HOA online voting with secret ballots
Every home.
Every vote.
Secret-ballot online elections for HOAs and condo associations, run for you, in the states that allow electronic voting.
Owners vote from a link sent by email or text, or from a code on a mailed notice. Anyone who cannot vote online gets a paper ballot on request. Every owner can confirm their ballot was counted.
Self-serve elections are $49 for 25 voting units or fewer, and start at $106.89 above that. Test elections are free. See every price.
Counsel has reviewed the rule pack for every state and DC, and anything your state does not allow is switched off.
Here to vote? Use the link in your email or text, or enter your mailed notice code.
Built for the law in your state
Each state sets its own rules for electronic association votes. VoteStead carries a rule pack for every state and DC. The pack switches off what your state does not allow and names the statute where it does. Your governing documents and any local rules still apply, so your association confirms those too.
| Allowed by statute | 23 jurisdictions, counting DC |
|---|---|
| Through the nonprofit corporation act | 17 states |
| Governing documents must allow it | 3 states |
| No clear authority | 8 states |
How does an HOA online election run?
Four steps from roster to certified results.
Load your owners
Upload the roster as a spreadsheet. VoteStead flags bad emails, bad phone numbers and duplicate units before anything goes out.
Owners vote
Each owner gets a private link by email or text, and the link opens straight into the VoteStead app on Android for owners who have it. Owners with neither get a mailed notice carrying an access code, and a paper ballot is available on request.
Watch quorum
A live turnout board shows one square per home filling in as ballots arrive, with the quorum line marked. Reminders go only to units that have not voted. Owners who cannot vote in time sign a quorum proxy online, and a public link puts the board on the screen at your meeting.
Count and certify
Two key holders open the count after voting closes. You get a results report and every owner can check their ballot.
Nobody opens ballots early. Including us.
Every ballot is sealed in the owner's browser before VoteStead receives it. The key that opens ballots is split into 3 shares held by 3 people. Two of them must enter their shares after voting closes to start the count.
No name on the ballot
Ballots are stored in a separate database with no name, unit or time attached.
A record anyone can check
Each ballot and each admin action links to the one before by hash. Any change breaks the chain.
We run elections. We never manage your association.
VoteStead does not sell management, accounting or collection services to any association whose election it runs. The only thing we earn from your election is the election fee. About VoteStead
Self-serve or managed: which should your board pick?
Both use the same sealed ballots and state rule packs. The difference is who does the work.
| Who does the work | Self-serve | Managed |
|---|---|---|
| Set up the ballot and dates | Your board | VoteStead |
| Load the owner roster | Your board | VoteStead, from your file |
| Answer owner questions | Your board | VoteStead |
| Launch checklist blocks mistakes | Included | Included |
| Mailed notices for owners without email | Print your own free, or VoteStead mails them | Print your own free, or VoteStead mails them |
| A name stored with the ballot | Never | Never |
| Price | From $49 | From $199 |
How does an owner vote and confirm the ballot counted?
An owner opens the link, confirms with a 6-digit code, marks the ballot and gets a receipt with a tracker code. After voting closes, the owner enters the code on the Check a ballot page to confirm the ballot is in the count.
Owners who install the free VoteStead app for Android skip the link entirely. Every election their association runs is waiting on the home screen, unlocked by the phone's own face, fingerprint or passcode check. The iPhone app is with Apple for review and follows shortly.
Try it on the specimen ballot. Fill in one oval, seal it, and you get a tracker code, the same way an owner does.
Tracker code
0000-0000-0000-0000-0000
Common questions
How much does an election cost?
A self-serve binding election is $89.99 plus $0.65 a voting unit, and a managed election is $199 plus $1.55 a unit. The per-unit rate falls as the community gets larger. A 120-unit self-serve election is $160.99. A 200-unit managed election is $461.50. Communities of 25 voting units or fewer pay a flat $49 for a self-serve binding election. There is no platform fee and no subscription, though VoteStead Annual covers unlimited elections for $349 a year if you vote often enough to want it. Test elections are always free, and the rates on the pricing page are the rates an association pays.
How does quorum work?
A live turnout board shows units voted, units present by quorum proxy and the quorum line while voting is open, counted by units or by allocated interest, whichever your governing documents use. A public link puts the same board on the screen at the meeting. Automatic reminders go only to units that have not voted. If quorum fails, a rerun of the same questions inside 60 days is free on managed and half price on self-serve.
Can the board see how someone voted?
No. The ballot is sealed on the owner’s own device before it is sent, and it is stored in a separate database with no name, no unit and no linking timestamp. Two of three key holders open the count after voting closes, and even then the result is a tally, not a list of who voted which way. Neither the board, the management company nor VoteStead can look up how a unit voted. One exception is worth stating plainly: an owner tracker code together with two key shares would open that owner ballot, which is why the tracker code goes to the owner and to nobody else.
Who holds the keys that open the count?
Three people hold one share each, and two of the three are needed to open the count after voting closes. One share alone opens nothing. On a managed election the holders are the VoteStead election manager, an independent inspector and one board member who is not up for election. On a self-serve election the board names three holders, none of them a candidate, a director up for election or the managing agent. The board also chooses whether VoteStead holds one of the three for $149, which keeps the count from running on two people inside the community alone.
What about owners without email?
They get a mailed notice with an access code and a PIN and vote at votestead.com like everyone else, or they vote on a paper ballot. VoteStead prints paper ballot packets with a secret ballot envelope and a signed return envelope, logs each returned envelope, and counts paper and online ballots together. Only the first ballot from a unit counts.
Does VoteStead work in my state?
VoteStead runs in all 50 states and DC. Each has a rule pack carrying the statute, what it authorizes, the secret-ballot rule, the paper-ballot rule and the retention period, and features the law does not allow are switched off in the console with a note naming the law. VoteStead counsel has reviewed the rule pack for every state. Where a state law does not clearly authorize electronic voting, the launch checklist asks for a letter from your association attorney before a binding vote.
How long does it take to set up?
Self-serve boards set an election up in a sitting: add the association, upload the roster, build the ballot from one of 21 templates, name the key holders and launch. Rush setup, with the ballot built and launch-ready inside 3 business days, is $99. Ask before ordering rush, because some states set notice periods no rush can shorten.