This article is for secretaries running a voting session. If you want to know more about casting a vote, go to the Vote in a meeting article.
Manage the voting process
What's a vote?
In board meetings, voting can help board members decide how to make decisions. Voting starts when a board member submits a motion or proposal. Other board or committee members can then submit their votes.
To keep it simple, the voting options are For, Against, or Abstain. You can't change these options.
Who can vote?
✅ Members of the group that are invited to the meeting can vote.
❌ Meeting guests and the secretary can’t vote.
In this article, you'll learn how to:
Set up a motion
You set up a motion for participants to vote on when you create the meeting agenda.
Within the meeting, find the agenda item that you want to set up a motion for and select Add motion.
Enter a description of the motion you want the participants to vote for. Click anywhere on the screen to save.
The motion will be available in the book when your agenda is published. The meeting participants won’t be able to vote until the meeting is in progress.
If you add a motion to an agenda item after you've published the agenda, select Publish changes and add a note to let participants know what's changed.
Run a vote
Voting options appear in the agenda section of the meeting minutes.
You have two options:
If, before you run a vote, you've discussed the motion and the group agrees unanimously, select All for. This avoids the need for a formal vote. You can copy this and paste it into the minutes to record the decision.
If there is no decision made for the motion, select Start vote to start a voting session.
Start a voting session
Select Start vote. Voters are notified that a voting session has started.
You can view the motion, who can vote, and the number of votes cast that are for or against. You can also see if any participants abstained.The vote ends five seconds after the final vote is cast, or ten minutes after you started the vote. You can view the results in real-time and the status changes to Vote ended.
Select the copy icon to copy the motion and the vote results to the clipboard ready for pasting into the minutes. The first time you do this, a confirmation message is displayed.
Select Allow to continue. If you select Block, the vote results will not be copied and can't be pasted into the minutes.
Vote on a participant's behalf
You might be asked to vote on someone's behalf. This might be because they're unable to attend the meeting or they're having technical issues that prevent them from joining. You can do this as long as they haven't already cast their vote.
To vote on behalf of someone, in the agenda, drag their name to the vote you want to cast for them. The participant will receive a notification that you have voted for them and they can change it.
End a vote
Voting sessions automatically end 5 seconds after the last meeting participant has voted or 10 minutes after you started the vote. However, you can select End Vote to end the vote manually. Once ended, you can copy and paste the vote results into the minutes.
Reset a vote
If a participant has voted in error, you can reset the vote and start again.
Select Reset vote. This will clear all votes cast and all participants can vote again.
Delete a motion
If you add a motion and decide you no longer need to vote on it, it's easy to delete it.
Within the meeting, find the agenda item that contains the motion you want to delete.
Select the cross icon to delete the motion.