Feature 2026 Election managers: Role separation in online elections

Election committee & election manager: Role separation in online elections with NemoVote enables advanced access control management - With a license from the umbrella organization, all associated organizations can act as election managers and only see their own elections. This keeps control and overview centralized without local teams gaining access to external data.

Chapter

1. (TL;DR) Short and sweet
2. The problem: Too much or too little access in large structures
3. How the election manager role works in NemoVote
4. Fine-grained authorizations: What can, what can't?
5. Use cases: From national/local associations to candidacy management
6. Success Stories: GO!, World Sailing and a Swiss association
7. Interaction with sealed voting and other features
8. Conclusion: Election committees in multi-tenant mode

Short and sweet

In large associations, umbrella associations often buy the license, while subsidiary associations, boards or election committees organize the elections locally. Election manager roles solve this: local teams only see their own voter lists and elections, central admins retain the overall view.

The organizer role in NemoVote is finely configurable: permissions can be granted or revoked live at any time. This enables scalable structures from small clubs to international umbrella organizations.

The problem: too much or too little access in large structures

In large associations or umbrella organizations with many local units, a role problem quickly arises: national associations need an overview of all elections, but local associations should only be able to see and edit their own data. Full admin rights for local election managers are too powerful, pure viewer rights are too limited.

Typical scenarios:

• National association buys NemoVote license, distributes to 10+ local associations.
• Election committees need rights to organize, but no access to other elections.
• Candidates should create their own candidacy profiles without admin rights.

The solution: A configurable organizer role that meets exactly these requirements.

How the election manager role works in NemoVote

The election manager role (internally "organizer") is given most admin rights - but with precise control over which actions are allowed. Each election can have any number of election managers, all with identical or customized permissions.

• Live configuration: authorizations can be assigned or withdrawn at any time during the election.
• Multi-tenant capable: An election manager only sees the elections and voter lists assigned to them.
• Scalable: From a local election committee to hundreds of election managers in an association.
• No hierarchy: All election managers in an election have the same defined rights.

Fine-grained authorizations: What can, what can't?

Election manager rights can be configured with extremely fine granularity. Central admins define exactly which actions are permitted in four areas for each election and each election manager:

Area 1: Votes

Area 2: Voter Lists

Area 3: Voters (individual voters)

Area 4: Mailings (e-mail communication)

Overarching restriction

Admins have full flexibility: they can decide individually for each election and each election manager which permissions are active - and can also adjust them retrospectively. This means that tailor-made role assignments can be implemented for every organization and every use case.

Use cases: From umbrella organizations to candidacy management

Use case 1: Umbrella organizations

Scenario: A national association buys a NemoVote license and distributes it to 50 local associations. Each local association should be able to conduct elections independently - without access to other associations.

• The national association is the admin and sees all elections centrally.
• Local associations are election managers for their own elections.
• Each local association only sees its voter lists, ballot papers and results.
• Central support and accounting remain with the national association.

Result: Multi-tenant structure without separate instances - one system, many independent units.

Use case 2: Election committees with and without access to results

Scenario: An election committee organizes a sensitive board election. The results should only be visible after the seal has been broken by the independent election management.

• Election committee receives election manager role without "breaking the seal".
• Committee can maintain voter lists, configure ballots, start election.
• Results remain sealed until admin or authorized election management opens the seal.

Result: Independence and security against challenge through clear separation of roles.

Use case 3: Candidacy management by candidates themselves

Scenario: In a large election with many candidates, they should create and manage their profiles themselves.

• Each candidate receives election manager rights to create an "election" - their own candidacy profile.
• Title format: Candidacy: Vice President, Sample Man
• Description contains picture, letter of motivation, CV, links to website, or similar.
• The fields "Option" and "Election rules" remain empty or irrelevant.
• As soon as ready: Candidate opens the "Election" (without voters) or marks title with "Final".
• Admin then revokes the election manager authorization → Profile is locked and can no longer be changed.

Result: Independent candidate management without admin effort - scalable for elections with dozens of candidates.

This use case is already being prepared by an anonymized customer in Switzerland for a larger election.

Success stories: GO!, World Sailing and a Swiss association

GO! onderwijs van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap

GO!, which coordinates over 1,000 schools, uses election manager roles to involve decentralized election committees without them having access to other school elections. The role makes it possible for local organizers to conduct their elections independently - centrally controlled by the GO! administration.

World Sailing

At World Sailing, election manager roles are used to separate the various committees in a meaningful way. The committee can fully organize the election, but has no access to other elections. A lived role-rights concept.

Anonymized Swiss Association

A large Swiss association plans to use the candidacy management model for an upcoming election with over 30 candidates. Each candidate manages their own profile as an election manager - the central admin maintains an overview and approval control.

Interaction with sealed voting and other features

Election manager + sealed voting

Election manager roles work seamlessly with sealed voting:

• Election managers without "break seal" authorization do not see sealed results.
• Only when admin or authorized person breaks the seal, results become visible.
• The log shows who has broken the seal - full traceability.

Election manager + comment on vote

Election managers can - if authorized - add comments to votes:

• Documentation of irregularities directly in the system.
• Time-stamped, personalized, unchangeable.
• Visible to all authorized admins and election managers of this election.

Adjust authorizations retrospectively

Flexibility is key: admins can adjust authorizations live at any time:

• Election manager receives "break seal" authorization retrospectively if the election management approves this.
• Candidates' editing rights are revoked after completion.
• Support teams receive temporary access for troubleshooting, then revoked.

Conclusion: Election committees in multi-tenant mode

The election manager role is the missing piece of the puzzle for large associations, umbrella organizations and complex election structures. It makes it possible to delegate responsibility without jeopardizing control or data protection.

• National and local associations can work independently - without separate bodies.
• Organizeelection committees without premature access to results.
• Candidates manage their profiles themselves, centrally approved.

With fine-grained authorizations, live adjustments and seamless integration into sealed voting and comment voting, NemoVote creates the technical basis for legally compliant, scalable and delegable online elections.

To our knowledge, NemoVote is the only online voting tool that allows such a complex role-rights system for umbrella organizations. Find out more in our complete comparison of the TOP 10 online voting systems

If your structure needs more than one admin - but not everyone should see everything - the election manager role is the solution.