OpaVote

OpaVote lets organisations run secret-ballot elections and public polls online. Each voter in an election gets a single-use link by email, so only authorised people can vote and each can vote once, and the service counts the results automatically. Behind it is Cohere, a worker cooperative in California.

What OpaVote offers

• Online elections — ballots sent to a defined voter list, with reminder emails during the voting period.
• Online polls — open votes that anyone can join, shared through a website, email or social media.
• Automated ballot counts — counting of ranked ballots already gathered on paper or through other software.
• Voting methods — plurality, instant runoff, single transferable vote, Condorcet, approval, Borda and weighted voting.
• Ballot downloads — results and ballots that can be exported and recounted under different methods.

Who it works with

Homeowner associations, companies, schools, universities and colleges, non-profits, unions and political parties. Typical uses include electing boards, staff representative bodies and student leaders, and sounding out union members before a strike.

Key facts

• Based in: California, United States
• Operator: Cohere, a worker cooperative
• Launched: 2011, succeeding the OpenSTV counting project started in 2003
• Other features: multilingual support and API access