Digital Voting: New Feature Release

Voting on elections or polls within an HOA can be a stressful and daunting task for everyone involved. Surprisingly, until the beginning of 2020, most HOA voting sessions were still predominately held via in-person meetings, which would often add an extra layer of stress for people on a board or living in an HOA community. With in-person Voting, individuals who participate in the session have a decreased level of anonymity and more of an opportunity for conflict or disagreement. HOA voting was a point of contention for many people, and it was usually looked at as a negative experience.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, digital Voting in HOAs became increasingly prevalent as the need for virtual processes became a requirement. Across the US, HOAs took to various forms of digital methods to ensure that the HOA continued to run smoothly. Perhaps one of the most critical processes that HOA’s adopted was that of Digital Voting. In this article, we will be discussing the TownSq Digital Voting feature to help paint a picture for individuals who live or work in an HOA on how Digital Voting can help streamline processes and make lives easier when it comes to running an HOA.

TownSq Digital Voting- Why is it important?

Digital Voting by TownSq enables communities to collaborate and make better decisions from anywhere on any device. With the hassle-free setup, incredible ease-of-use, and excellent customization, Digital Voting by TownSq creates a unique and fresh environment for communication and collaboration in an HOA.

So, what makes Digital Voting important for an HOA board or its homeowners? The answers are listed below.

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Administrators

Administrators or Board Members that utilize Digital Voting by TownSq to run elections or polls in their HOA can gain the following benefits upon utilization:

• Easily meet quorum requirements;
• Hassle-free setup;
• Increased transparency and community engagement;
• Limit printing & mailing costs by going paperless;
• Negate the use of outside voting software;
• All data and outcomes are stored inside of TownSq;
• Graphics & downloadable spreadsheets for data analysis;
• Access the latest community data to track homeowner satisfaction in the HOA.

Voters

Homeowners typically function as the voter with Digital Voting by TownSq, and they will find a similar number of benefits to using the feature as Board Members. Voters can look forward to:

• Voting from anywhere on any device;
• Increased participation and collaboration with neighbors;
• An elevated platform to make their voice and opinions heard by everyone;
• Reduced in-person interaction to highlight anonymity and ideas.

Digital Voting Features

Digital Voting by TownSq comes with many features and tools that can make the election process easier in an HOA. Besides increasing collaboration and interaction in the community, the software has tons to offer users to build a better HOA. With Digital Voting, you will gain access to:

Administrative Features

• Customizable ballots with unlimited questions, a title, description, and allotted time for access;
• Ability to determine voting group per ballot;
• Upload and include links, images, or documents related to each vote;
• Track users that have voted for each open ballot;
• Visualize progress of each open vote (% of units that have voted) to ensure quorum has been met;
• Track partial and final results of each ballot;
• Generate detailed reports of the final results in XLS or PDF once Voting has closed.

Voter Features

• Push and email notifications sent to all voters once a new vote has opened;
• Access to questions, details, and attachments;
• The ability for voters to leave comments and feedback regarding the vote;
• Option to “abstain” from questions;
• Review final ballot results once Voting has been completed (if shared by the administrators).

The Digital Voting Advantage

Ballot Creation

Upon creation of a ballot with the Digital Voting feature in TownSq, users can set a specific time-frame for when a vote will become available to homeowners, attach any amount of questions, upload any necessary links, files, or documents related to the vote, or use a virtual meeting to discuss the vote by displaying it directly on the screen.

Results

Once a vote has been completed, board members (and sometimes homeowners, with permission) can view the vote results within TownSq. Data is displayed in graphical form and can be made public or confidential. The results within TownSq enable decision-makers to make informed and data-driven decisions, ensuring that feedback from the community always takes precedence over anything else.

Data

All data from the results and reporting of a Digital Vote can be accessed in real-time, meaning that users can track the progress of a vote as it is happening. Residents can also comment on the data collected after voting so that they can ensure their voice is heard when a decision is made. Lastly, data can be exported in XLF or PDF format once Voting has concluded, making results easily accessible by saving them to your device.

Request a Demo of Digital Voting Today

Are you interested in implementing Digital Voting by TownSq in your HOA community? If so, please submit a request below to learn a little bit more about the feature from one of our team members, and even get the opportunity to see the feature (and its benefits) in action during your meeting. Digital Voting can help streamline the entire decision-making process in an HOA overnight, so you don’t want to miss out. Just simply click below to get started with Digital Voting today.

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