Adding Judges
Add judges to your award program on AwardKit, share unique voting links, send email invitations, and track each judge's progress. No account needed for judges.
Judges are the people who evaluate entries using your chosen voting method. Each judge gets a unique voting link that gives them access to score entries.
Adding a judge
On the Judging page, scroll to the Judge Voting card and click Add Judge.
Enter the judge's:
- Name: Displayed on their judge card and in their judging portal
- Email: Used for sending invitations (optional if sharing links manually)
Judges don't need an AwardKit account. Their voting link is their access token.
For larger panels, click Import next to Add Judge to load up to 1,000 judges from a CSV file. See CSV Import.
Judge cards
Each judge appears as a card showing their progress.
Each card shows:
- Name and email
- A status badge: Not Started, In Progress, or Completed
- Entries voted out of entries assigned
- Invited once an invitation email went out, or Not yet active until the judge opens their link
- A progress bar that fills as they complete reviews
Judges on a program with an empty panel see the card's empty state:
Sharing voting links
The card header offers:
- Copy links: Copies every judge's voting link to the clipboard. Useful for sharing in email, a private Slack channel, or a tracking spreadsheet.
- Invite all: Sends an email invitation to every judge with an email address, with their unique link. The subject line is "You're invited to judge [program name]".
- Copy rooms (Rooms mode only): copies the room list with the judges in each.
Per judge, each card has Invite (email that judge) and Copy Link (copy that judge's link), and a QR code for judging on a phone at an in-person event.
Judge links are private. Each link gives full access to score entries, so treat them like passwords. Don't share a judge's link publicly or in a thread where the wrong person could click it.
Editing and removing judges
From each judge card, you can:
- Edit judge (pencil icon): Update the judge's name or email
- Assignments (Per judge mode): pick the entries this judge reviews, see Judge assignment
- Remove (trash icon): Remove the judge. Use this if a judge declines or has a conflict you discover later. Once your program is live and a judge has cast votes, the remove button is disabled ("Cannot remove judge with votes"); use a recusal or a smaller assignment instead.
Judges and rounds
On a multi-round program, a judge is on the program but sits on a round's panel. Round 1 includes everyone; later rounds pick their panel when you add the round, and you can change it any time with Edit judge panel in the round menu. A judge who is not on the selected round's panel does not appear in that round's Judge Voting card.
What judges see before you go live
While the program is in Test mode, a judge who opens their link sees a Test mode preview. banner and can score the sample entries. Their test scores never lock your setup and are wiped when you go live.
Tips for managing judges
- Invite at least 3 judges per entry to reduce individual bias. With fewer than 3 reviews, a single outlier score swings the result.
- Brief judges before they start so everyone understands the scoring expectations and the rubric for each criterion.
- Set a judging deadline and communicate it clearly. Most professional judges block 30 to 60 minutes for review and need 1 to 2 weeks of runway.
- Monitor progress mid-window and follow up with judges who haven't started. Polite nudges are normal and expected.
- Use Copy links to share all links in a single onboarding email or shared tracking sheet rather than sending one-off messages.
Blind Judging
Judge entries without seeing who entered. Set blindness per round on AwardKit, hide specific answers from judges, and keep the audience vote anonymous too.
CSV Import
Bulk import judges on AwardKit from a CSV file. Map columns, preview rows, and add up to 1,000 judges at once with automatic deduplication and auto-assignment.