RCV123 is a tool for running your own ranked choice voting elections and polls.
Create online ballots or upload votes from elsewhere for instant results.
Some people want to run an election, others want to do a poll. It is all the same to RCV123.
Setting up a ballot is as easy as 123
To get started, click on Set up ballot and follow the on-screen prompts.
You may use RCV123 to experiment with ranked choice voting elections and polls without logging in. However, we strongly urge you to create a free account and be logged in before creating an important ballot for any organization.
Benefits of a free RCV123 account:
Without an account, you can only create simple open ballots where anyone with the link can vote, and you must carefully save all links because there is no way to retrieve them later.
Once you distribute your ballot:
The voting page includes helpful instructions and aicon for additional help.
Choose the right voting method for your situation:
For casual polls and demonstrations: Most RCV123 users choose open voting with duplicate deterrence. This is the simplest option — voters click a link or scan a single QR code to vote. While duplicate vote deterrence makes it harder to vote multiple times, it won’t stop determined users. This method works well for educational events, quick polls, and situations where the stakes are low.
For organizational elections with known members: The most popular approach is to ask voters for their names. Anyone with the link can vote, but you can review the list of names and reject any votes from people you don’t recognize. This provides a simple audit trail while keeping voting easy for members.
For elections requiring stricter verification: Use unique voting links — the most convenient option for voters. Each person gets their own link to click, and you can regenerate new links anytime from your ballot links page. Email verification is the most secure method (voters receive a code via email) but less convenient as voters must wait for email and enter the code. Custom voter codes work well when you have existing identifiers (student IDs, membership numbers) that voters already know.
If your election is being conducted at an in-person event: If you use unique voting links, you can print paper ballots with individual QR codes — each person gets their own ballot with a unique QR code they can scan with their phone to vote. This combines the convenience of online voting with the transparency of paper ballots for in-person meetings. Alternatively, many groups simply display a single QR code on screen and use duplicate vote deterrence or ask voters for their names.
Election Administrator: For important elections, designate a trusted person to serve as Election Administrator. This person creates the ballot, selects voting policies, distributes ballot links, monitors voting, and announces final results.
We strongly recommend you set up small test ballots and obtain a few votes on whatever types of devices and in whatever type of situations the vote will be conducted — in person or remote, on phones, on shared computers, on individual laptops, or on a K-12 school or college email system. RCV123 is a free service, so there’s no reason not to set up as many test ballots as you want and give them a try. You should delete the test ballots after your tests are complete so that you don’t confuse them with actual ballots.
The first step in creating your ballot is to name it, add contests, enter candidate names, and configure how voters will rank candidates. Click Set up ballot on the navigation bar to begin.
On the Set up ballot page, you will:
After completing the ballot setup, click Set ballot options to proceed to Ballot options. If you have multiple contests, use Next contest and Previous contest buttons to navigate between them, then click Set ballot options when you're on the last contest.
The Ballot options page lets you configure voting settings. Available options depend on whether you're signed in:
For all users:
Additional options when signed in:
Each option on the ballot options page includes detailed help text. For casual polls and experimentation, you can safely use the defaults. For important elections, review each option carefully to ensure it matches your needs.
After configuring your ballot options, click Create ballot links to complete the ballot setup process and see your voting links.
RCV123 provides several options to control who can vote on your ballot, ranging from completely open voting to secure methods that verify voter identity. Choose the option that best matches your needs:
Immediately after setting up a ballot, you will be shown its Links page. This page provides everything you need to distribute and manage your ballot:
If you were signed in when you created the ballot, you can revisit Ballot links anytime from your Dashboard.
If you created a ballot while not signed in: Copy the voting and results links now, because you will not see them again. If you choose to use the Preview ballot button to review your ballot and ballot options, you can easily return to the Links page using the navigation breadcrumbs.
Access your Ballot links page from your Dashboard to get the links, codes, and QR codes you need to distribute.
Distribution methods vary based on your voting method:
Send ballot links from your own email address rather than a third-party service to avoid spam filters.
Printed ballots are useful for in-person voting, educational events, and group meetings where voters can see and discuss the ballot together before voting. They work well for workshops, classroom demonstrations, and organizational meetings where you want to combine discussion with the voting process.
Click Print ballot from your Dashboard or Preview ballot page to create paper ballots. You can choose between two printing options:
Note about randomization: If you enabled Randomize candidate order (enabled by default), each time you print the ballot the candidates appear in a different order. To get multiple copies with the same order, use your browser's print dialog to specify the number of copies rather than printing one-by-one.
Interactive demonstrations: Printed ballots with QR codes create engaging experiences at in-person events. Participants can fill out their ballots, discuss their choices, then scan QR codes to vote and watch the results appear in real-time. You can even demonstrate how RCV works by having participants physically move between groups or manually redistribute paper ballots to show how votes transfer.
If you’re signed in when you create a ballot, it will show up on your Dashboard. Your Dashboard provides a comprehensive view of all your ballots with quick access to everything you need to manage them.
The Dashboard has detailed help via theicon. Each column provides specific information and actions:
Ballot actions menu: Click the menu icon to access these options:
The Preview ballot page lets you see exactly how your ballot looks to voters and review all your ballot settings in one place. You can access it from the Ballot links page or from your Dashboard.
The Preview ballot page shows:
From the Preview ballot page, you can click Print ballot to create paper ballots for in-person voting. Additional buttons appear depending on context:
The Preview ballot page is available at any time, whether voting is open, closed, or hasn’t started yet.
Results are available from your Dashboard by clicking on the link in the Results column. If you enabled preliminary results, voters can also choose to view results after casting their vote, and you can use the results link from the Ballot links page to view or share results while voting is still open.
The results page defaults to the Interactive Bar Chart visualization, which shows:
Additional features on the results page:
The results page includes detailed help via theicon that explains how to interpret the results and provides information specific to the visualization you're viewing.
From your Dashboard, click on a link in the Votes cast column to see a record of every vote on each contest on the ballot, along with the voter’s voter code or name. The purpose of this is to let you track and manage who votes
In rare circumstances, you may need to reject ballots that you, as the Election Administrator, know to be invalid. For example, if you are requiring voters to enter their name, you may see a name that you do not recognize, or the name of someone who was not eligible to vote.
All cast votes initially show (Accepted). If you expect that a vote is invalid, you could mark that vote with (Not counted / To be decided) or (Rejected). When an election is closed, only votes marked with a checkmark will be counted in the final tabulation.
RCV123 is designed to protect voter privacy. Voters never log in or create accounts, so RCV123 does not know the identity of anyone who votes.
How voter information is handled:
If you collected votes outside of RCV123 (such as paper ballots or another voting system), you can upload them as a spreadsheet to get instant RCV results. This feature is available from the Tools menu.
To use this feature:
Accepting additional votes: After uploading your spreadsheet, you can accept additional online votes if needed. Simply click Open voting from your Dashboard or the Preview ballot page. Then use Edit ballot options to configure how voters will access the ballot (ballot link, unique codes, email verification, etc.) and set any voting schedule or policies.
Note: Spreadsheet upload currently supports one contest per upload. For detailed instructions and the sample spreadsheet format, visit the Spreadsheet upload page from the Tools menu.
If you want to collect votes using Google Forms or Google Classroom, you can set up your ballot in Google’s tools and then upload the responses to RCV123 to calculate ranked choice voting results.
This workflow is useful for schools and organizations already using Google’s ecosystem. For detailed instructions on setting up Google Forms for ranked choice voting and uploading the results, visit the Google Classroom & Forms page from the Tools menu.