Blog

Categorized as: Product Development

Within the Skypunch election management console there is a user logs reporting tool useful for determining what changes have been made to your election setup and who made them. This article covers what is included in those logs, and what isn’t. What gets logged Changes to the following entities are logged: In other words, all […]

Categorized as: Election Tips, Product Development

When you create a totally new organizational account through which to manage elections using the Skypunch online voting system, you become the account owner. However, there are other types of user accounts that may be associated with your organization and this article explains each so you understand the security benefits of using the right account type […]

Categorized as: Company News

Skypunch Technology, through its residency in Vantage Ventures (the startup accelerator born out of the John Chambers School of Business and Economics at West Virginia University) has partnered with a team of cybersecurity experts at West Virginia University (WVU) to begin conducting security reviews of its voting software. This red team, made up of undergrad and graduate level […]

Categorized as: Election Tips

Skypunch supports voting on referendums. An example of this might be allowing voters to adopt or reject a change to a bylaw. These are handled nearly identical to voting on positions contested by candidates. So much so, in fact, that during election setup a referendum is treated as a position and the options for adopting […]

Categorized as: Election Tips, Increase Voter Turnout, Product Development

New to social proof? For a full description, visit social proof on Wikipedia, but in a nutshell it may be defined as “…a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.” It’s a concept that may be used to increase voter turnout, and a feature […]

Categorized as: Election Tips, Product Development

Skypunch supports Ranked Choice Voting. Among other names, this is sometimes referred to as Single Transferable Vote, preferential voting, or when being used to fill only a single vacancy, Instant Runoff. Frankly none of the alternative names are particularly descriptive in helping voters understand how it differs from plurality voting where the candidate with the most […]

Categorized as: Product Development, Time Savers

An election may be created in three quick and easy steps—and fewer than that when copying a previous election. Given the speed and simplicity of setting up a ballot, it can often be the upload of candidate biographies that is the most burdensome part of the whole process. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it […]

Categorized as: Election Tips, Product Development, Time Savers

Elections results may be published publicly. The benefit—as opposed to a client retrieving the results from their account and then accouncing the results through some other means—is that when voters see the results published publicly on the Skypunch website, they understand that an independent, third-party specialist has been retained to conduct the election and is […]

Categorized as: Election Tips, Increase Voter Turnout

“Enlighten us, but make it quick.” The motto of an Ignite event is a concept that translates well to introducing candidates to an electorate both online and off. If you’re new to an Ignite event, the concept is simple, a presenter goes through 20 slides in 5 minutes. That allows for 15 seconds per slide and the […]

Categorized as: Product Development

Multifactor Authentication (MFA). Enabling it is the single biggest thing you can do to ensure the security of any online account. If you have shied away from using it before, hopefully this article can impress upon you the problem it solves, how effective it can be, and just how simple it is to use. Authentication […]