FAQs
Here are a few frequently asked questions about BallotBox. If you have a question we haven't answered, we hope you'll contact us for a no-obligation free consultation. We'd love a chance to make BallotBox work for your organization.
Index
What are the technical requirements for administration of BallotBox?
You need an Internet connection and a current version of a popular Web browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) installed on your computer. You also need to be able to create an Excel or CSV (comma separated value) file that lists key information (such as the email address) of the people who will be authorized to vote in BallotBox. (Don't worry if you are not sure how to do this; we will walk you through every step.)
What are the technical requirements for voting in BallotBox?
Voters need an Internet connection and a reasonably current version of a popular Web browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) installed on their computers.
How is BallotBox different from other Web survey products on the market?
Several ways. For example, BallotBox uses secure encryption — both while the information is being transmitted over the Internet, and when the information is stored in our database — to protect the anonymity and integrity of the ballots cast in your poll. As another example, BallotBox authenticates voters through a password and user ID, while still protecting the anonymity of each vote. This way, voters cannot vote more than once; many Web survey tools merely make it inconvenient to vote more than once, or compromise voter anonymity to achieve that level of poll integrity. With BallotBox, you do not have to compromise.
I have seen other online voting products that are advertised as "secure." Does that mean they are the same as BallotBox?
Not necessarily! Many online survey tools merely use SSL encryption, which is designed to prevent anyone from intercepting and reading communications between a Web browser and a Web server. That is important, but not enough. BallotBox goes far beyond that by actually encrypting each vote before it is stored in the poll database, and by using advanced cryptography to prevent anyone - even Collaborare personnel - from discovering how an individual voted or from tampering with her vote. When evaluating an online voting solution for your organization, you should make sure you know what "secure" means.
What if we don't have valid email addresses for some of our members?
With our voterSIGNUP service (included with BallotBox Premium) you can provide — by mail, or by in person delivery — a uniquely assigned code to each voter for whom you do not yet have an email address. Those voters would then use that code to give BallotBox their email addresses, to access BallotBox, and to vote online. At the same time, you can store the collected email addresses for future use.
What if some of our members just don't want to vote on-line?
Not a problem. If some of your eligible voters want to continue to vote on paper, BallotBox is specifically designed to support that.
My members are concerned that if they vote on-line, their votes on sensitive issues might not be truly anonymous. How does BallotBox protect anonymity?
When a voter casts his ballot, it is encrypted in such a way that no single person - even with direct access to the poll database - could decrypt the ballot's contents. Because of the encryption methods we use, a quorum of the Poll Officers you designate must enter their passwords together to decrypt the poll results, which are then stored without any reference to the voters that cast them. Once the ballots are decrypted, there is no way to correlate a voter to his or her ballot. As a result, to view a user's cast ballot, a person would have to gain direct database access to BallotBox's secured server and figure out the passwords chosen by a quorum of your designated Poll Officers. Yes, we take the anonymity and integrity of our system that seriously.
How does BallotBox make sure no one votes more than once, if voting is anonymous?
BallotBox records the date and time each vote is cast in a poll, along with the Voter ID of the voter, and the IP address from which that voter connected to BallotBox. This information is recorded as an integral part of the encrypted ballot, so that while online votes are being accepted in that particular poll, BallotBox can ensure the same Voter ID is not used to cast another ballot. When the online voting period is over, a quorum of the Poll Officers you designate will enter their passwords so that BallotBox can decrypt all of the cast ballots, which are then stored without reference to the Voter IDs so that the poll's results can be viewed.
Could someone change the votes in BallotBox before they are reported?
To make such a change would require a person to obtain direct database access to our secure server. Moreover, when a voter casts her vote, she will receive an email with a digital signature of the ballot she cast. At any point in the future, she can verify that her encrypted ballot has not been modified by verifying that the digital signature in the email she received matches the current digital signature of the ballot in the poll database. (This verification is done simply by clicking a link in the confirmation email that BallotBox sends each voter when a ballot is cast.)
Could someone change the results in BallotBox after the votes have been counted?
When a quorum of poll officers unlocks a poll's results, the decrypted ballots are digitally signed. Any tampering would be detected by BallotBox, which would then display a warning about the tampering so that a quorum of the poll officers you designated could re-create unmodified poll results simply by unlocking the cast ballots again.
How does BallotBox verify that each voter is entitled to vote in a poll?
You will decide who is authorized to vote, and only those people receive an email from BallotBox when a poll is deployed. They are the only ones who will have an account, and will receive an emailed password, permitting them to vote in the poll.
My association's bylaws say that some voters have more votes than others — in other words, some votes are "weighted" more than others. Can BallotBox deal with that?
Absolutely. This feature was added in 2006, in response to a customer request. BallotBox now allows you to assign a number of votes to each voter. For example, a homeowner's association's rules may provide that each member has that number of votes equal to his or her assessed property value divided by 100. When you import your voters from your membership database into BallotBox, you can specify how many votes each voter has. BallotBox will then use that number when the poll is tallied. (If you do not specify a number of votes for each of your voters, BallotBox will assume each voter has one vote.)
What types of questions can I ask my voters?
BallotBox is extraordinarily flexible. The types of questions you can ask include these:
- Boolean: A True/False question, although Yes/No, Agree/Disagree, or anything else you wish can be used.
- Text: A short-answer question. Voters are free to answer in their own words.
- Memo: Like text questions, but voters have multiple lines in which to type.
- Single: A multiple-choice question where each voter is allowed one response. Potential answers can display horizontally or vertically. You can permit write-in responses if you wish.
- Multiple: A multiple-choice question where each voter is allowed more than one response (you decide how many). Potential answers can display horizontally or vertically. You can permit write-in responses if you wish.
- Rank: Like the "single" question type, but only integer answers are offered (you set the minimum and maximum).
- Preference: Like the "multiple" question type, but voters can indicate their first choice, second choice, and so on — ranking their preferences among the various options. You can permit write-ins, if you wish. When a voter assigns a rank to an option from the list, that option moves up or down in the list to show its ranking compared to the other options.
