then use the responses to help create your voter list for your meeting/election.
The notification types available for an Announcement are the same as a regular vote; however, please note that the default text is different. The rest is the same as a regular election as well: you put in your voter list, review all the components of your Announcement setup, and get it started!
Some things to note:
Announcements are not included with a vote, and a vote does not come with an announcement; they are independent and you pay for each (i.e. if running a nomination and a vote with ElectionBuddy, you pay for the announcement and then you pay for the vote).
Announcements are priced the same as ElectionVote.
If you need to be able to associate nominators with their nominees, use our "Poll" setting in "Voter Anonymity". For more details, please see our related article on the "Voter Anonymity" setting.
Pre-registration