Depending on your organization's requirements, an election or meetings can have flexible start or end times, making the dates and times initially set up in ElectionBuddy not necessarily the exact time you would like to open or close voting. Review the following approaches to start or end voting upon request, instead of, at a scheduled date and time.
Manually Starting: Voting Duration Under 60 minutes
If your vote is going to run for less than an hour, you may want to consider using the "Manual Start" option on the Details Page. This will allow you to open the vote at the exact moment you wish for voting to begin. This method will also allow you to have the vote automatically close after a defined voting window.
For more detailed setup guidance, please see Setup - Voting Time.
Manually Starting: Voting Duration Over 60 minutes
For votes with a longer runtime of more than one hour, the process will be different if you have a default Pay-Per-Election Account or an Annual Account.
Pay-Per-Election Accounts
Enter a Start Date that is at least one day before your anticipated actual start date, and continue with the setup steps for your vote. In this example, the anticipated Start Date is after August 8th, 2023.
Setting the date one day before the vote's anticipated start date ensures that there will be no lag time between the time you submit payment and when voting opens as ElectionBuddy sees the start time as already passed.
When you have reached the final Review Page, and completed the required Checks, you will be prompted to "Proceed to Payment".
Wait here until you want to open voting. When ready to open the vote, submit payment. Once payment is submitted, your vote will start running and voting will open immediately.
Annual Accounts
Enter a Start Date that is at least one day before your anticipated actual start date, and continue with the setup steps for your vote. In this example, the anticipated Start Date is after August 8th, 2023.
Setting the date one day before the votes anticipated start date ensures that there will be no lag time between the time you submit payment and when voting opens as ElectionBuddy sees the start time as already passed.
When you have reached the final Review Page, and completed the required Checks, you will be prompted to "Start Vote".
Wait here until you want to open voting. Once ready to open the vote select "Start Vote". If there are enough credits available in your annual account to cover your vote, voting will open immediately.
Manually Ending Voting
ElectionBuddy automatically closes voting at the scheduled time indicated on the Details Page. By default, votes will also automatically end when all voters have voted. To turn that off, uncheck "Automatically end the vote when all voters have voted" on the Details Page during setup.
If you want to manually close voting:
During setup enter an end date that is at least one day after the anticipated actual end date. In this example, the anticipated end date will be before August 10th, 2023.
Setting the date one day after the anticipated end date ensures the vote will not automatically close before you are ready to end it.
When you are ready to end the vote and stop voting, Go to the Results Page, and using the Actions drop-down menu, select "Close Now". You will be prompted to confirm your choice before voting is formally closed.
For more information on closing a vote early, please also see Closing a Vote Early
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