Ballot vs Simply Voting
Ballot vs Simply Voting
Simply Voting has run elections since 2003 and votes by phone, post, and kiosk as well as online. Ballot does one thing they do not: it holds your bylaws' rules about who may stand and who may vote, and records that the rules were followed.
Everything below about Simply Voting comes from their own site, checked on 19 September 2026. Where their published material does not cover something, this page says so rather than guessing. Check it yourself at www.simplyvoting.com, and write to info@yost.group if anything here is out of date.
Credit where it is due
What Simply Voting does well.
Simply Voting is an established election provider in Montreal, running online voting since 2003. If your election needs more than a browser, they are the stronger choice. Their published material covers telephone voting with audio ballots, printed and mailed paper ballots counted by their staff, kiosk voting, and a managed service with a dedicated project manager.
They also publish things Ballot cannot match today. They state a SOC 2 Type 1 attestation, regular penetration tests by a named firm, and an uptime guarantee that credits 5% of the election fee for every 30 minutes of unavailability. They document single sign-on through SAML, OpenID Connect, and CAS, and support on call 24 hours a day for election emergencies. Their ranked voting is deeper than ours: several variations of the single transferable vote for multi-seat contests, where Ballot counts single-seat contests by instant runoff only.
Their self-serve pricing is on their site as a calculator, and elections of 10 voters or fewer are free, so you can try the real product before paying.
Side by side
The differences that decide it.
| Ballot | Simply Voting | |
|---|---|---|
| One election, 250 eligible voters | $122, charged once when the election is scheduled. | $200 USD, from the calculator on their pricing page. |
| One election, 2,000 eligible voters | $487. | $900 USD, from the same calculator. |
| Several elections a year | An annual plan from $230 a year covers unlimited elections, priced by roster size. The price is published. | An annual plan is offered at “15% or more” off, by quote. No price is published. |
| Nominations with recorded consent | Included. A nominee is emailed, accepts or declines, and the record of that consent is part of the audit file. | Nominations are listed as a premium feature at additional cost. Nominees accept or decline their nomination. |
| Candidacy rules enforced by the system | You write the conditions for each seat once, for example that a candidate must currently hold a regional office. A nomination that fails a condition is recorded as ineligible with the reason and never becomes a candidate on the ballot. | Administrators review, approve, or reject nominations themselves. No encoded candidacy rule is documented. |
| Two people for decisions that matter | Required. Approving the roster, scheduling, certifying, and extending a deadline each take two people, and both names are in the record. | Role-based permissions and admin two-factor authentication. Two-person approval is not documented. |
| Ranked choice | Single-seat contests counted by instant runoff, with round-by-round tallies in the certification report. | Several variations of the single transferable vote, including multi-seat contests, plus instant runoff. |
| Voting by phone, post, or kiosk | No. Ballot is online only, from any phone or computer browser. | Yes. Telephone voting is a premium feature; printed and mailed paper ballots come with the managed service. |
| Audit trail and certification | Append-only audit trail, voter receipts, and a certification report you can download as a PDF. | Election log exportable as CSV, voter receipts, and a certified results PDF. |
| Independent security attestations | None. The security page describes the controls as built and avoids claims we have not earned. | SOC 2 Type 1 stated for Simply Voting, with data centres separately stated as SOC 2 Type 2, plus named penetration testing and PCI scanning firms. |
| Support | Email to the people who build it, at info@yost.group. No 24-hour line. | Email and telephone during business hours, with representatives on call around the clock for election emergencies. |
| Trying it first | 7 days with every feature on and no card, with elections capped at 50 eligible voters. | Elections of 10 electors or fewer are always free. |
Honestly
Which one you should pick.
Choose Simply Voting if
- Your members vote by telephone or on paper, or you need ballots printed and mailed.
- You elect several seats at once and want them counted by single transferable vote.
- Your board requires a SOC 2 attestation, a contractual uptime credit, or an on-call line during the vote.
- You want a project manager to run the election for you.
- You need single sign-on against your own identity provider.
Choose Ballot if
- Your bylaws restrict who may hold a seat, and you want that rule enforced rather than remembered.
- A nomination has to carry the candidate's recorded consent before it goes on a ballot.
- You want two named people behind approving the roster, scheduling, and certifying the result.
- You want every price published, including what a second election costs.
- You run more than one vote a year and want them all on one annual plan.
Questions
Asked by people comparing the two.
Is Ballot cheaper than Simply Voting?
For a single online election, at the sizes most associations run, yes on published prices: $122 against $200 at 250 eligible voters, and $487 against $900 at 2,000, on their calculator as of 19 September 2026.
Two honest caveats. Their elections of 10 voters or fewer are free, and neither their managed service nor their annual plan has a published price, so we cannot compare those. See our pricing page for the bands and worked examples.
Does Ballot do paper or telephone ballots?
No. Ballot is online only. If part of your membership must vote on paper or by phone, Simply Voting covers that and we do not.
Is Ballot SOC 2 certified?
No, and the security page says so plainly. It describes what is built: hashed one-time voter codes, ballots stored without identity, an append-only audit trail, two-person approvals, and administrator multi-factor authentication.
If your board requires a third-party attestation before you may use a vendor, Simply Voting states one and we do not.
Can we move an election that is already scheduled?
Yes, up until voting opens. Import your roster, set the cutoff, write the candidacy conditions, and send yourself a test email. Most first-time associations finish in an afternoon. Write to info@yost.group if you would rather we set it up with you.
Run one election and compare for yourself.
Every feature is on during the 7-day trial, with no card. If Ballot is not the better fit for your association, you will know within an afternoon.