| Intuitive and easy to use |
The web-based BigPulse Poll Manager is intuitive with easy
to navigate popdown menus.
See example.
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| Template polls and setup wizard |
Create new polls in seconds and choose from a list of template
polls with various security and transparency settings or create your own templates. The poll templates do not restrict you in
any way. While some templates provide convenient fully formed
polls, which can be launched in seconds, you can edit the wording and tailor the settings of any poll at any time from the poll configuration menu.
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| Vote counting and ballot methods |
- First-past-the-post, (FPTP) also known as plurality or simple majority
voting. This means the candidate with the most votes wins.
See example of poll result using first-past-the-post.
- Instant runoff voting (IRV). See STV below.
- Single Transferable Vote (STV), preferential, ranked voting, proportional representation. Instant runoff is the special case of STV with one winner.
STV is a form of preferential voting that produces proportional representation in multi-seat elections. Use optional or compulsory ranking of a set number of candidates.
Preferences are transferred and distributed automatically to produce winners. Many switches to cater for variations in STV counting methods. BigPulse has extensive experience with STV. more ..
- Range voting. Voters rate each candidate or option separately on a scale.
- Cumulative voting. Each voter has a quota of votes which can be concentrated on one candidate or split across several candidates. This method of voting is used widely in corporate governance.
- Ranked votes with predefined weights for each ranking. For example rank 1 = five points, 2 = three points 1= one point. Sum the points and lowest or highest score wins. You have complete flexibility to set the number of rankings permitted in the ballot and the weight for each ranking.
- Weighted voting. Votes for users can be weighted such as is
typically required for shareholder voting. The same voter can
have different weights for different polls enabling elections
in many companies with overlapping shareholders. Weighted voting can be used with any of the other voting methods.
- Candidate grouping and winner constraints. Candidates can also be grouped into categories and a
minimum number of winners allocated to each category.
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| Controlling who can vote and partitioning voters into groups |
Group your voters and polls into as many different
voting groups or clusters as you wish. You decide which polls
each group of voters can access.
Voting accounts can be created in four different ways:
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Generate voting accounts. With this authentication method the online voting accounts are generated before people are invited to vote. You can set the sign-in names and passwords and other personal details such as name and email address with a single simple block copy and paste from a spreadsheet or CSV file upload. Alternately, generate the sign-in names and passwords automatically with random characters. If emails are included the integrated bulk email manager can be used to send people vote invitations with auto sign-in links to your polls or poll menus with a tailored timeout. The emails are created in your usual email composer and can be configured to appear to come directly from you. This method is particularly easy for the voters – people just click the link in the email and the ballot opens in the browser signed in ready to vote.
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Link from your website. This method can be used to run secure online votes, ballots or polls, hosted independently on the BigPulse servers, without passing any personal details of your members to the BigPulse server. This method can be used if people have existing sign-in names and passwords used to access your website or another website. A seamless auto sign-in link to your polls is placed in the website. The voting accounts are created automatically as people click the poll link. It’s highly secure, only authorized people can vote and access is not dependent on email security. On repeat visits people are matched up to the same BigPulse voting account automatically.
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Remote authentication. This is another way to use existing sign-in names and passwords. With this method you invite people to sign in directly at the sign-in page of the online ballot using their existing sign-in details. You provide a special URL that BigPulse can access to authenticate the users' sign-in details.
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Issue access PINs and invite people to register to vote. You can issue voting PINs and invite people to create their own sign-in name the first time they visit a poll. This method is particularly useful when people already have a personal ID number and none of the above methods are convenient. You simply block copy the PIN list into your BigPulse Poll Manager and activate the register link in the poll.
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| Secure anonymous online voting to fully transparent online voting |
The vote transparency options are another illustration of the extreme versatility of BigPulse. Voting can be absolutely anonymous or fully transparent like a show of hands or various shades in between.
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Absolute anonymous vote storage. This means there is nothing in the database linking the vote to the voter.
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Anonymous voting. This setting means no one sees how each person votes however the votes are linked the user voting accounts in the database which means the change vote feature can be used.
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Transparent voting. This means the poll administrators can see how each person votes.
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Fully transparent voting. This means everyone can see how each
person votes – like a show of hands.
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| Multi-language online voting |
Suitable for any language and all languages simultaneously. The polls
default to the preferred language of the user automatically. Users can also
choose their preferred language of display.
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| Certified ADA section 508 compliant |
Alternative means of access suitable for visually disabled.
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| Overvotes and undervotes |
Overvotes and undervotes are controlled or prevented
automatically. You can also force people to overvote with a
1 2 3 type numbering of candidates. In this case permitted
votes are allocated automatically even when a candidate is
subsequently removed. You can use this overvote technique to
avoid unnecessary by-elections or to enable candidates to run
for two simultaneous elections when only one office can he
held.
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| Integrated bulk emailer |
Vote initiation emails are composed in your usual email composer then uploaded into your BigPulse bulk email manager. The email manager can be used to send personalized vote invitation emails that include an automatic sign-in link to your polls or poll menu. This method enables a high degree of control over who can vote. Yet voters do not need to remember or even know their sign-in details – just click and vote. See screenshot examples of
bulk email library
and
bulk email send options.
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| Write-ins and polling for nominations |
Our write-in solution is elegant and complete.
Undervotes and overvotes are controlled automatically even when
write-in candidates are permitted, write-in votes are counted
automatically, as with approved candidates, and the vote change
feature works for write-ins too.The same technology can be used
to poll for nominations.
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| Vote open and close dates |
Set the vote open and close date and time in your own time
zone. The voting will open and close automatically at these
times.
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| Candidate rotation |
You can use candidate rotation to eliminate any bias caused by the
order of presentation of the candidates in the ballot. This
means the candidates are
rotated upwards by one position in the ballot for each new
person who signs in to vote. The candidate order is remembered
for each voter so the ballot is presented the same way to each
voter at all times.
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| Candidate bio page |
A convenient dropdown bio or platform page can be attached to the name of each candidate in the online ballot. Allow candidates to upload and edit their own platform and bio page.
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| Display candidate pictures, videos, MP3s |
Upload a picture, video or MP3 for each candidate.
See example.
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| Votes counted live |
All votes are counted live automatically. Your appointed poll
administrators can view the live counts in the online ballots
and in the poll result reports.
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| Create separate polls for different groups |
Sometimes you might want to restrict voting in some polls to
selected people or groups. This is easy to do with BigPulse.
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| Poll menu |
All election polls can appear in an online menu which can be
linked from your website. When voters view the poll menu, they can see which polls they have already voted in.
See example menu.
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| Vote receipt |
A vote receipt page can be displayed immediately after the vote and can
also be sent by email to the voter – option to consolidate receipts from many polls into one display or a single email.
See example.
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| Run many online election polls simultaneously |
Run many online election polls at the same time with ease. Selected polls can be linked so that voters are led through the poll menu automatically, seeing only those polls they are permitted to vote in.
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| View who votes |
See who has voted at any time except for polls using the highest level anonymity setting.
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| Send reminder emails |
Send reminder emails to those people who have not yet voted.
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| Sophisticated paper ballots and proxy votes |
Input paper ballots, proxy holders and their proxy votes with ease. Option to use double entry to eliminate data entry errors.
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| Multi-user administration |
You can nominate people to be part of your support team. These
people have access to your online Poll Manager and appear in a
support team list in your Poll Manager webpage. You can add
and remove people from this support team. You can also tailor
the access permissions for each support person.
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| Display top ranked candidates in the ballot |
You can choose to show
the current leading candidates in the ballot based on live vote counts. This is sometimes used in award voting. For example, display the
top three candidates in the online ballot, ranked live by votes or listed alphabetically. Alternately you can allow everyone to see the vote counts live as the online ballot as the poll
progresses. This feature is popular with award voting.
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| Repeat voting and changing votes |
Repeat voting is another optional feature. This enables people to return and change their vote a set number of times in each poll before the poll close date. Repeat voting never corrupts the vote count because only the last vote for each person is counted in the vote tally. This feature can be used in all polls except those using the absolute anonymity setting.
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| Download vote history data for audits and graphical analysis |
You can download the raw vote data and import it into a
spreadsheet or other application for audits or graphical
analysis. When using anonymous voting this does not compromise the anonymity of voters
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| Poll result reports and cross-tabulated vote filters |
You can invent tailored selectors which can be used to filter
vote results by region, category, division or any grouping you
want. Results can be viewed for each grouping separately or in
cross-tabulated form.
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| Discussion forums |
Each poll and each candidate can include a dedicated discussion forum with threads. You can moderate these forums.
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| Outstanding support service |
Clients tell us our support service is fantastic. Of course
if you take the fully managed service we operate the web-based
Poll Manager for you. With the self-managed service you can
count on us any time you need help.
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| Online elections, online surveys and Opinion Markets |
Exactly the same technology is used for
secure online elections, online surveys and continuous interactive
Opinion Markets. All your polling is integrated in the same system. This means people need only one voting account to access your online election and survey polls.
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