Voting app builder: show the voting flow on one device, and count real votes another way
A vote is only as good as its count, and counting votes from many people needs one place that receives them all. Anticode's apps have no network and no shared data, so as a voting app builder it can show the ballot and results flow on one device, or run a vote where everyone uses the same screen. For votes from people on their own phones, each ballot can be sent to you as a form submission that you tally yourself.
What kind of vote is it?
"Voting app" covers very different things, and the right tool depends on what's at stake.
- Quick poll
- "Which date works for the summer social?" Low stakes; nobody minds if someone votes twice. A form or a poll in your group chat is usually enough.
- Live audience poll
- Questions shown on a big screen at a talk, with results updating as the room answers from their phones. Needs a live server receiving every answer.
- Committee or club ballot
- Members choosing officers or approving a motion. Needs one vote per member, a known electorate and a count others can check.
- Formal election
- Unions, companies, public bodies. Usually governed by rules or law, with secret ballots, audit and independent scrutiny. Use a specialist election service.
What the app can do on one device
Two situations fit Anticode's sandbox well. The first is a prototype of the ballot itself, to agree its wording and layout before you pick a real voting service. The second is a vote where everyone uses the same device: a tablet at a school open day, a laptop passed round a workshop table, or a judging screen at a bake-off.
For a shared-device vote, describe the safeguards you want: "A voting app for a primary school's book award. Five shortlisted books with covers drawn as coloured shapes and the titles. A child taps one, confirms, and sees a thank-you screen that resets after five seconds for the next voter. A hidden teacher screen behind a four-digit code shows the running totals as a bar chart and can export the results as a CSV file. Votes are saved in this browser so a page refresh doesn't lose them."
The ballot types are worth thinking through. Single choice is simplest. Approval voting lets people tick every option they like. Ranked choice asks voters to order options and then eliminates the last-placed one round by round; a prototype that shows each round of the count is a good way to explain the method to a committee before you adopt it. Ask for the ballot type by name and test the count with a few made-up ballots whose result you already know.
Votes from many phones, sent as form submissions
When voters are on their own devices, the app can't add their votes together, because each copy runs separately. What it can do is send each ballot to you. An app's contact form reaches the owner through Anticode's form pipeline, with any extra fields, such as the choice or a ranking, added to the message. Every ballot arrives by email and in your Anticode inbox, and connectors can copy each one into a Google Sheet where a formula does the tally.
- Ask for name and email with each ballot, so you can check them against your member list and remove duplicates. That also means the vote isn't secret from you.
- Free sites have a monthly allowance of visible submissions, and beyond it submissions are held until you upgrade, so check your plan against the number of voters.
- Results aren't live. You see ballots as they arrive and publish the outcome yourself.
Limits
- No live results across devices, so no audience poll with a results screen that moves as people answer.
- No voter accounts or one-vote-per-person checks beyond what you do by hand with the submissions.
- No secret ballot with verification. Either you see who voted, or you can't stop repeat votes.
- Not for elections with legal or constitutional rules. Check your organisation's rules, which may name an approved method.
For live audience polling, a dedicated polling tool is the better fit. For a survey with many questions rather than a single choice, see the survey maker; for a judged contest with scores, the scoreboard app.
Questions people ask
Can a voting app builder like this run a live poll at an event?
No. Results from many phones need a live server. Use a polling tool and keep Anticode for the event website.
How do I stop people voting twice?
On a shared device, the app can lock after each vote. With form submissions, ask for an email and remove duplicates when you count.
Can it do ranked choice?
Yes, on one device. Ask for ranked ballots and a round-by-round count, and test it with ballots whose result you already know.