Sandbox Vote

How your vote stays anonymous

You sign in with your Sandbox account, so we know you’re a member and can make sure you vote only once. But how you voted is never stored with your name.

What happens when you vote

We write down two things, in two separate places, with nothing that connects them:

1. That you voted. Your member id goes on a list for that ballot. This is what stops anyone voting twice.
2. What you chose. Your answers are filed under a random receipt code. The code is shown to you and kept in your browser. We keep only a scrambled fingerprint of it, which can’t be turned back into the code.

Neither list records when you voted, and neither keeps entries in the order they came in, so the two can’t be matched up by timing.

Who can see what

You

Your own vote, on the device you voted from, or anywhere you enter your receipt code. The totals for each answer once the ballot closes.

Admins

How many members have voted while the ballot is open. The totals for each answer once it closes. Never how a particular member voted.

Other members

Nothing about your vote. Those who voted see the same totals you do once the ballot closes; those who didn’t see no results.

Whoever runs the server

The same two separate lists. With direct access to the database, they still can’t tell how you voted.

Your receipt code

After you vote you get a code like 7KQF-M2XA-P9DR-4TNB-WC3E. It’s the only way to find your answers again, so:

• Your browser remembers it until you sign out. Save it if you want to see your vote on another device.
• Anyone who has your code can see how you voted. Keep it to yourself.
• If you lose it, you can’t see your vote again. It still counts, and you still can’t vote twice.

The limits, plainly

• At the moment you press submit, the server knows who is sending the vote. It uses that to add you to the “voted” list, and doesn’t keep or log the connection.
• When very few people vote, totals can give choices away. If only three members vote and all three approve, everyone knows how each of them voted. That’s true of any vote, which is one reason results stay hidden until the ballot closes.

Questions about how voting works? Ask the Sandbox board.