Benefits

Let’s do some calculations:

Let’s start with 999 members.

 1.   To lick a stamp, it’s going to cost you $0.44.

 2.   But you have to print those ballots! Let’s suppose the ballots are just one page, and you print those really cheaply. Paper plus ink – let’s assume that’s ten cents. (Maybe your printer is fully amortized…)

 3.   Now, you have to fold and mail this. How much is your time worth? Value yourself – let’s say it costs you a quarter to assemble that ballot.

 4.   Don’t forget that those have to get mailed back. That’s another stamp! For the purposes of this calculation, we don’t attempt to place a $ value on your members’ time… But – your member has to open it. And read it. And wonder what that write-in was. And mail it back. And you have to tally the results by hand from each voter, then store the paper ballots – perhaps another 10 cents.

So, we’re up to at least $1 per ballot, right?  Let’s do the math!

Cost Item	$/Ballot
Postage	0.44
Printing	0.10
Set-up/Assembly	0.25
Return Postage (50% return)	0.22
Results Tabulation	0.10
TOTAL COSTS per ballot	1.11

That’s $1,108.89  in TOTAL for one election!

At $299 and less than an hour to set it up the ballot in our election service, you’re ahead. And, if you’d prefer to skip the ballot set-up altogether, Association Voting is currently running an offer where we’ll set up your ballot for $200.  So, whether the group is small or large, online elections with Association Voting just makes good economic sense.

Now which sounds better – $1,109 for the “cheap” solution, or $299 for Association Voting and a superior, online election experience for your members?

DRIVE AWARENESS:

• Communicate the polling dates to your membership base in advance with AssociationVoting’s email announcement service.
• Post the upcoming voting window on your website’s home page and on your social network. Tweet about your upcoming election!
• Announce the upcoming election at meetings and in your monthly newsletter.
• Craft a “Welcome to Online Voting” email with pertinent information regarding the voting experience, such as expected time to submit a ballot online, and a basic process guide.
• Send a “Vote Now” reminder prior to the closing of the polls to those members who have not yet to cast a ballot via AssociationVoting’s Email Announcement and Email Reminder services.

SIMPLIFY YOUR VOTING PROCESS:

• Link to your AssociationVoting online election from your website’s homepage to deliver fast access to the election service.
• Create an appropriate voting window – long enough to allow everyone the opportunity to vote, but not so long that it demotivates voters from voting NOW! Some sense of urgency can drive faster response.
• Utilize AssociationVoting’s online voting service to offer an easy 24/7 voting experience. Cut down the delivery time of cast-in ballots to instantaneous for you and your members!
• Voters want a secure, accurate, and private voting experience. Third party solutions such as AssociationVoting’s Online Voting Service provides the integrity and simplicity your members seek in an election experience.
• Ensure the data voters need to make an informed decision is available in real-time! AssociationVoting offers candidate biographies with candidate photos to offer information on the ballot when it is needed during the voting process.
• Provide a special voting welcome note with organization-specific instructions from your association in AssociationVoting’s online voting service.

To ensure that every election is secure, we:

• Use industry-standard 256-Bit SSL encryption for all election access – both for you and your voters.
• Use a number of external security scanning and auditing services to verify AssociationVoting services and software
• Secure your voting manager area with a unique username and password
• Enforce one member-one vote by requiring voters to identify with a member number or other unique identifier, ensuring only one ballot per identifier is submitted.
• Ensure voting accuracy by enforcing limits on the number of candidate or write-in selections per position and provide a prompt error notification that requires repair before the ballot can be cast
• Require voter validation of selections as a preview step before a ballot can be cast
• Maintain a detailed audit trail of voter selections and ballots cast, available to your voting administrator as the voting results PDF, and also enabling validation of challenged ballots or results. Voter details such as IP address is tracked as well.
• Optional certified election results include a signed copy of the voting results PDF, certification letter, and electronic storage of your voting results for 12 months
• Optional enhanced email announcement service provides added voter verification and security by requiring voters to follow a voter-specific URL or enter a unique security code
• Failed Login Tracking: You can see failed login attempts from the Voting Manager administrative portal. Useful for monitoring for potential fraudulent login activity. This report includes IP Address tracking.

Our Promise to You

We do not, and never will, sell your information. Your member list is your confidential data. Neither AssociationVoting, LLC, nor its parent entity Orbro, LLC, has ever sold a mailing list of contacts in over a decade of operation.

We keep your data on site for 30 days after the end of your election (when your voting package is disabled), unless you purchase our certified election results solution. In which case, we preserve a snapshot of the entire election state-which includes your member database-for one year.

If you have further questions regarding the security or safety of your data, please send an email to: info@associationvoting.com