---
layout: page
title: "Voting Guide"
---

This page explains some of the most important steps for voting.

## For Voters

MAGIC Grants voters will typically follow these steps:

* Provide a valid email to MAGIC Grants, if we don't have one already.
* [Activate your email on CIVS](https://civs1.civs.us/cgi-bin/opt_in.pl). This will save you an email from us.
* Confirm you can receive emails from CIVS (civs@cornell.edu) and MAGIC Grants (info@magicgrants.org) to make sure that they aren't going to spam.
* You will be emailed a link to vote. The email will start with "Poll:". **Make sure to verify the supervisor is info@magicgrants.org**! It's unlikely, but you may receive fake emails from someone else asking for you to vote!
* Vote by ranking the choices (1 is best).
* **Save your receipt if you want the option to edit your vote!**
* CIVS only supports one question per link. You may be emailed several voting links. Make sure to complete them all.

Important notes:

* Your vote will not be made public, but we may keep a record of the vote for audit purposes.
* Aggregate voting results will be made public.
* Those who do not vote may lose their voting privileges.
* For technical questions, please contact info@magicgrants.org.
* Do NOT share your voting link with anyone else.
* If you have not yet received a voting email more than 24 hours after the intended launch time, please email info@magicgrants.org for assistance.
* If you did not register your email with CIVS before the poll started, you will see a link to the poll after registering. Confirm the supervisor is info@magicgrants.org.

## For the MAGIC Board

Here are some handy tips to set up the voting process:

* Verify the question(s) for the poll(s).
* Verify the list of voters is the latest version. CIVS supports uploading voter email lists.
* You will need to make one poll per question.
* [Click here to create a CIVS poll](https://civs1.civs.us/civs_create.html).
* Name the poll appropriately. This is shown to all voters. Eg: "MAGIC Monero Fund 2023-01 (1 of 1)"
* Add your name as the supervisor or use `MAGIC Board`.
* Use the info@magicgrants.org email as the supervisor. Do not use a Fund email (eg: MoneroFund@magicgrants.org) since this will give improper permissions to the committee members.
* Add the proper day and time that the poll will stop. Polls need to be stopped manually by the supervisor (you).
* Description should link to relevant materials, such as the GitHub issues where candidates are listed, and/or a summary blog post.
* Enter the names of each candidate, one per line. You can optionally upload a file, but it's unlikely you will have enough choices to warrant this.
* Check the candidate details again for accuracy.
* Change the number of winning choices to the appropriate number.
* Keep the poll as "Private."
* Select "Do not release results to all voters" and add the email info@magicgrants.org under the "Enter email addresses of users permitted to view poll results: (All voters can see these email addresses)" box.
* Select "Enable detailed ballot reporting."
* Select "In detailed ballot report, also reveal the identity of the voter with each ballot." This allows us to confirm who votes.
* Only select "Enforce proportional representation" if this is desired by the community. This will calculate winners differently to make a more proportional committee that represents different voting bases instead of selecting the top condorcet winners. [Click here](https://civs1.civs.us/proportional.html) for more information.
* Click "Create poll".
* You will see an email entitled "Results of CIVS poll". **Do NOT delete this email.**
* Click on the link in the email entitled "CIVS poll created" sent to info@magicgrants.org.
* Click "Start poll".
* Add voters at the bottom of the page. You will most likely wish to upload the list of all the voter emails. Then click "Add voters".
* You will be directed to an "Adding voters" page. There may be some voters in a table with the message "This email address has not been activated by the recipient." If so, click "Email voters who have not activated" and open the link with Gmail.
* Confirm you are sending the email from info@magicgrants.org. **Do NOT send this email from your personal email or another MAGIC Grants email.**
* Confirm you are sending the email with all the recipients as **BCC**. While the list of voters is public, the email addresses are not published publicly and should also not be shared with other voters.

To follow up:

* Under the "Poll Control" page, upload/type the list of voters again (leave "Invite even voters who have already voted?" unchecked) and click "Add voters".
* Send inactive voters another email.

*Note: you do NOT need send reminder emails for every wave of newly registered voters! Once they register, they will see a link to participate in the poll ("Pending poll invitations:").

To stop the poll:

* Find the initial poll email ("CIVS poll created") and click on the link to start/stop the poll.
* Click "End poll". **This is irreversible!**
* Find the initial "Results of CIVS poll" email, or go back and click "resend link".
* Copy the ballot report and paste in a spreadsheet, then save.
* You can additionally click "Download ballots in CSV format", but this will NOT include a list of the people who voted.
* Screenshot the winners and save that also.