Reference
Troubleshooting
The problems people actually hit while running or taking part in a poll, and what each one usually means.
"This poll is not accepting options right now"
Collection is not open. One of these is true:
- the collection window has not started yet — the poll page shows when it does;
- collection has closed and the poll is waiting for voting to open;
- the poll only lets the owner add options, and you are not the owner;
- voting has started, which freezes options permanently.
Voting has not started even though the time has passed
Almost always: the poll has fewer than two options. Voting cannot open on a single option, so the poll stays in collecting options. The management page says so.
Add another option and voting will open at the next reconciliation — which happens the moment anyone opens the poll, so effectively immediately.
A poll seems stuck in the wrong phase
Open the poll. Its phase is brought up to date whenever somebody looks at it, so this is usually all it takes.
If it still looks wrong, check that the poll is not a draft — drafts never advance on their own, by design. Publish it first.
Nobody received a "voting has opened" email
In order of likelihood:
- They took part before accounts were required. Those participants receive no notifications, because Democratia has no way to reach them — see Accounts and participation.
- It was already sent. Each announcement goes out once per poll and is never repeated, so check the recipient's in-app notifications rather than their inbox.
- The announcement was deliberately skipped, because the entire voting window had already elapsed by the time the poll caught up. Announcing that voting is open for a window that shut yesterday would be a lie, so nothing is sent — see The poll lifecycle.
If none of those fits, the installation itself may not be delivering mail. That is for whoever runs it to check; the repository's README covers it.
"Page not found" for a poll that exists
Three possibilities, and the platform deliberately does not distinguish them in the response:
- the link is wrong or was regenerated by the owner;
- it is a private poll and you were not invited;
- it is still a draft, and you are not its owner.
The vagueness is intentional: a "forbidden" response would confirm that a poll exists at that address. See Private polls.
The results page returns an error
Results are unavailable until the poll reaches results published. This applies to the owner as well — there is no early sight.
If the poll is closed and should have published, check whether automatic publication is on. If it was turned off — including automatically, when results were withdrawn — publish it by hand from the management page.
"The voting method cannot change"
A ballot has already been submitted. Changing the method would make existing ballots meaningless, so it is locked from the first ballot onwards. Nothing can unlock it: the alternative is a new poll.
"An option with a very similar name already exists"
Duplicate detection folds case, accents and extra spacing, so serra DA estrela collides with
Serra da Estrela. If they really are different things, give them names a participant could tell apart —
which they will need anyway in order to vote sensibly.
An old ballot cannot be edited by the person who cast it
If it was cast before accounts were required, it belongs to a browser cookie rather than to an account. The ballot still exists and still counts, but no account owns it, so nobody can edit it.
This is exactly the problem the account requirement removed. See Accounts and participation.
The interface is in the wrong language
Check the order in which the language is resolved: your account preference wins over any choice stored in a browser. If you are signed in, the account menu and the account page both write to your account, so either is enough — but a language set on one device follows you to the others, which is occasionally surprising.
The theme flashes the wrong colours
It should not, because the theme is decided by the server before anything renders. If you do see a flash, the stylesheet is not reaching your browser — report it to whoever runs the installation.
Two people voted from the same computer and one overwrote the other
They were signed in to the same account. One ballot per account per poll is enforced by the database, so the second submission replaced the first rather than adding to it.
Each person needs their own account. For anything where it matters that only entitled people vote, use a private poll as well: it admits exactly the accounts on its invitation list.