Your first election checklist

Sign in and open Usage so you know your voter credit balance. Credits are used when invitation emails go out.

Decide the voting method, how many seats each ballot fills, and when voting should close. For your first election, use three to five addresses you control (work, personal, a colleague) before you invite the full membership roll.

1. From Elections, create a new election. The Election setup screen walks you through Election → Ballot → Voters.
2. On Ballot, add at least one position and at least one candidate (or turn on self-nomination and approve a test nomination).
3. On Voters, upload a tiny CSV or type rows by hand. Tick the email consent checkbox, then Confirm voters. That step does not send email yet.
4. Open the election details page. Use Preview ballot (available while the election is still a draft) and send a test invite to yourself if you customise the email.
5. When you are happy, select Open voting. Each confirmed voter receives a magic-link email. That send uses credits.
6. Vote with one of your test addresses. On Turnout & Reminders, check that turnout updates. Try Send reminder only if you want to see that path (you only get a small number of reminder sends per election).
7. Close or end voting, select Calculate results, read the outcome, then Publish. Optionally broadcast results email to the invite list.

Clone is useful later for annual AGMs, but for a first live poll many people prefer a clean setup. Double-check candidate names, vacancy counts, and the close date. If you use self-nomination, leave enough time to approve or reject people before you open voting (opening closes nominations automatically).