Public voting lets your audience vote for their favorite submissions. This guide shows you how to switch it on, set it up, open and close voting, manage votes, and announce your winners.
I. Turn on public voting
You turn on public voting round by round:
Open your program and select the round.
Go to Settings → Evaluation Settings.
Tick Enable public voting.
Click Save Settings.
A Voting area now appears for the round. Its left sidebar has these sections: Settings, Phases, Featured, Winners, Messages, Listing View, Votes and Comments.
II. Voting settings
Voting Experience
Default layout, for example Comfortable grid.
"Closing soon" window (hours): how long before the end the page shows "closing soon".
Ballot tray, Ranked results and Confirm before voting.
Basics
Voting Start / Voting End: when voting opens and closes. These are separate from your evaluation dates.
Voting Method: for example Yes/No.
Voting Type: Public Voting (anyone with the link) or Private Voting (logged-in users only).
Votes Limit / IP Votes Limit: the maximum number of votes per user and per IP address.
Advanced
Enable single view
Enable submission tracks view
Shuffle submissions randomly
Enable voting questions (to ask voters for extra information)
Require users to log in to vote
Enable manual approval of votes
Show total vote count
Enable social sharing options
Your settings save automatically. When you're ready, click Publish to make the voting page available.
III. Voting phases
Open Phases to move voting through its life cycle:
Draft: not visible yet.
Open: public voting is live.
Closing soon: the final hours.
Closed: voting has ended.
Results: winners are published.
Click Advance to Open to move on now, or set Auto-open at and Auto-close at and then click Save phase. Use Preview public page to see exactly what voters will see. Remember that the program itself must be published for the voting page to be visible.
IV. Messages and display
Voter messages (Messages)
Confirmation email: edit the email voters receive after they vote.
Personalization: use Short Codes, for example the submission title.
Auto Send: send the confirmation automatically.
How submissions look (Listing View, Featured)
Listing View: choose a model (template), then pick which submission form fields to show for Image or Video, Submission Title and Submission Description, and whether to display the username. Click View to preview.
Single view: if you turned it on in Settings, arrange the detailed page for each submission.
Featured: highlight the submissions you choose.
V. Manage votes
Open Votes to see Total votes, Accepted, Pending and Canceled, plus a table with each vote's submission, voter name, email, IP address, date, time, status and type.
Select votes and use the toolbar to Approve Vote, Cancel Vote, set back to Pending, Export, IP Block or Remove.
Search and filter by submission, voter, email, status and more.
If manual approval is on, only approved votes count.
VI. Announce your winners
Open Winners.
Click Auto-fill from standings, or choose the Grand winner, Runner-ups and Community favorite yourself. Only qualified submissions can be chosen.
Add custom awards if you need them.
Decide whether to Show vote counts on the public results page.
Click Save draft.
Click Publish results. You'll need a grand winner and runner-ups to publish.
VII. Vote totals in Round Scores
In the round's Submissions tab, switch the view selector to Round Scores, then use Table settings to show the Total Votes and Voting Score columns. Filter as needed and export. See Reviewing Round Scores and Evaluations.
Tips for public voting
Choose your audience: use Private Voting for closed audiences, and Public Voting when you're promoting widely.
Keep votes fair: combine Votes Limit and IP Votes Limit with Require users to log in to vote, and consider manual approval.
Reduce bias: turn on Shuffle submissions randomly so the first submissions don't get an advantage.
Comments: moderate them in Comments, or across your whole platform in Gear icon → Comments.
If something isn't working
What you see | What to do |
No Voting area in the round | Make sure Enable public voting is ticked in Evaluation Settings and that you clicked Save Settings. |
The voting page isn't visible | Publish the program, click Publish in the voting Settings, and move the phase to Open. |
Votes aren't counting | If manual approval is on, approve pending votes in Votes. |
The public can't vote | Check that Voting Type is Public Voting, and whether Require users to log in to vote is on. |
A submission can't be picked as a winner | Only qualified submissions can win. Qualify your finalists first. |
Evaluators see "evaluation ended" while voting is still open | Extend the evaluation Deadline under Evaluation Dates in the round's Settings → General Settings. Voting dates don't affect evaluators. |
What's next?
Next, take a look at Enabling Initial Filtration.