Dublin Front Runners’ Digital AGM: Seamless Elections for LGBTQ+ Club

Chapter

1. Quick Overview 

2. Organizing a First Digital Election with a High Quorum Requirement 

3. Why Meeting the Quorum Was Essential for the Election 

4. Discovering NemoVote: Free Demo and EU-Based Platform 

5. Why Secure Email Authentication Was Crucial for Voting 

6. Magic Links and Excel Upload Simplified the Election Setup 

7. How a Live Test Vote Reduced Stress Before the Election 

8. Ensuring Transparency and Oversight in the Voting Process 

9. Election Results and Member Feedback After Voting 

10. Does Digital Voting Affect Member Participation? 

11. Key Lessons for Sports Clubs Considering Online Elections 

12. Why Mark Armstrong Recommends NemoVote 

13. The Future of Digital Elections for Volunteer Organizations 

Short and sweet

When Dublin Front Runners, Ireland’s largest LGBTQ+ running club with over 600 members, held their Annual General Meeting, the stakes were high.

For the first time, the club:

• Switched from paper ballots to digital voting
• Ran a hybrid AGM (in-person + online)

With NemoVote, the election was conducted securely, transparently, and seamlessly: with live results, Magic Links, and full transparency.

2. The challenge: High quorum and first digital election

Dublin Front Runners is a sports club, playing a key role of Ireland’s LGBTQI+ community and part of the International Front Runners network, connecting running clubs across Europe, North America and beyond.

As a volunteer-led organization, elections are constitutionally critical.

This year brought several new challenges:

• First time digitizing elections
• Hybrid Annual General Meeting (AGM) (in-person + Google Meet)
• 600+ members
• Quorum: one third of membership +1
• 14 candidates for 9 committee seats
• Full confidentiality required

 “An election is an integral part of our constitution. That is the backbone of our club.”
– Mark Armstrong, Chairperson 

3. Why quorum was critical 

To legally hold the AGM, Dublin Front Runners needed:

• One third of members
• Plus one additional member
• All verified as paid 2026 members

Four volunteers managed attendance:

• Two registering in-person attendees
• Two verifying online members in the Google Meet waiting room

Only verified, paid members were admitted and included in the quorum calculation.

Once email addresses were collated and confirmed, the meeting could officially proceed.

Reaching quorum was constitutional. 

4. First contact: Free demo and Made in EU 

Before choosing NemoVote, the club explored multiple online solutions.

What convinced Dublin Front Runners to choose NemoVote?

• European company, headquartered in Germany, with GDPR compliance
• Transparent website
• In-depth explainer videos
• Full-featured free demo

 Mark Armstrong : “You’re literally getting all the features in the free demo. That was very nifty: you can really feel how the system works.”

The ability to test everything without restriction, built trust early on.

5. Security first: Why individual email authentication mattered

After a first setup with the NemoVote team, Dublin Front Runners opted for individual email-based authentication.

Each member:

• Received a unique voting link (Magic Link)
• Logged in via their registered email
• Could only vote once
• Could not forward access to others

Mark describes it as:

 “Your digital passport.” 

This eliminated:

• Duplicate voting
• Unauthorized access
• Fake vote risks

Security became the decisive factor for committee approval.

6. What made the difference: Magic Links & Excel upload 

Magic Links: No passwords, no stress

Instead of usernames and passwords, members received Magic Links.

• One click login
• No copy-paste errors
• No forgotten passwords
• Still fully secure

Mark Armstrong: “It was so seamless. People could just jump onto the system really quick: but it was still very secure.”

Excel upload: The unexpected game changer

What Mark expected to be difficult: uploading 600+ members, turned out to be simple:

• Copy & paste the membership list from spreadsheet
• Bulk import
• All voters ready

“I thought putting everyone’s data in would take forever. It was seamless.”

Even during the live meeting, additional verified members could be added quickly without disrupting the process.

7. Reducing stress: The live test vote 

Before the actual election, NemoVote suggested a test vote.

Question sent to all members:

“Is today Tuesday? Yes or No.”

Both online and in-person attendees participated.

Result:

• Everyone understood how voting worked
• Tension in the room disappeared
• No technical surprises
• Confidence increased immediately

Mark Armstrong: “That just cleared the room of any negativity. Every company should do that.” 

Only one participant needed a few extra minutes due to a refresh delay: resolved calmly.

8. Transparency and oversight

To ensure full legitimacy, Dublin Front Runners added multiple layers of control:

• Two internal volunteers monitoring the backend
• One independent third-party observer
• No access to results by the chair
• Live monitoring of participation

NemoVote allowed administrators to see:

• Who had voted
• Without seeing how they voted
• Fully confidential ballot

Mark Armstrong: “You can see that Mary Byrne (i.e) has voted: but not how she voted. That was a game changer.”

9. Results and member feedback

The election included:

• 1 Chairperson vote
• 1 Committee vote (14 candidates for 9 seats)

Both votes ran in quick succession.

Key benefits observed:

• Live participation tracking
• Immediate results
• Automatic pie charts
• Data export
• No manual counting
• No paper handling

Mark’s summary on the question what he loves the most:

“It’s everything. It’s the data collection, the results within seconds, the pie charts: it’s all at your fingertips.”

10. Digital voting and engagement: Does it reduce participation?

One concern before the AGM:

Would going digital reduce engagement?

The opposite happened.

• Members stayed focused during the meeting
• No technical interruptions
• Voting was intuitive
• Visual headshots (candidate profiles) on the ballot improved clarity
• Results appeared instantly

Mark Armstrong: “They were even more engaged. It became very interactive.”

11. Learnings for sports clubs 

1. Always run a test vote

Even a simple question reduces anxiety and builds trust.

2. Keep authentication secure

Individual email access ensures integrity.

3. Add oversight if needed

An election board builds additional trust.

4. Digital saves volunteer hours

No printing, no counting, no manual verification.

5. Live support matters

Even if rarely needed, having support in the background increases confidence.

12. Mark Armstrong recommends Nemovote

“Absolutely, I’d recommend NemoVote to everyone. The support is incredible. You’re not talking to a robot: you’re talking to the team who built it.”

For Ireland’s sports ecosystem, he sees major potential:

“There are huge clubs across Ireland that need this kind of system.”

13. Conclusion: Digital elections are the future for volunteer organizations

Dublin Front Runners’ experience shows:

• Digital voting increases transparency
• Security strengthens trust
• Hybrid AGMs are manageable
• Engagement remains strong
• Volunteer workload drops significantly

For organizations with:

• Large memberships
• Constitutional quorum requirements
• Confidential ballots
• Hybrid meetings

Digital voting is the logical next step.

More success stories:

FIVA's hybrid General Meeting: Proxy voting with weighting

Hybrid voting at World Sailing's General Assembly: AGM elections

Are you ready to digitize your AGM?

Start a free test vote in NemoVote or book a live demo today.