Vote Types

The different voting mechanisms supported by Ekklesia and their validation rules.

Terminology

Before diving into vote types, it helps to understand how Ekklesia structures things:

  • Vote (Proposal Module) — The outer wrapper containing all proposals under consideration for a voting stage
  • Ballot (Voting Module) — The votable unit presented to voters, containing one or more questions
  • Question / Proposal — An individual item on a ballot. These terms are interchangeable within the voting module. Each question can have a different vote type

So a single ballot might contain a binary yes/no question alongside a weighted allocation question — the vote type is set per question, not per ballot.

Note: “Proposal” in the voting module refers to an individual question on a ballot. This is distinct from proposals in the Proposal > > > > > > Module, which manages the submission and review process before something reaches a ballot.

Vote Types

Ekklesia supports six voting mechanisms. The Hydra validation layer enforces the rules for each type. It is up to frontends how they display the options to voters.

Binary

The simplest vote type — a yes/no/abstain question.

  • Voter selects exactly one option
  • Standard options are Yes, No, and Abstain
  • Functionally a single-choice with fixed options

Single-Choice

Pick exactly one option from any set of choices.

  • Voter selects exactly one option from the available list
  • Options are defined per question with a label and value

Multi-Choice

Select multiple options within defined bounds.

  • Voters may select multiple options
  • Selection count must fall between minSelections and maxSelections
  • No duplicate selections allowed

Range

Submit a numeric value within a defined range.

  • Voter provides a single integer value
  • Value must fall between the question’s defined min and max
  • Useful for scoring, rating, or any numeric input within bounds

Ranked

Order options by preference.

  • Voters rank options in order of preference (array position = rank)
  • Must rank exactly rankCount options (defaults to all). For example, a question may require ranking exactly 3 out of 15 candidates
  • No duplicate entries allowed
  • Can be used for ranked-choice tallying with elimination rounds

Weighted

Distribute a point budget across options.

  • Voters assign a weight (integer, non-negative) to each option
  • All weights must sum to exactly the defined budget
  • No duplicate option entries
  • Useful for allocation decisions where voters distribute limited resources across choices

All vote types share the same ballot structure and are validated at the Hydra layer. See the Hydra & Architecture section for details on how validation works inside the state channel.