Restricting an election to specific tags

Use required voter tags so only students carrying a given tag can vote in an election.

Required voter tags let you limit an election to a specific group of students — postgraduates only, one campus only, one faculty only. A student without a matching tag can't open or submit the ballot.

Your students need to be tagged before this will do anything. See Importing students with tags if you haven't done that yet.

Setting required voter tags

  1. Go to Elections → Create election, or open an existing election and edit it.

  2. On Step 1: Election Information, find Required Voter Tags (Optional).

  3. Start typing and pick one or more tags from the list.

  4. Complete the rest of the wizard and save.

You can come back and change the tags at any time, including while the election is running.

How the restriction behaves

  • A student needs at least one of the selected tags to vote. Choosing Postgraduate and Sydney Campus lets through anyone with either tag — it is not an "all of" requirement.

  • Leaving the field empty applies no tag restriction.

  • A student without a matching tag is stopped both when opening the ballot and when submitting it, and sees: "You do not have the required tags to vote in this election."

  • The check runs live against the student's current tags. Add a tag to a student mid-election and they can vote immediately; remove it and they can't. Nothing needs rebuilding after a tag change.

  • Required voter tags are available on organisation-level elections only. Elections created by an individual club or society don't offer the option.

  • Only custom tags appear in the picker.

Required voter tags control who is allowed to use a ballot. Students still need to be on the election in the normal way for your election type. The tag requirement narrows that group; it doesn't replace it.

Troubleshooting

SymptomCause and fix

The Required Voter Tags field is missing or greyed out

It's available on organisation-level elections only, and needs at least one custom tag to exist. Create one under Settings → Custom tags.

A tagged student still can't vote

Confirm the tag on their record matches one selected on the election, and that they're on the election as a voter — the tag requirement filters voters, it doesn't add them.

Everyone can vote, including untagged students

The Required Voter Tags field is empty. An empty field applies no restriction.

A student was let in who shouldn't have been

They hold at least one of the selected tags. The check is "any of", not "all of" — check their record under Students → Student list → Student Tags.

Tags are missing from the picker

Only custom tags appear. Branch tags aren't available for election eligibility.

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