What is an online voting system?

An online voting system is software that collects and counts votes over the internet instead of on paper. A good one identifies each voter, records exactly one ballot per person under the rules you set, closes at a fixed deadline, and publishes a result anyone can inspect. VoteForCause does all four for public competitions, awards and fundraising contests.

Is VoteForCause free to use?

Yes — creating a competition, adding contestants and collecting votes is free, and voters never pay to vote.

How do you stop people voting twice?

Voters sign in before voting, and the database itself enforces the limit: a unique constraint plus a validation trigger reject a second vote in a Single Vote competition, or a second vote for the same contestant in a Multiple Votes competition.

Can I run a competition where people vote for several contestants?

Yes. Choose Multiple Votes when you create the competition and each voter can back every contestant once — useful for shortlists and category awards.

Can I import contestants from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Upload an Excel or CSV file from the contestant manager and the rows are imported as contestants, which is the fastest way to load a long shortlist.

What happens when voting closes?

Voting is disabled automatically at the deadline and the competition page becomes a public results page showing the winner and the full ranking with vote totals.

Guide

How our online voting system works

VoteForCause is a free online contest platform for awards, fundraisers and community shortlists. Here is exactly what happens from the moment you create a competition to the moment the winner is published — and how each vote is kept honest along the way.

Running a competition, step by step

1. Create the competition
Give it a title and description, choose Single Vote (one vote per person) or Multiple Votes (one vote per contestant), and set the start time and deadline. Competitions stay in draft until you publish them, so nothing is public before you're ready.
2. Add or import contestants
Add contestants one by one with a name, short bio and photo, or import a whole list from an Excel or CSV file. Imported rows are matched to contestant fields, so a shortlist of hundreds takes one upload rather than hundreds of forms.
3. Share the public voting page
Publishing gives the competition a public page anyone can open. Voters create a free account or sign in with Google or Apple, pick a contestant, and confirm. Every vote returns a receipt showing the contestant, timestamp and reference.
4. Watch the live leaderboard
Vote totals stream to the leaderboard as they are cast, with a countdown to the deadline. If a browser loses its connection the page falls back to periodic refreshes, so the standings on screen stay close to the standings in the database.
5. Publish the final results
At the deadline voting closes automatically and the page switches to results: the winner (or joint winners on a tie), the full ranking with vote totals and share of the vote, and a summary of turnout. Results stay public afterwards.

What makes the result trustworthy

A voting competition is only worth running if the losing side believes the count. These rules are enforced on the server, where a voter can't reach them.

One vote, enforced by the database

Duplicate votes are blocked by a unique constraint and re-checked by a trigger on every insert — not by a check in the browser that can be bypassed.

Deadlines can't be beaten

The server rejects any vote that arrives before the start time or after the deadline, even if a stale page still shows a voting button.

A single controlled write path

Nothing can write to the vote table directly. Every vote goes through one server function that validates the voter, the contestant and the competition state.

Votes tied to real accounts

Each vote references an authenticated account, so ballots can't be attributed to users who don't exist.

Choosing your voting rules

Single Vote

Each voter backs exactly one contestant. Best for head-to-head contests and any award with a single winner, where split support should cost a contestant votes.

Multiple Votes

Each voter can back every contestant once. Best for shortlists, "vote for all you like" fundraising drives and category awards where approval matters more than a forced choice.

Frequently asked questions

What is an online voting system?: An online voting system is software that collects and counts votes over the internet instead of on paper. A good one identifies each voter, records exactly one ballot per person under the rules you set, closes at a fixed deadline, and publishes a result anyone can inspect. VoteForCause does all four for public competitions, awards and fundraising contests.
Is VoteForCause free to use?: Yes — creating a competition, adding contestants and collecting votes is free, and voters never pay to vote.
How do you stop people voting twice?: Voters sign in before voting, and the database itself enforces the limit: a unique constraint plus a validation trigger reject a second vote in a Single Vote competition, or a second vote for the same contestant in a Multiple Votes competition.
Can I run a competition where people vote for several contestants?: Yes. Choose Multiple Votes when you create the competition and each voter can back every contestant once — useful for shortlists and category awards.
Can I import contestants from a spreadsheet?: Yes. Upload an Excel or CSV file from the contestant manager and the rows are imported as contestants, which is the fastest way to load a long shortlist.
What happens when voting closes?: Voting is disabled automatically at the deadline and the competition page becomes a public results page showing the winner and the full ranking with vote totals.

Ready to run your own vote?

Create a free account to set up a competition, or browse the votes running right now.

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