Voting on Entries

The program organizer may share an audience voting link so the public, members, or program participants can vote on entries. No AwardKit account is needed. Audience voting works through a unique link the organizer shares with you.

How it works

1. Click the voting link the organizer shared
2. The Audience Voting page opens with the prompt "Cast your vote for your favorite entries"
3. Browse, search, and evaluate entries
4. Your progress saves automatically

Voting is open during the program's judging window. Outside it, the page still lists the entries but says voting is closed.

Ballots

The organizer chooses what the audience votes on. You see one of these two experiences:

Favorites

You pick and rank your favorite entries. The organizer sets how many picks you get in each category (typically 3). When the program has several categories, a Pick your top 3 in each category card lists them as tiles with your progress in each ("Pick 3", "2 of 3 picked", "Done"); pick your favorites in the selected category, then use Next: [category] to move on. Browse entries, click to view details, and press Select. Your first pick is 1st, the next 2nd, and so on; use the arrow buttons or tap a rank badge to reorder. The Picks Used counter covers every category, and Status reads Complete once each category has its picks. Every pick you make counts, even if you stop before the last one.

Score Criteria

When the organizer shares the judges' rubric with the audience, you score each entry on criteria the organizer defined (for example, "Impact", "Innovation"). Each criterion has a slider you drag to set your score. Criteria may have different weights, shown as a badge on each card.

Click any entry to open it, review the entry details on the left, and score using the criteria on the right. Scores save automatically as you move sliders.

Anonymous rounds

Some organizers run a blind round. The page then shows "Entries are anonymous: entrant identities are hidden.": names and team members are removed from every entry, the search box only matches entry names and descriptions, and questions the organizer marked as identifying are left out. Vote on the work, not the byline.

Tips for voting

• Review the entry description and any embedded videos or files before scoring. Most entries put their best material in their answers.
• Check the Voting Guidelines sidebar for instructions from the organizer
• Take your time: you can close the browser and come back later; your link stays active and your progress is saved
• Search and filter: use the search bar to find specific entries by name, description, or entrant

If the page shows "Audience voting has reached capacity", the program has hit its voter limit; you can still browse the entries.