An Electoral Returning Officer (ERO) runs a specific election on SimpleVote: setting up ballots and candidates, sending magic links to voters, watching turnout, calculating results, and publishing the outcome. You sign in to the dashboard with your organisation account.
Depending on how your organisation is set up, you may see every election in the org or only those you created or were assigned to. Your Admin can also control whether EROs are allowed to create new elections without manager approval.
Before you open the poll
Good elections are mostly preparation. Publish clear rules covering who can vote, when voting closes, and how many seats each ballot fills. Check candidate names and vacancy counts on the setup page before you send links. Changes after voting opens are awkward and can undermine trust.
If you use self-nominations, open ballots for nominations on the election details page and share the public nomination link. Review pending submissions before you send voter invites. Nominations close automatically when voting opens.
Run a dry run with a small group if you can: upload a test voter list, send links, cast a few ballots, and calculate results. Keep your login credentials private; anyone with your account can manage the elections you can see.
Voter privacy
SimpleVote separates who someone is from how they voted. When you upload a voter CSV and send magic links, contact details are stored for operational email only. Cast ballot rows contain rankings alone and cannot be linked back to individual voters.
Magic links are single-use. Treat a forwarded link as compromised. You can re-issue a link only before that voter has successfully cast; once they have voted, the original link will not work again.
During the election
Use the election details page to monitor turnout. You can see counts and percentages, but you cannot see who has or has not voted in a way that reveals their ballot. Set and communicate a clear closing time.
If a voter reports a broken or expired link, issue a replacement before they have cast. Do not re-issue after a successful vote; that would create confusion and a security risk.
Counting and publishing results
When voting closes, use Calculate results from the election header on the details page, then review the round-by-round STV audit trail before you publish. Published results are emailed to everyone on the voter list with winners, turnout, and a link to the public results page.
Keep the audit trail for your records. It shows how transfers and eliminations produced the final outcome, which is useful if anyone questions the count.
What EROs cannot do
ERO accounts are scoped to running elections, not administering the organisation. You cannot change your organisation's tier, branding, or user access settings, and you cannot see how any individual voter ranked candidates.