Every price, on this page
One price per binding election. No per-ballot fee for online voting, no charge for extra ballot questions, and test elections are always free. Communities of 25 voting units or fewer pay a flat $49. There is no platform fee and no subscription.
Most vendors publish a starting price and quote the rest. The tables below are the whole thing: rates, every add-on, and the four cases where a price has to be quoted. VoteStead publishes no discounts, so the number your board reads here is the number every association pays.
Test election
Free
A practice run for the board. Never binding, never charged, any community size.
- The whole owner flow: email, text, 6-digit code, sealed ballot, receipt
- 21 ballot templates, or write your own questions
- Printable access code letters, reminder cards and address labels
- Turnout and quorum tracking with automatic reminders
- The certified report format, so you see what your board would file
Self-serve
$89.99 per election
plus $0.65 a unit, falling to $0.35
Your board runs the election. VoteStead supplies the platform, the state rules and the launch checklist.
- Binding results with a certified report and the public ballot check
- Your state rule pack, with a launch checklist that blocks a vote missing a required step
- Invitations and up to 3 reminders by email and text, included
- Unlimited questions on the ballot
- Ballots sealed on the owner device, opened by 2 of 3 key holders
- Print your own access code letters, reminder cards and labels
- Progress reports to the board, and a final report with the results PDF
- Owner ballot check after the count
Managed
$199 per election
plus $1.55 a unit, falling to $0.90
VoteStead runs the election from the roster to the certified result, and answers owners.
- Everything in self-serve
- Roster load and cleanup by VoteStead
- Owner support by email and text through the whole vote
- An independent VoteStead key holder, so no board member can open the count alone
- VoteStead prints, stuffs, stamps and mails your notices and reminder cards, billed per piece with postage included
- A rerun inside 60 days at no charge if quorum fails
Per-unit rates
Rates are graduated, the way tax brackets work. A 200-unit community pays the first rate on its first 50 units, the second on the next 100, and the third on the rest. A bigger community never pays less in total than a smaller one.
| Voting units | Self-serve | Managed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 50 units | $0.65 | $1.55 |
| 51 to 150 units | $0.55 | $1.30 |
| 151 to 300 units | $0.45 | $1.10 |
| 301 to 800 units | $0.35 | $0.90 |
| More than 800 units | Quoted, and the rate keeps falling | |
What a typical election costs
| Units | Self-serve | Per unit | Managed | Per unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | $115.99 | $2.90 | $261 | $6.53 |
| 120 | $160.99 | $1.34 | $367.50 | $3.06 |
| 300 | $244.99 | $0.82 | $571.50 | $1.91 |
| 600 | $349.99 | $0.58 | $841.50 | $1.40 |
Online voting carries no per-ballot fee, so a community where every owner votes online pays the same as one where half do.
Estimate your election
VoteStead Annual, if you vote more than once a year
Unlimited non-concurrent binding elections for twelve months, at one price. Most associations hold one vote a year and should ignore this. It is here for the ones that do not.
$349 a year self-serve, $899 a year managed.
A 120-unit association pays $160.99 a self-serve election, so the plan pays for itself at 3 elections in a year. A 200-unit association pays $461.50 a managed election, so the managed plan pays for itself at 2. Below that, paying per election costs you less, and we would rather say so here than have you work it out afterwards.
- Every binding election you need in twelve months, one at a time, at no extra charge per election.
- State rule packs kept current. Legislatures change association voting law, and all 50 states and DC are reviewed and updated so a launch checklist still reflects what your statute requires.
- Security maintenance: encryption, key handling, dependency patching and the tamper-evident audit chain that makes a result defensible.
- Platform upkeep and uptime, including the ballot delivery to email, text and printed mail.
- Records retention and the chain anchoring that keeps a closed election verifiable for as long as your state requires.
- New features and improvements as they ship, at no extra charge.
- Board support by email, between elections as well as during one.
- A handover summary when your board changes, so an incoming treasurer knows what was run and what is due.
Optional. Associations that vote once a year usually pay less per election. Communities over the quote threshold and associations managed by a VoteStead partner are priced separately.
Small communities
$49 flat for a binding self-serve election in a community of 25 voting units or fewer. No per-unit charge, no annual commitment.
Communities of 25 voting units or fewer pay one flat rate for a binding self-serve election, with no per-unit charge. Managed elections are priced the usual way at any size, because the work does not shrink.
Add-ons
Everything VoteStead can charge for is on this list. Anything not here is included.
| Add-on | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Printed and mailed voting notice | $1.75 each |
Letter with the access code and PIN. VoteStead prints it, folds it, stuffs it, stamps it and mails it. Postage is included in the $1.75 and is never invoiced separately. Self-serve boards print the same letters themselves at no charge. |
| Printed and mailed reminder card | $1.25 each |
A postcard to units that have not voted. Postage included, never invoiced separately. Self-serve boards print their own for free. |
| Printed and mailed paper ballot packet | $4.50 each |
The full paper vote for one unit: instructions, a ballot with no name on it, a secret ballot envelope, a return envelope certificate with a signature line, the outer envelope, postage out and a prepaid return envelope back. Optional on self-serve and on managed. Boards that print and mail their own packets from the VoteStead PDF pay nothing. |
| Signature branding | $49 per election |
Your logo and color on ballots, emails and printed mail, designed messages, and the celebration screen after an owner votes. $129 covers a full year of elections. |
| Signature branding, annual | $129 per year |
Signature branding on every election for 12 months. |
| Roster cleanup and import | $99 one time |
Send what you have, in any format. VoteStead cleans it, matches units to owners and loads it. Included in managed. |
| Independent VoteStead key holder | $149 per election |
Without it, all three key shares sit inside your community and any two of them open the ballots. With it, VoteStead holds one share and VoteStead refuses to run the count unless that share is entered, so the people who stand to gain from the result are not the only people in the room when the box opens. Stated precisely, because it matters: the key is split 2 of 3, so the arithmetic itself does not single out our share. The requirement is a control in the software, not a property of the mathematics. The usual challenge to an association election is that the people counting had a stake in the result, and this is the answer to it. California requires an inspector with no other contract with the association. An inspector of elections firm charges around $450 an election for the same role. Included in managed. |
| Rush setup | $99 per election |
Ballot built and launch-ready inside 3 business days. Ask before you order it: some states set notice periods no rush can shorten. |
| Certified paper results package | $19 each |
The certified report and audit summary, printed, bound and mailed to the association records. |
| Text messages | Included | Invitation plus up to 3 reminders per unit. No per-message charge. |
| Ballot questions | Included | Any number of questions on one ballot. |
| Ballot templates | Included | All 21, edited to fit your community. |
| Board support by email | Included | Every tier, including the free test election. |
Why boards add the independent key holder
Two of the three key shares open the ballots. When your board names all three holders, every share sits inside your community, and two owners acting together hold the whole count. The math does not know who holds a share, so it treats a neighbor and a stranger alike.
With VoteStead on one share, the count needs an outside party. We do not know your candidates, we hold no other contract with your association, and we have no stake in the result. Your committee member and VoteStead each enter a share, and the audit log records both.
Election challenges rarely turn on encryption. They turn on who reached the ballots and what those people stood to gain. $149 an election puts one share outside your community, and answers the question before an owner raises it. Managed elections include the share.
Your board picks it once, on the key holder step, before any share exists. It stays fixed after the shares go out, because it decides who opens the ballots.
One published rate
There is no introductory price, no seasonal offer and no figure that appears only after a call. What your board adds up on this page is what the agreement says.
Two things sit outside the table, and both are listed beside this. A management company running elections across several communities buys a portfolio agreement, which is a different product rather than a discount on this one. Anything agreed with a single association is written into that association's contract, where the board reads it before signing.
When we have to quote
Four cases do not fit a table. Here they are, with how the price gets set.
- More than 800 voting units. Quoted individually. The per-unit rate keeps falling, and large communities usually need a mail plan.
- A management company running elections for several communities. The partner program covers a portfolio on one agreement and one invoice, priced on the number of communities and how often they vote. Tell us both and we put it in writing.
- Data migration or a custom integration. $150 an hour, estimated in writing before any work starts.
- An election a court, receiver or state agency is supervising. Quoted individually. Tell us the order or case before you order.
Custom work is $150 an hour, estimated in writing first. We do not bill for a call about your own election.
| Plan | Test election | Self-serve | Managed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $89.99 + $0.65 a unit | $199 + $1.55 a unit |
| Binding results | No | Yes | Yes |
| Who runs it | You, for practice | Your board | VoteStead |
| Email and text invitations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mailed notices with access codes | Print your own, free | Print your own free, or VoteStead mails at $1.75 a letter | VoteStead mails at $1.75 a letter, or print your own |
| Paper ballot packets | Print your own, free | Print your own free, or VoteStead mails at $4.50 a packet | Print your own free, or VoteStead mails at $4.50 a packet |
| Sealed ballots and 2-of-3 key count | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Independent VoteStead key holder Third share held outside your community | Not needed | Add-on, $149 an election | Included |
| Roster load | You | You, or $99 | Included |
| Owner support | Not needed | Your board | VoteStead |
| Results report and public ballot check | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rerun if quorum fails | Not needed | Half price inside 60 days | Free inside 60 days |
| Start a free test | Buy it online | Get a quote |
Questions about pricing
A test election is free and needs no card. A self-serve election is bought online at the published price, and a managed election is quoted in writing before anything is charged.
Will you beat a quote I already have?
Send it to quote@votestead.com with your unit count and vote type. If it covers the same election, we beat it and put ours in writing.
What counts as a voting unit?
Each lot or unit with a vote in your association. A unit with 2 owners is still 1 voting unit. Units that vote on paper count the same as units that vote online.
Is there a charge per ballot?
No. Online ballots, email invitations and text reminders are in the price. The only per-piece charges are printed mail that VoteStead sends for you.
What if the election has to be rerun?
A rerun of the same questions inside 60 days, because quorum failed or the date moved, is free on managed and half price on self-serve.
Do you charge a subscription?
No. Elections are billed one at a time, so an association that votes once a year is billed for one election and nothing else. There is no platform fee, no monthly plan and no minimum number of elections. VoteStead Annual exists for associations that vote several times a year, it is optional, and the pricing page shows the point at which it starts to save money.
When is payment due?
After the quote is accepted and before the election launches. Card or ACH, and we can invoice a management company.
Do prices change mid-election?
No. The quote you accept is the price, even if the roster grows or you add ballot questions. Extra printed mail you order during the vote is the only thing that can add to it, at the published per-piece price.