How to execute a Scheduled election from start to finish
Up to this point, you have tested your election’s setup, made the necessary corrections to the election, and are ready to execute the election event.
Video Guide on preparing for the real election
You are now ready to start your election. The three stages of an election are as follows:
To initiate the election, go to the “Live” tab and click “Initiate the election event.”
A prompt will appear on the screen to confirm entering the production mode. Click on the button “Initiate the election event.” Once you do this, the election will go from “Demo” to “Production” mode.
All eligible voters are now able to login into the election event and cast a vote once the election opens according to the configuration.
As this is a “Scheduled Voting” election, DO NOT click on the “Conductor Panel” button, as this will open the “Live Conference” setup and may hinder the smooth execution of your election.
While the election is open and progressing, you can follow the election’s statistics by doing the following:
Go to the election “Frontend” button.
From the dropdown menu, click on “Statistics frontend.”
*This will take you to the election’s statistics site in a new browser tab. This site updates every five minutes.
From the list on the page, click on the voting round.
You now have access to the election’s statistics.
You can explore different statistical summaries, including:
“Overview”
This is a table which sums up data about the election.
“Eligibles” is the number of eligible voters in the voting round.
“Votes” is the amount of submitted votes on the voting round.
“Participation” is the percentage of voters who have voted on the voting round.
“Progression”
This graph is an overview showing the progression of the amount of votes (Y-scale) over the amount of election days (X-scale). The blue variable is the number of votes submitted per day. The red variable is the accumulated, or the total amount, of submitted votes.
“By hour”
This is a graph of the votes divided per hour of the day to give an overview of when the most popular time for voting is.
2.1. How to support voters during the election
From our experience, voters can run into problems and will sometimes require support. We have thus gathered a list of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) from voters and offer advice on how to address them below.
When the election is over, you must first generate the results before exiting “Production” mode.
Go to the “Voting rounds” tab in the menu to the left.
Click on the voting round which was used for the election.
If the voting round is open, click the yellow “Close” button in the right-hand corner of the voting round.
Once the voting round is in the “Closed” section, click on the “Start extraction” button under the “Voting round report” section. The process of extracting the results is now starting and you can follow the progress via the progress bar. Once the result has been extracted, it will appear on the page.
From here, you can see the different results on each ballot in the voting round. You can download a zip file with all the results by clicking on the “Download results” in the top right corner of the page next to the “Delete result” symbol. For each ballot, you can also download the “Result audit" zip file which includes all relevant files for mixing and decryption proofs.
Under “Voting round report,” you can now choose to “View Report Details” or “Download results.”
When you have closed the voting round and extracted results, go back to the “Live” tab and close the election event by clicking on the “Conclude the election event” button. In the same tab, you can now see the recently closed event and can also download a result report of the results. The Election will subsequently return to the “Demo” stage.
Video Guide
Congratulations, you have successfully executed an election event using the “Scheduled Voting” setting in Electa!