A few steps are all it takes to create your online nomination
- Prepare candidate proposals for the nomination platform
- Upload the register of nominators
- Send invitations and start online nomination
Nomination platform: Setting up candidate proposals
To get started, first signup or login to the POLYAS Online Voting Manager. In the menu, click “New project” and select “Nomination platform”. Now click the field “Unnamed nomination” and enter a name for your project.
Click the Nomination tab. Here you create the candidate proposals/nominations/boards that nominators can use to submit their nominations. Give the nomination a title and then click the “Rules“ menu. Now you have the choice between self-nomination, nomination by another, or list nomination:
- Self-nomination: Nominators can nominate themselves? Then choose this option
- Nomination by another: Here the nominators propose another person for candidacy
- List nomination: The nominations are submitted as a list
In the case of list nominations and nominations by another, you can add columns to your nomination, for example for the candidates’ first and last names, addresses or other data, and then display or hide the list names and/or column title.
Note: If you use the “Searchable candidate list and digital consent”, you can only create one column here. For technical reasons, all existing nominations are deleted when the feature is booked.
In the case of self-nomination, you can choose whether it is necessary to name a substitute. In the case of list nominations, you can also allow nominators to enter a list manager who is responsible for organizing the list. Entering this information may be compulsory or optional.
You can of course combine all three procedures in a nomination project. In the following, we explain the other options when setting up the nominations:
Export/import: The nominations can also be exported or imported in Excel format. You import them using the practical Excel template that you will find in the blue box on the “Import and export” tab.
POLYAS tip: Would you like to allow nominators to upload files such as scanned consent forms, lists with supporting signatures or information about the candidates? Then book the feature “File upload when nominating”, which you will find under the “Features” tab in the Online Voting Manager. You can then specify the uploading of files in the nomination rules.
Creating the register of nominators
You now determine who is able to nominate. Click the “Nominators“ tab The POLYAS Nomination Platform provides two different options: Either you create the list of nominators manually or you upload the register as an Excel file.
Upload the register: Especially if there is a large number of nominators, it is advisable to upload the list of the authorized persons. To do this, click on “Import & Export”. You will find a handy Excel template that you can use to create your register.
Manual creation: To enter the register manually, all you have to do is enter the e-mail addresses of the nominators into the fields provided under “Register”. You can add additional columns to your register using the “Attributes” tab, e.g. first name and surname of the nominators or a membership number.
Set the user ID: One of the attributes is the user ID, which combines with the password generated by POLYAS to form the login data for accessing the online nomination. For example, select the e-mail address or the membership number of the nominator by clicking on the circular icon in the corresponding column.
Public attributes: Mark as “Public” any attributes that should be displayed to nominators during the nomination process and to you as the organizer in the results. Please note that unambiguous identification through a suitable number and selection of public attributes must be possible. For example, combine several pieces of personal information such as first name, last name and (work) area and select the ID. The order in which the public attributes are to be displayed can be determined by the sequence of the rows.
POLYAS tip: Setting up your digital register works in exactly the same way for online nomination and for online voting. Look here for detailed instructions >
Carry out a test, set a time period and send out an invitation
There are only a few steps left to complete the setup of the POLYAS Nomination Platform. You do this in the “Overview” tab:
- Test nomination: Click on the “Test” button in the lower right to check whether you have set up your online nomination correctly. Up to five people can be invited to perform a test. In the case of test nominations, the only public attribute of the nominators is the e-mail address of the test persons.
- Nominations period: In the POLYAS Online Voting Manager, click the tab “Overview” and then the link next to “Nomination period”. By default, e-mail invitations are sent to the nominators at the time you specify as the starting time for your online nomination. However, you can also adjust the time at which the e-mail is sent.
- Design the invitation: In the POLYAS Online Voting Manager, click the tab “Overview” and then the link next to “Invitation”. You can adapt the text of the e-mail. Do not delete the placeholders user ID and password, because the login data for the nominators are automatically inserted here. You can insert additional placeholders.
- Pay for and start the nomination: Upon payment, you start your nomination at the time you specified. To do this, click on “Complete”. You will find our prices here >
POLYAS tip: Testing, setting a time period and creating the invitation works in exactly the same way on the Nomination Platform as for Online Voting. For more information, take a look at our Online Voting help center. Learn more >
Download the nominations/candidate proposals received
As soon as the nomination project is started, you can at any time use the “Nominations” tab to download the received nominations as an Excel file.
Once online nomination is completed, you can download the status of the nomination as well as all nominations submitted using the “Nominations” tab. You can chose between the Excel and PDF file formats. If you booked the “File upload” feature, you can also download files that were uploaded by nominators as a ZIP file.
