Privacy Policy

Version 1.4. Effective October 9, 2026.

This policy explains how VoteStead handles information when an association runs an election with us, when an owner votes, and when anyone uses votestead.com.

Who we are

VoteStead is an election service operated by Alien Tech Services LLC ("VoteStead", "we", "us"). Homeowner and condominium associations hire VoteStead to run owner votes. The association decides which owner information to give us, and we use that information to run the association's election.

What we collect

From associations: owner names, unit numbers, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, mailing addresses and allocated voting interest.
From owners during a vote: the date an owner consented to electronic voting, text message consent and opt-out records, and one-time sign-in codes, which we store only as scrambled hashes.
Ballots: sealed ballots stored in a separate database with no name, unit or time attached. We cannot read a ballot until 2 of 3 key holders open the count after voting closes.
Board and staff accounts: name, email address, a hashed password and authenticator app setup.
Website requests: the details you enter in our contact form.
Support questions: the wording of a question typed into the support assistant on votestead.com, kept so we can see what the site fails to explain. We store the question text only, with no name, email address or IP address beside it.
Technical information: cookies that keep you signed in or keep a vote in progress, and IP addresses used to block repeated failed attempts. We use no advertising cookies and no third-party analytics.
Marketing page visits: for the public pages of votestead.com, we count which page was opened, when, which site linked to it, and the country and state the request appears to come from. We work out the country and state from your IP address at the moment of the visit and then discard the address: we do not store it. Visits are grouped under a code that is rebuilt from scratch every midnight, so the same person on two days is two unrelated visits and nothing in this record follows anyone over time. We use no cookies for this, no tracking pixels and no outside analytics service, and the information stays on our own server. This counting never runs on a ballot, a voting sign-in or an owner page.

How we use it

To send election invitations, reminders, sign-in codes and mailed notices
To confirm each unit votes once
To count sealed ballots and produce results, tracker lists and audit records
To answer requests sent through our website
To protect the service against fraud and abuse, and to meet legal duties
To see which of our own marketing pages people read, so we can improve them

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use owner information for advertising.

Text messages

VoteStead sends text messages about association elections: voting invitations, sign-in codes and reminders to vote. We text an owner only after the owner opts in to election texts.

Message frequency varies by election. Most elections send an invitation, sign-in codes on request and a few reminders.
Message and data rates may apply.
Reply STOP to opt out at any time. Reply HELP for help.
We send texts only between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. in your association's time zone.

No mobile information is shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging opt-in data and consent are never shared with any third party, except the text message provider that delivers our messages.

Your association: the roster it gave us, turnout, whether a unit received a ballot, and certified results. We never tell the association or anyone else how an owner voted.
Service providers: companies that host our servers, deliver email and deliver text messages for us. They use the information only to provide those services.
Legal requirements: when a law, court order or legal process requires disclosure. Sealed ballots never contain an owner's identity, so we have no ballot-to-owner link to disclose.

How long we keep it

Sealed ballots and voting credentials are deleted at the end of the retention period your state sets, counted from the day voting closes, unless a legal hold applies. That is 1 year in most states, 2 years in Indiana and 10 years in Nevada. Your state page shows the period that applies to you.
Results, tracker lists and audit logs stay with the election record while the association uses VoteStead. When the association leaves, we delete them or return them at the association's request.
Contact form requests are kept up to 24 months after our last reply.

Security

We seal ballots on the owner's device, keep ballots apart from owner identity, split the counting key among 3 holders, encrypt stored secrets and require authenticator app sign-in for admin accounts. Read more on our Security page. No system is perfectly secure, and we tell affected associations promptly if we learn of a breach involving their information.

Your choices

Owners correct their contact details through their association.
Owners who do not want to vote electronically ask their association for a paper ballot.
Reply STOP to stop text messages.
To ask what information we hold about you, or to ask us to delete it, email support@votestead.com or use our contact form. Some election records must be kept for the association's legal retention period.

Children

VoteStead is for property owners and association officials. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Changes

We post changes to this policy on this page with a new version number and effective date. Changes do not apply to an election already open.

Contact us

Email privacy questions to support@votestead.com, or use our contact form and choose Privacy.