Running a vote or an election

Villagely has three kinds of vote, and the difference matters.

• A motion — a single question the membership decides.
• An election — seats, candidates and a result that has to withstand challenge.
• A survey — no quorum, no one-per-unit rule, for the questions a board asks monthly.

What the software guarantees

• Options are frozen when the vote opens, so nothing can be edited underneath a ballot already cast.
• One ballot per member, enforced by a database constraint rather than a check that could be bypassed.
• Results stay hidden until close, so nobody can watch the count and campaign against it.
• Turnout counts distinct voters, not ballots, so a multi-seat election cannot manufacture a quorum.