For years, manual vote-counting methods like “Yea or Nay”, raise-of-hands, and paper ballots have reigned supreme in the voting and election processes of businesses, towns and cities, unions, associations, and more. While these tried-and-true processes have been effective in achieving a clear result, each can have limitations when it comes to speed, accuracy, and the anonymity of a voting session. To alleviate some of these shortcomings, businesses have been incorporating technology into their meetings and elections, providing capabilities that weren’t possible using the traditional vote tallying methods of the past. With the rise of electronic voting (e-voting) in the 21st century, organizations of all kinds have more options than ever when engaging in the democratic process. Here are some fun facts about how e-voting can modernize and streamline vote-counting in 2025 and beyond.
Speed and Efficiency
When comparing traditional vote-counting to e-voting, the first thing that comes to mind is speed. One of the biggest shortcomings of utilizing paper ballots is the amount of time it takes to collect and tabulate each vote. Since e-voting software tabulates results automatically, time spent counting votes is often dramatically reduced. Clients who have made the switch to e-voting software have reported that they were able to cut their time spent tallying votes in half, allowing more time for presentation, discussion and debate, or simply connecting with others at the convention, or reducing the number of days needed to rent a venue where the meeting took place.
“After many years using paper ballots, and many hours spent counting afterwards, our church decided that it’s time to get with the times. With the Meridia electronic voting system, we went through 27 budget lines needing votes in under two hours. Most of that time was spent on presenting the budget.”
– (Dorel Borza, IT Manager at Romanian Church of God of Kitchener)
Remote and Hybrid Voting
Travel and logistics, prior engagements, and in recent times, global events, can all negatively impact the attendance of a meeting or election. Sometimes, it just isn’t feasible to have each participant convene in the exact same room at the exact same time to vote. E-voting can alleviate this problem with the power of hybrid voting. In 2025, e-voting solutions (such as Meridia’s TownVOTE in conjunction with CloudVOTE) can host an entire cloud-based voting session where participants vote with their phones and smart devices, or a “hybrid” between in-person voting and cloud-based voting where participants both at home and on-site can vote simultaneously as if they were together in the same room.
All the meeting organizers need is a way for the remote participants to hear and see what’s going on and to participate in the debate, which is usually accommodated by using Zoom, Teams, WebEx and other online meeting tools.
Voting Anonymously
While “show of hands” and “Yea or Nay” voting are both typically faster than paper ballots, neither allow for anonymity or privacy while voting. This can cause some participants to vote based on “herd mentality” where they choose to vote in a manner that conforms with the overall consensus of the group, rather than using individual judgement. This can cause discomfort among participants and skew the final results of the vote. E-voting provides the best of both worlds, allowing for the speed of “show of hands” voting while also preserving anonymity. Since electronic voting typically utilizes small handheld keypads or “clickers,” participants can easily keep their choice hidden from their peers. Keypads can also be distributed randomly to participants, preserving anonymity while voting and in the final reports.
“Overwhelmingly, Seekonk voters loved the voting devices! Positive comments have been coming in all day. Voters especially liked being able to vote anonymously. One resident said that our first town meeting with the clickers was the best and most productive in the 50 years he’s been coming to them.”
– Florice Craig, Seekonk Massachusetts
Creating Reports
Electronic voting systems offer a comprehensive, quick and auditable reporting in popular formats like Microsoft Excel and Word, PDF and others.
Like the voting itself, the reports can be anonymous or identifiable, providing insights into the group’s voting tendencies, or proof of individual voting records in cases where elected representatives cast their vote in the name of their constituents. Users can easily toggle between raw subtotals and percentages, allowing the results to be clearly interpreted and analyzed.
