How election-style (unpaid) voting works

How election-style (unpaid) voting works

Election-style voting is designed for events where fairness and controlled participation matter more than revenue generation. Think student union elections, staff recognition awards, or community polls where you want each registered participant to vote only once.

How it differs from paid voting

In paid voting, anyone can vote as many times as they can pay for. In election voting, each registered and approved voter gets exactly one vote per contestant. The vote itself is free — no payment required at the voting step.

Election voting does not use USSD and contestants do not receive short codes.

Voter registration

Before voting opens, participants must register. They submit their name, email, and any additional fields your security check level requires. You review registrations in your dashboard and approve or decline each one. Once approved, the voter receives their credentials by email.

Free voter registration

If you configure free voter registration, you can approve up to 25 voters at no cost. This limit is designed for small community polls, classroom votes, and pilot events.

If you need more than 25 voters, you can upgrade your voter limit by purchasing additional voter slots from your event dashboard. Upgrades are available in tiers and are priced per additional block of voters. The upgrade is processed through Paystack and applied instantly.

Paid voter registration

If you enable paid voter registration, voters pay a fee to register. In this case, there is no registration limit — you can have as many paid registrations as you receive, with no cap. voteMe.live takes 5% of the registration fee and you keep 95%.

Access codes and voter IDs

When you approve a voter, the system generates their credentials:

• Voter access code — a 6-digit number that the voter enters at the voting page to authenticate. Every approved voter gets one.
• Voter ID — a short alphanumeric ID (e.g. VE4291 for an event called "Voice Elections"). Generated only if your security check level includes voter ID verification.

These credentials are emailed to the voter automatically on approval.

Security check levels

You choose your security check level when setting up the event. Four levels are available:

• Email only — voter enters email and access code
• Email + Voter ID — voter enters email, voter ID, and access code
• Email + Phone — voter enters email, phone number, and access code
• Email + Phone + Voter ID — the most secure option; requires all three identifiers plus access code

Higher security levels reduce the risk of credential sharing but add friction for voters. For most events, email + access code is sufficient.

Approving and managing voters

From your dashboard at Events → [your event] → Voters, you can:

• Review pending registrations
• Approve or decline individually or in bulk
• Revoke access for a voter after approval
• See which voters have voted (without seeing who they voted for)