Voter Lists

When you restrict an election to a pre-defined list of voters, Manage Voters is where you build that list. This page covers how to add voters, what format the input takes, and which settings lock once you start.

Deciding whether to restrict your election, and choosing between an email list and an ID list, is covered in Security Options.

Before you start

Two settings on Manage Voters control everything else:

1. Is this election restricted to a pre-defined voter list? — Yes or No.
2. How are voters identified? — BetterVoting-managed voter IDs (you supply email addresses; BetterVoting emails each voter a unique link) or admin-managed voter IDs (you supply IDs and distribute them yourself).

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Both settings lock as soon as your list has its first voter. While the election is still a draft you can unlock them with Clear Voter List. Once the election is finalized, the lock is permanent — Clear Voter List is no longer offered. Decide how voters are identified before you add anyone.

Adding voters by typing them in

Click Add Voters. The dialog has a checkbox per column and one large text box.

• One voter per row. Press Enter between voters.
• Tick the columns you are supplying. Voter ID, Email and Precinct are each optional.
• If you tick more than one column, separate the values with a comma — in the order the checkboxes appear: voter ID, then email, then precinct.

Every row must contain exactly as many values as you have ticked boxes. A row with the wrong number is rejected and the message names the row.

One column ticked (Voter ID only):

alpha
bravo
charlie

Two columns ticked (Voter ID and Email):

alpha,ada@example.org
bravo,ben@example.org
charlie,cara@example.org

Click Submit. The voters appear in the table below.

Importing a CSV

Add Voters → Import CSV takes a comma-separated file with a header row.

The header must use these exact names, and no others:

Column	Header name
Voter ID	voter_id
Email	email
Precinct	precinct

You can supply any subset, in any order — the header row decides which column is which. A file with a header BetterVoting does not recognise is refused rather than guessed at, so a spreadsheet exported with friendly column titles like "Voter ID" needs its header row renamed first.

voter_id,email
alpha,ada@example.org
bravo,ben@example.org
charlie,cara@example.org

Completely empty rows are ignored, so a trailing newline at the end of the file is fine.

Duplicates

If your list contains the same voter twice, BetterVoting asks whether to remove the repeats before adding anyone.

• Yes adds each voter once and skips the repeats.
• No leaves your list untouched so you can correct it and submit again.

A list with no repeats is added without asking.

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Check the voter count in the table after every submission. It is the quickest confirmation that the roll matches the list you were given.

Reading the voter table

Below the buttons, every voter on the roll is listed with the columns you supplied and a Has Voted column, which reads Not Voted until their ballot is in. The footer shows how many voters are on the roll — 1–20 of 57.

Use it to:

• confirm the roll is complete before you finalize;
• track turnout while the election is open;
• find a voter whose ID or email needs correcting.

Clearing the list

Clear Voter List removes every voter and unlocks the two settings above. It confirms first, and tells you how many voters will be removed.

It is only available while the election is a draft. After you finalize, the roll can be added to but not emptied.

What happens when you finalize

Finalizing is one-way. For a restricted election it means:

• the voter list and the identification method are fixed;
• with BetterVoting-managed voter IDs, you can send voters their unique voting links from Draft Email Blast;
• with admin-managed voter IDs, you distribute the IDs and the shared voting link yourself, and voters enter their ID on the voting page;
• any test ballots cast while the election was a draft are deleted.

You can still add voters to a finalized election — useful when someone is missed — but you cannot remove them or change how they are identified.