States of an Election

An election administered with Election Runner goes through 5 different states (we may also refer to the state as an election’s status, stage, or mode):

  1. Building
  2. Scheduled
  3. Running
  4. Completed
  5. Archived

This guide only provides a high level summary. For more detailed information, please visit the support article: The Different States of an Election.

Building

The default state of your election is “Building”. This state allows you manage your ballot, voters, and election settings. You can also preview your election and do a test vote to make sure everything is set up properly.

When you’re done building your election, you will then go through the “launch” process. This is a four step process where you confirm that your election settings and ballot are set up correctly. The final step is where you will pay for the election based on the pricing found here.

At the conclusion of the launch process your election will be scheduled to start at the date/time/timezone specified in your election settings. If the start date is set to a date in the past, then your election will automatically start within 2 minutes.

Scheduled

After going through the launch process your election will enter the “Scheduled” state. During this state you can make changes to your election settings and manage your voters.

Voters will be able to access your election’s landing page URL but will not be allowed to vote until the election is in the “Running” state.

Your election will automatically start at the scheduled date/time.

Running

Once your election starts it will enter the “Running” state. Voters will now be able to login and vote in the election.

As the election administrator you can do the following tasks while the election is running:

  • Manage voters
  • View results*
  • Update election settings*
  • Extend the end date of your election
  • Close the election before the end date

Your election will automatically end at the scheduled date/time.

* Changes to the election start date and results settings are not allowed once the election is running

Completed

Once your election ends, it will enter the “Completed” state. At this point, voters will no longer be able to login to the election and vote.

As the election administrator you can view the results of the election. You can choose to delete the election or archive it.

Archived

Archiving an election will result in the election being hidden from public view.