Summary
The Election’s “Summary” page gives you an overview of the election setup, resources, and statistics.
Under the “Setup” section, you can see the election’s name, slug, and locale(s), along with when the election was set up and/or last edited. You can edit these items by clicking on the edit button.
In the “Resources” area, you can see all of the contests in the election, including the number of voters eligible to vote on given ballots, voter groups, voting rounds, and the slides for the election.
Under “Statistics” you can see graphics and visualizations of the number of active sessions and voters spread out over a certain number of days. This can be used to track the progression of the election while it is ongoing.
Slug: This is a unique part of the Election’s URL link. You may customize this, but be aware that you may only use letters and numbers (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, - and _). Leave this blank if you wish to auto-generate a slug.
The “Internal name” and “Title” fields are not mandatory. They can be configured again at a later point.
Locales: A locale corresponds to the supported voter frontend language, or what language voters will see upon logging in and voting. You are able to choose as many locales as needed for your election from the list provided.
*When you choose multiple locales, the system will allow the voter to choose their display language on the frontend. This also means that the system will add text fields for each locale you select. You will then need to provide a translation for every language/locale for every editable text field in the system. This is crucial for the election to run and work properly.
Skip automatic E2E initiation: The threshold ceremony and the election board should not be automatically initialized upon creation of this election.
Delete election: This button will delete the election and everything within it permanently. We generally do not recommend deleting an election due the potential for data loss.
Copy election: This button allows you to duplicate an entire election, with all of its elements and configurations, or copy an election with only selected configurations. You may choose which elements to copy.
Export to importable .zip file: This feature will copy the election’s configuration to a zipped file, which can later be imported into Electa to create a new election.
Remember to toggle all the relevant settings to be exported before clicking the “Begin copying…” button. Once the export is done, you will receive a download link in your email or you can download directly from the “Download file” button.
Read more on how to import an election file here.
Once you copy an election, the new election will show up in the “Elections” tab.
Clear election: Under this, there are two functions: “Clear Election” and “Clear Votes.” These actions will permanently delete information contained in the election. For both of these actions, the digital bulletin board will be reset and should therefore be re-initialized before voting is possible.
“Clear Election” will delete voters, votes, voting rounds, the threshold ceremony, and reports.
“Clear Vote” will delete votes and reports.
We generally do not recommend clearing an election or votes if it can be avoided, as you risk losing potentially important data.
Make inactive: This function will disable the Election. Once you disable an election, you are no longer able to use it until you select “Make Active” again.
When you click “Make inactive,” it will show you a pop-up where you click “Make inactive” once again. This will then open a browser pop-up to confirm your action. Type “disable_election” to confirm.
After being disabled, your election will look like this:
. The election can no longer be accessed from the frontend.
To make it active again, simply click the “Make active” button that has now replaced the “Make inactive” button.
Preview vote receipt: This function allows you to preview the vote receipt as you customise it under “Configuration” and that the voters will receive/be able to download. You can preview the vote receipt in the different languages you have choose under “Locales”.
In the “Summary” page, there is also an “alert guide” which will assist you in resolving any errors your election might have. You can access it by clicking on the orange triangle on the right side of your screen. Please note that this tool is only available from the “Summary” page.
This tool will highlight any errors or issues in the election which require fixing. While navigating the election setup, use the refresh button to check for any if there is anything that needs to be corrected in the election.
When there are matters to be corrected, the help box will look like this:
There are three types of alerts:
“Critical” alerts are highlighted in red;
“Warning” alerts are highlighted in yellow; and
“Suggestion” alerts are highlighted in blue.
As their name indicates, critical alerts should be resolved before initiating the event. Otherwise, the presentation of the election will not function optimally. Similarly, the warning alerts should be resolved before running the election event. The suggestion alerts are not absolutely necessary to solve, but serve to inform system users that something may have not been set up properly.
The alert guide helps you locate any errors. The location of the errors in the election setup can be directly accessed by clicking on the wrench icon next to each error.
If you make changes and the alerts remains in the alert guide window, try to update the alert guide by clicking the refresh button. If the alert persists, it may be because the error was not fixed properly.