Launching sends every voter their invitation email (or schedules it, if you set a future start time) and locks the ballot. After launch, the questions become a read-only summary — though you can still add voters while voting is open, and edit the roster freely while a scheduled election waits to start. Go through this list first.
Ballot
- Every question has the right type — plurality/pick-N, approval, ranked choice (IRV), or motion (yes/no/abstain). See Question types explained if you're unsure which fits your vote.
- Option wording is final. Check spelling of candidate names and choice text — voters will see it exactly as written.
- For a pick-N question, the number of winners (seats) is set correctly.
- You've sent yourself a test ballot and reviewed it end to end. See Send yourself a test ballot.
Voters
- The pasted list parsed cleanly — no leftover line errors, and the saved count matches what you expect.
- Duplicate emails were resolved (they're deduped automatically, case-insensitively, but check that wasn't hiding a typo).
- You're under 5,000 voters, and comfortable with the pricing tier your roster falls into.
Timing
- If you want the election to open immediately, leave the start time blank. If you want it to open later, set a start date/time and timezone in Basics — invitations then go out automatically at that moment.
- An end time (if set) closes the election automatically; otherwise you'll close it manually.
After you click Launch election
- If your roster is on a paid tier, you'll see the amount due before confirming, paid via Stripe.
- Invitations go out right away (or at your scheduled start time).
- The ballot is now locked — fixing a wrong question means restarting with a new election. The roster stays editable: fully while scheduled, add-only while running.
- Individual voters can still be fixed: a bounced or mistyped address can be corrected and resent without affecting anyone else. See Reminders & fixing a wrong email address.