How to Run an Online Vote for a Contest

You’re running your club’s photography contest, your association’s awards or a poll among your members, and the votes arrive from everywhere: some by email, some through a form and some as comments on social media. When it closes, someone counts them by hand, never quite sure whether the same person has voted twice from different accounts. And the entries, with their photos or proposals, are scattered across folders, messages and posts.

In short: a vote on your own website collects the votes on a page with your design and your rules, and counts them by itself, as they come in. Vote control (confirmed email, login or members only) is chosen to suit the contest, because no system is foolproof, and you usually don’t need a new website.

None of those channels is designed for voting. They’re for receiving messages or for posting, and when you use them for a contest the same problems always turn up:

Votes arrive in several places, and you have to gather them before you can count them.
The count is done by hand, it takes a while and it’s easy to get wrong.
You can’t tell whether someone has voted more than once, and you have no way of checking.
The entries are scattered: the photos in one folder, the proposals in your inbox and the questions in your messages.
On social media, you don’t set the rules: who sees the post or how the comments are ordered is up to the platform.

What do you need to decide before opening the vote?

The rules. It’s worth being clear about them before building anything, because everything else depends on them:

Who votes: anyone who visits the website, anyone who confirms their email, anyone with an account, or members only.
How many times: one vote per person, one per category or one for each day the contest runs.
When: the day voting opens and the day it closes.
How the count is shown: during the vote, to encourage people to take part, or only at the end, so as not to sway the result.
What people vote on: each entry has its own page, with its photo or proposal, and people vote from there.

Those answers tell us what needs to be built. A contest a shop runs for its customers doesn’t need the same as the vote for an association’s awards.

How do you stop people voting more than once?

By limiting who can vote and how they identify themselves. There are several levels, from most open to most closed:

By confirmed email: voters get a link in their inbox and their vote counts when they open it. This is the usual choice for a contest open to the public.
By login: voters sign in with their account, and each account votes as many times as the rules allow.
Members only: only people on the membership list can vote, as in a vote at a club or an association.

No system is foolproof: someone determined enough can set up several email addresses, for example. That’s why, before we start, we suggest the control that fits your contest. The more closed it is, the harder it is to vote twice, but the harder it is to take part as well.

Can an association use it for member votes?

Yes, for member polls and votes: choosing the poster for an event, deciding what to organise next season or voting for the year’s awards. If the vote is going to have legal effects, talk to your adviser first about the conditions it has to meet, and we adapt the system to what they tell you.

Do I need a new website?

Hardly ever: we integrate the vote into your current website, as long as your website allows it. If it doesn’t fit, you’ll know before any work begins and we’ll find another way with you.

How much does it cost?

It depends on the rules, the vote control and your website. That’s why each vote is quoted individually, and you’ll know the price before any work begins. Small tweaks are paid for with an hourly package and projects at a fixed price. The same quote includes the delivery date, and before opening the vote to the public we run test votes.

After delivery, if you want the vote kept up to date along with your website for the next contest, we look after it as part of a maintenance plan; if you’d rather handle it yourself, that’s fine too.

Your contest, your rules

If today you collect votes by email or on social media and count them by hand, a vote on your website takes the counting and the doubts off your plate. On the online voting page you’ll find how we work and how to ask for a quote.

Contests and voting on your own website

A custom voting system for contests, awards or member polls, with a live count.