voteMe.livevoteMe.live homevoteMe.livevoteMe.live homeUnderstand how paid voting events work on voteMe.live — how votes are purchased, how revenue is shared, and what voters experience.
Paid voting is the most popular event type on voteMe.live. It is designed for awards shows, beauty pageants, talent competitions, church choir contests, and any event where participants compete for public support. Votes cost money, which creates a clear signal of genuine fan engagement and generates revenue for the organiser.
When a voter visits your event page, they see your contestants displayed by category. Clicking a contestant opens a vote panel where they choose how many votes to cast. Votes are priced per unit — for example GHS 1.00 per vote — and the voter pays through Paystack using Mobile Money (MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, AirtelTigo Money), Visa/Mastercard, or USSD.
There is no cap on how many votes a single voter can cast. A supporter can vote 1,000 times for their favourite contestant if they want to. This is intentional: it rewards the most passionate fans and gives contestants an incentive to mobilise their networks.
Every contestant in a paid voting event is assigned a unique 4-letter short code (for example: ABCD). This short code is generated server-side after the contestant is saved — you will never enter it manually. Short codes are used exclusively for USSD voting, which allows supporters to vote without an internet connection by dialling the event's USSD number and entering the contestant's code.
Only contestants in paid voting events have short codes. Contestants in election-style (unpaid) events and free (hot) events do not receive short codes because those vote types are not offered over USSD.
voteMe.live takes 10% of gross voting revenue. The organiser keeps 90%. This split is applied automatically at the Paystack subaccount level — when a voter pays, Paystack routes 10% to the voteMe.live master account and 90% to your event's subaccount in real time. There is no waiting for settlement.
For example: if your event collects GHS 10,000 in votes, GHS 9,000 goes to your Paystack subaccount and GHS 1,000 goes to the platform. Your withdrawal from the dashboard always reflects the 90% share already in your subaccount.
When you create a paid voting event, voteMe.live provisions a Paystack subaccount on your behalf using your mobile money or bank details from the onboarding payment step. This subaccount is reused for paid nominations and ticket sales if you enable those features on the same event. You do not need a separate Paystack account — everything runs under the voteMe.live master account with your subaccount capturing your share.
You can schedule an automatic start and end time for your voting window. When the window opens, voting activates and your contestants are visible. When it closes, the vote button disappears and results can optionally be revealed on a separate schedule. All times are in Africa/Accra (GMT+0).
Vote counts update in real time on your event page, leaderboard, and venue display. The counts are sharded across three counters on the event document to handle high write volumes during peak voting periods without hitting Firestore rate limits.
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