Keypad Registration, Distribution and Collection

Keypad registration, distribution, and collection may seem like an afterthought, but they're both essential to a smooth and efficient voting session. Here's how to ensure that your audience knows exactly what to do both before and after the meeting is over. 

You'll have to accommodate the distribution of keypads for two possible scenarios:

1) IDENTIFIABLE VOTING

You are registering the keypads to specific people and recording their name, keypad ID and possibly other information in an electronic format, or on paper. Some clients have a requirement of adding 'weight' to some of their attendees' keypads, so that they can vote for others (proxy voting).

In this case, you MUST give the correct keypad to the correct person. No exceptions.

2) ANONYMOUS VOTING

You do not care who has which keypad as everyone is voting anonymously. You can give the keypads out randomly, without any record (other than, perhaps to say 'you have been given A KEYPAD). You can even say to the voters concerned about privacy - "Go ahead and swap the keypad with someone else."

A1) Regular (Non-Weighted) Keypad Registration & Distribution

When deciding where to register your participants, keep in mind the layout of your venue. Registration tables can be placed anywhere near the entrance to the voting area, either before the voters enter, or after they are already inside.

If your meeting location has multiple entrances, set up a table near each entrance to distribute the keypads. Make an estimate of how many people will be participating to ensure that you have enough clickers for the event, then ensure that each registration table has a sufficient amount of keypads on-hand to distribute to your voters.

Make sure the registration area is clearly visible; placing helpful signs and markers can help direct the flow of incoming voters and eliminate any confusion.

- Multiple PollPad registration stations at Rehobot's Annual Town Meeting greatly streamlined the processing of the registered voters.

- Seekonk is distributing the voting clickers at each of the stations. Residents go to the table that represents their district. This process can be simplified by only requiring that residents go to the table with their last name initial, like "M - S" for "Smith"

- Outdoor registration process may vary greatly, because of the precautions you need to take due to COVID-19 restrictions, or inclement weather preparedness. This photo from Westford shows the registration stations well spaced-out.

- At the 2024 NAACP Resolutions Plenary session, we set up a special 'lane' just for the delegates, so that the keypads can be distributed efficiently and the attendees can get into the (dedicated) doors and grab their meals on the way in.

- If you have more than 1,000 voters registering and/or picking up their keypads, the more 'registration & distribution stations' and keypad distributors you have, the better. We learned our lesson this year, and are going to provide two separate 'lanes' and six volunteers for this 2,000-person event next year!

A2) Weighted Keypad Registration & Distribution

When your voting is weighted (participants may carry proxy votes), make sure that your participant list is accurate to the last minute (or as far out before the event as you can) before distributing the keypads to the voters.

This is an example of distributing the pre-assigned keypads with their corresponding weights listed on a 'name card' or 'place card', along with the identification ribbon.

If the keypads cannot be pre-assigned, you should create a participant list with specific groups of keypads allocated to each group of proxy votes + leave some room for keypad exchanges and/or group growth.

For example, if you know your group has 100 participants and 10 of them will carry 4 total votes (3 proxies + 1 of their own), 7 others will carry 3 total votes and 5 will carry 2 total votes, you can set aside and mark these keypads with color-coded stickers, and make note of the keypad ranges for each group. This way, even if the color-coded sticker is missing, you know what weight the keypad carries.

B) Keypad Collection

There are two scenarios to consider here:

1) Voter is leaving temporarily (bio break, take a call, stretch their legs, get a snack, etc.)

Depending on your bylaws, you might want to require that they surrender their keypad every time they vacate the 'voting area' as defined in your bylaws. This prevents the spouse, friend, or a stranger from unauthorized votes being cast in their name, or voting more than once - now that they have access to multiple keypads.

This is more of a logistically difficult if you are running an 'identifiable voting session' where you have to give the correct keypad to the correct individual, but it's doable via a check-in/check-out process at a designated station.

2) Voter is leaving permanently

In this scenario, you don't care if the keypad is returned to the right person (or maybe your voting is anonymous, so you never did), because they're not coming back. It can either mean that one person is leaving and never coming back, or everyone is leaving because the voting session is over.

You should prepare for a 'mass exodus' and have multiple exits ready for collection of the keypads.

Participants may be in a hurry to leave as the event concludes, and it's not uncommon for some voters to accidentally take their keypads with them. As a precautionary measure, it is helpful to announce at the beginning and end of the meeting that the participants need to drop off their keypads in an area that you designate. Ideally, the drop-off area should be as close to the exit of your venue as possible. Many opt to simply place their keypad drop-off area right at the registration desk. 

Any type of container will be fine, as long as it is large enough to accommodate a large number of keypads. Similar to registration, it is very helpful to clearly mark the drop-off area with a sign or poster, and have attendants stationed at each drop-off area to ensure that nobody leaves with your keypads. 

- In Seekonk, there were 'keypad drop-off' bins available at each of the exits. After the photo was taken, signs above each bin, and a staff member directed anyone who was leaving to drop the clicker off there.

- In Rehoboth, they have keypad drop-off bins positioned all around the meeting room, so no matter where you are coming from, you can drop off your voting device conveniently and without waiting to get through the bottlenecks at the exits.

- In Orangeburg, SC at the 7th Day Adventist meeting, we had 1,100 attendees leave through many different door on each side of the building, so the unattended drop-off areas were critical to collect the keypads. It's a good idea to have the signs written in any prevalent language that your audience is known to understand.

- At the 2023 NAACP National Resolutions Plenary Session in Boston, we used clear signage and bins/baskets to collect the clickers.

- In 2024, at the NAACP meeting in Las Vegas, we used similar signage and bins/baskets to collect the clickers.

- At the latest Seventh-Day Adventist Southwest Region Conference in Keene, TX, we used a multi-tier registration desk system so that every station only has to deal with around 100 participants. Since this was a multi-day event, the participants kept their keypads overnight, but signed them out, so that we know who was given which keypad number.