Is it possible to extend the voting period of an online election after the election has started?
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to extend the voting period after the election has started. This applies to all of our POLYAS voting products.
The voting period is defined prior to the start of the election and/or the sealing of the election and is automatically transferred by our system to the election invitation. Once sealed, the election project is irrevocably locked and no more changes can be made to any fixed parameters such as the election period or the electoral roll, as is the case with analog elections.
If an extension were to be made at a later date, all eligible voters would have to be informed. This cannot be achieved by the system which automatically sends out election invitations, nor could it be done in the case of sending them by post. POLYAS therefore could never guarantee that all eligible voters would be informed about the change of the election period and thus be able to exercise their right to vote.
For this reason, and because POLYAS does not wish to interfere with ongoing election processes, we cannot offer you the option of extending the voting period at a later date.
POLYAS tip: We recommend that election administrators set a sufficiently long voting period to prevent this problem. In addition, you can use election reminders. In the POLYAS Online Voting Manager, it’s also possible to end the election prematurely. However, before considering this, you should check whether your statutes allow the premature ending of an election in the case of enough eligible voters having already cast their votes.