Many elections and meetings can have flexible start or end times, making the dates and times initially setup in ElectionBuddy not necessarily the exact time you'd like to open voting. Use the following methods to start or end voting upon request, instead of by a scheduled date and time.

If your vote is going to run for under an hour, you may wish to consider manually starting your vote with the vote timer. Please see Setup - Voting Time for more information.

For votes with a longer runtime, the process will vary slightly if you have a pay-per-election account or an annual account. For pay-per-election accounts, choose a start date that is 1 day prior to your anticipated start date, and complete all setup steps for your vote.

When you have reached the final review step, you will be prompted to submit payment.

Wait until you want to open voting to submit payment. Once payment is submitted, your vote will start running and voting will open. Setting the date 1 day prior to the vote start date, ensures that there will be no lag time between the time you submit payment and when voting opens.

For accounts that are on annual plans, choose a start date that is 1 day prior to your anticipated start date, and complete all setup steps for your vote.

When you are ready to start your vote, click "Start Election". If there are enough credits stored in your annual plan to cover your vote cost, the vote will start and voting will open. Setting the date 1 day prior to the vote start date, ensures there will be no lag time between clicking "Start Election" and when voting opens.

If you have already clicked "Start Election" and the vote is in the "Ready to Run" state, the vote will start at the scheduled time. Update the start date to 1 day prior to your anticipated start, complete the steps on the Review page again, and wait until the day of your vote to click "Start Election".

ElectionBuddy automatically closes voting at the scheduled time indicated on the Details page.

If you want to manually close voting, select an end date 1 or more days after the anticipated end time.

When you want to end the vote and close voting, choose "Close Now" from the Actions menu on the Results page. You will be prompted to confirm your choice before voting is closed.

In the case where all eligible voters have cast a ballot, ElectionBuddy will automatically close voting, and you will not be able to close manually.