How to run an anonymous vote for your nonprofit or club
Whether you're electing officers, approving a budget, or deciding a contentious motion, a secret ballot gives you honest results and a fair process. Here's how to run one online — for free, in a few minutes — using Anonymous Voting.
Why use a secret ballot?
Many organizations' bylaws require a secret ballot for elections, and for good reason: when members know their individual vote can't be seen, they vote honestly rather than to please whoever's watching. The challenge online is proving the vote was legitimate (only eligible members, one vote each) without recording how anyone voted. That's exactly the problem this tool solves.
What you'll need
- The email addresses of your eligible voters.
- Your questions — candidates for each position, and/or the wording of each resolution.
- About five minutes.
Step by step
- List your eligible voters. Collect the email addresses of everyone entitled to vote.
- Write your ballot. You can mix types on one ballot: a pick-one election (e.g. President), a pick-several race (e.g. choose two board members), and yes/no resolutions.
- Create the ballot. Go to the create page, add your questions and paste in the voter emails, and enter your own email. You'll receive a sign-in link by email — click it to confirm your email and manage the poll.
- Open voting. Signed in, open voting. Every eligible member is emailed their own private, single-use voting link.
- Members vote. Each member clicks their link and casts their vote — no account, no password. They can't vote twice.
- Close & publish results. When the deadline passes, close voting. You'll see the anonymous tally for each question and can download a PDF.
How the anonymity actually works
Two separate records are kept that are never linked: one notes that a member voted (so they can't vote again), and another holds the anonymous ballots themselves. Because there's no connection between the two, you can prove turnout and the final tally, but no one can reconstruct how any individual voted.
What we store, and for how long
We store the organizer's email address (and the date they last signed in; organizers sign in with an emailed link and a browser cookie, never a password), each member's email address along with whether they have voted, and the anonymous ballots. Ballots are never linked to voters. Once a poll is closed, the organizer can delete it at any time — we email the results as a PDF first, then permanently delete the member list and all ballots. Polls with no activity for 365 days are deleted automatically; the organizer gets a warning 30 days ahead and the results by email before anything is removed. A poll whose organizer never confirmed their email (by signing in with the link we send when it is created) is deleted after 30 days; nothing has been sent to anyone by then.
Teams can create a free organisation: we then also store its name, its members' email addresses and their roles (owner, editor, commenter or viewer), and any saved member lists (names and email addresses, kept so a list can fill a new poll). Viewers and commenters see a poll's members only as a short name or a number, never an email address, and never see saved lists. A saved list that has not been used or edited for 365 days is deleted automatically; its owner (or the organisation's owners) is warned 30 days ahead. An organisation with no polls and no saved lists that has been inactive for 365 days is deleted. Using or editing a list, or any owner or editor action in the organisation, counts as activity. Organisation and list records are never linked to ballots.
Tips for a smooth vote
- Set a clear deadline and tell members when voting opens and closes.
- Warn members to check spam for the voting-link email the first time.
- Decide your quorum and tie-break rules in advance, per your bylaws.
- Double-check the voter list before opening — only listed emails can vote.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really anonymous? Yes — the organizer can see that you voted, never how.
Do voters need an account? No — they vote from an emailed link in one click.
Can someone vote twice? No — one vote per eligible email, single-use links.
Is it free? Yes.
Can I elect several officers at once? Yes — one ballot can hold many questions.
Guides for your kind of organization
The basics are the same everywhere, but the votes you run — and the rules you answer to — are not. These pages cover the specific ballots, and the questions that come up, for each group: