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Election authoring

Org admins create org-wide elections — board positions, constitutional amendments, organization-level votes. Chapter elections are managed by chapter officers. → Running an election (officers)

Create an org-wide election​

The flow mirrors chapter elections, with two key differences:

  • Eligibility can span all chapters or be filtered by status, region, or custom criteria
  • Positions are typically national board roles, not chapter officers

Steps​

  1. Open Org → Elections → New election.
  2. Set:
    • Title (e.g., "2026 National Board Election")
    • Description
    • Eligibility — pick statuses (Active Undergrads, Alumni, etc.), regions, or specific chapters
    • Open and close dates
    • Allow runoffs
  3. Save as draft.

Org-wide election authoring. Org-wide election authoring.

Add positions​

For each board role:

  1. Click Add position.
  2. Set:
    • Title (President, Vice President, Treasurer, etc.)
    • Seats (usually 1; sometimes more for committees)
    • Candidacy method:
      • Open candidacy — eligible members self-nominate
      • Slate — you preselect the candidates
    • Statement length cap
  3. Save.

Constitutional amendments​

For votes that aren't candidate-based (Yes / No on a proposal):

  1. Add a position with seats=1.
  2. Add candidates as the proposed change ("Yes — adopt", "No — reject").
  3. Configure passing threshold (simple majority, 2/3, etc.) under Position → Threshold.

The election system handles the math; if "Yes" doesn't hit threshold, "No" is reported as the result.

Eligibility rules​

For complex eligibility:

  • By status: only Active Undergrads vote on undergrad council
  • By region: a regional director election restricts to chapters in that region
  • By chapter: only delegates from each chapter (manually selected list)
  • By custom field: e.g., only members with the "Voting delegate" custom field set to true

Combine criteria as needed.

Multi-stage elections​

Some org elections run in stages: nomination → candidate vetting → ballot.

  1. Create a draft election with Open candidacy.
  2. Open candidacy for N days; nominees submit statements.
  3. Org board reviews nominees in Settings → Pending candidates, approves or rejects each.
  4. Open voting.

Authentication strength​

For high-stakes elections (constitutional amendments, board elections), require:

  • Re-authentication at ballot submission (member re-enters password)
  • Email verification of each ballot

Configure in Election settings → Security.

Audit and certification​

Every ballot is logged with:

  • Anonymous ballot ID
  • Timestamp
  • IP (hashed)
  • Verification status

After close:

  1. Open Results → Certify.
  2. Click Generate certification report for a tamper-evident PDF.
  3. Sign it (digital or wet, depending on org policy).

Publishing results​

Same as chapter elections: Results → Publish. Members and the public (if you make it public) see totals.

Tips​

  • Pilot with a low-stakes election first. Get comfortable with the platform before running national board elections.
  • Communicate timeline early. Publish a calendar 60 days before opening so members know when to expect what.
  • Don't reuse old elections. Create new each cycle to avoid stale settings.