Voting Contest Template: How to Create One and the Plan It Requires
ShortStack's help documentation sets out the steps for a voting contest template: add an Entry Display Widget, connect an entry list, enable voting, and save. The same guide states that its voting setup requires the Launch plan. Optional filters, a voting date range and Voting Restrictions complete the setup before the campaign goes live.
Prepared by ContestsOnline editorial desk — Revised
Widget, entry list and voting tab
A ShortStack campaign renders a voting contest through three linked parts, and the vendor's help documentation introduces them in dependency order. The Entry Display Widget draws whatever entries the organiser connects to it. The Entry Source settings tie that widget to a list, either one that already exists or a new one created on the spot. The Voting tab supplies the Enable Voting checkbox, and until it is checked the page renders entries that nobody can vote on. That three-part structure is what makes a voting contest template reusable: the parts stay fixed from one contest to the next, while the list, the labels and the dates change. Build the skeleton once, and a second contest is mostly a matter of swapping the list.
Plan requirements before the build
The plan requirement sits above every other step. ShortStack labels its voting setup guide as requiring the Launch plan, and that note stands at the top of the instructions, last reviewed in February 2026. A campaign on a lower tier can hold entries and render them, but the tab with the vote switch belongs to that plan, so the build stalls halfway if the tier is wrong. Confirm it first. Then build once rather than twice, because the widget, the list and the tab are all configured inside the same campaign.
Dates, filters and restrictions
Three optional controls sit around the vote button. A date range makes the button appear on the start date and disappear on the end date without anyone editing the campaign, which enforces the window mechanically rather than by memory. Filters shape what the widget shows: displayed entries can be filtered by votes, category, or label, so a ranked view, a category view and a labelled shortlist all come from the same widget. Voting Restrictions live behind a checkbox in the widget settings, and that checkbox is the documented place to limit who can cast a vote. The guide marks each of the three as optional, which means a minimal contest needs none of them; the button, the list and the tab alone will run one.
From the voter's side these controls are invisible as settings and obvious as behaviour: a button that appears on opening day, a list ordered or grouped the way the filters decide, and a button that vanishes when the window closes. A window that closes on its own needs no announcement.
Scoreboards that guests update
An online scoreboard that updates itself is a display widget pointed at a live list. In the documented flow the Entry Display Widget pulls its entries from the connected Entry Source, and the votes attached to entries are something the widget can filter on, which means the display tracks them as they come in. Guests who vote are, in effect, the guests who move the numbers; nobody maintains the standings by hand. An organiser who wants that kind of board can run the contest itself rather than keeping a tally beside the template. The alternative methods that come up in practice, shared documents and manual tallies, put the update work on a person, and they fall out of date the moment someone forgets. A vote button wired to the list does not forget.
Templates for the finals
A voting contest template does not need the finalist names to exist, and this is worth saying plainly to anyone planning a finals round. The structure, widget, list connection and voting controls, is round-agnostic. What changes between a heat and a final is the Entry Source list, and the documentation treats that list as a setting: connect an existing one or create a new one. So the sensible order is to build early with an empty or provisional list, then swap in the finalists once they are known. Filtering by label or category goes further and lets one campaign hold a preliminary field and a shortlisted final together, with the date range switching the window between rounds. A dedicated finals version is then a copy of the structure with a new list behind it, not a different product.
Rules the organiser writes, rules the platform enforces
Legality, platform rules and disqualification are decided outside the widget. The documented mechanics enable voting, run the window and apply restrictions; they do not make a contest lawful where it runs, and they do not write the rules that decide who wins. Disqualification for manipulated or inauthentic votes, for example, rests on the organiser's published rules and the platform's own terms, not on any checkbox in the setup. That division of labour is the honest reading of the guide: it tells an organiser how to switch the machinery on, and it leaves the governance to the organiser. The checklist below is therefore not part of the vendor's flow at all.
- Name who is allowed to vote, and where they must live, before the campaign goes live.
- State whether entrants can ask for votes elsewhere, and on which platforms.
- Write the disqualification criteria down, because disputes are settled against that text.
- Keep the rules visible for the whole window, entry through the final count.
Where the documentation stops
The documentation covers mechanics and stops there. The vendor documents what its buttons do, and the contest's own governance is the organiser's document to write. That boundary is not a flaw in the guide; it is the shape of the product. What follows from it is a short list of things an organiser will need to decide alone, because no setting in the setup flow generates them.
- Vote caps per person: the guide states none.
- Tie-breaks: no documented setting decides them.
- Prize wording, value and delivery: outside the template.
- Voter data handling: not addressed by the setup flow.
| Control | Where it lives | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Entry Display Widget | Campaign builder | Renders the entries that voters see |
| Entry Source | Widget settings | Connects a list or creates a new one |
| Enable Voting | Voting tab | Shows the vote button on entries |
| Date range | Voting tab | Shows and hides the button on set dates |
| Voting Restrictions | Widget settings | Limits who can cast a vote |
Procedure
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Confirm the plan
ShortStack's help documentation notes that its voting setup requires the Launch plan, so confirm the campaign sits on that tier before anything is built. The note appears at the top of the voting instructions, last reviewed in February 2026.
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Add the Entry Display Widget
Drag and drop the Entry Display Widget into your campaign or into the Edit Widgets Panel. The widget is the surface that renders entries; without it there is nothing for a vote button to attach to.
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Connect an entry list
In Entry Source settings, select a list to connect to or create a new one. The list holds the entries, so a finals round can be run later by pointing the same widget at a fresh list.
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Turn voting on
Click the Voting tab on the left side and check the box Enable Voting. Until that box is checked the campaign renders entries but accepts no votes.
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Filter what displays
Filter the displayed entries by votes, category, or label where the contest needs a leaderboard, grouped categories or a labelled shortlist. The filter is optional.
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Set the voting dates
Set a date range so the platform automatically shows and hides the vote button on the start and end dates. A window set this way runs itself, with no manual edits on either day.
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Enable Voting Restrictions
Check the box to Enable Voting Restrictions where the contest needs limits on who can cast a vote. The checkbox lives in the widget settings, next to the display options.
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Save and exit
Click the Save & Exit button to apply your settings. Preview the campaign afterwards, checking that the vote button appears only inside the dates and the filters you set.
Readers ask
How do you create an online voting contest?
ShortStack's documentation walks through it in eight moves: drag in an Entry Display Widget, connect an entry list, check Enable Voting in the Voting tab, and set filters, dates and restrictions. The same guide states that voting requires the Launch plan, which is worth confirming before any widget is added.
I have a question: does anyone have voting templates for the finals?
Yes, though the vendor's documentation treats a template as a starting structure rather than a finished finals page. A voting contest template supplies the Entry Display Widget, the entry list connection and the Voting tab; the finalists themselves are entered afterwards, so the same structure carries a preliminary round or a final without rebuilding.
Which alternative methods or platforms allow me to create an online scoreboard my guests can update?
A live entry list behind an Entry Display Widget works as exactly that kind of scoreboard. In ShortStack the widget pulls its entries from the connected list, and every vote updates the display, so your guests maintain the standings themselves through the vote button rather than through manual edits. Other contest platforms offer comparable widgets, but their setup steps differ, and each vendor's own guide is the authority for them.
Could it be that they just don't have a template yet because we don't know who will be in the final?
Yes, organisers routinely launch the structure before the finalist list exists. Nothing in the setup depends on knowing the names yet: the template fixes the widget, the list connection and the voting controls, while the Entry Source list stays editable. Once the final line-up is known, entries are added or labels are changed, and the vote button works unchanged. Filtering by label or category lets a preliminary round and a final share one campaign.
What stops fake votes in a ShortStack voting contest?
Voting Restrictions are the documented control: the widget settings include a checkbox to enable them, and the organiser decides what that restriction asks of the voter. The date range narrows the window as well. What the documentation does not publish is any detection detail, so manipulated votes are a matter for the organiser's published rules and the platform's terms, which is where disqualification wording belongs.
Notes and sources
- help.shortstackapp.com. help.shortstackapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/234749448-How-to-Set-Up-Voting.
- help.shortstackapp.com. help.shortstackapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/234749448-How-to-Set-Up-Voting.
- help.shortstackapp.com. help.shortstackapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/234749448-How-to-Set-Up-Voting.
- help.shortstackapp.com. help.shortstackapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/234749448-How-to-Set-Up-Voting.
- help.shortstackapp.com. help.shortstackapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/234749448-How-to-Set-Up-Voting.
No template makes a contest lawful, and none of the steps here replaces the organiser's own published rules. The page never quotes prices and never describes platforms beyond the vendor documentation it draws on. A vote count shown in a widget is not a certificate that every vote was genuine; the restrictions checkbox limits who can participate, and the rules carry everything the widget cannot decide.
Woobox's user terms require entrants to agree to the organiser's official rules, so any limit on bought or incentivised votes depends on the particular contest. Walmart's Associate Talent Search rules prohibit paying for votes and let Walmart void fraudulent votes or disqualify the entrant. The platform's terms and the organiser's rules are two documents, and a disqualification is decided under the second.
Woobox lists three warning signs of bought votes: many votes from one IP address, votes from people in different countries and regular voting intervals. Award Force says its platform detects and blocks automated or scripted voting and rate-limits rapid voting. Ordinary participation is uneven in time and independent in origin, so it shows none of those patterns; this describes how checks read a count and is not a method for passing one.
In the United States, the FTC says a sweepstakes cannot require a purchase to enter, and California says a sweepstakes must offer a way to enter without cost. Those rules concern sweepstakes entry, not votes: whether a contest allows paid votes is written in its own rules, and ViralSweep even lets organisers configure Pay to Vote. Contests whose rules bar outside votes are refused, and so are political ballots.
Once voting closes, a refund applies where votes ordered for a contest never appear in the count the contest itself displays. ViralSweep says its protections may silently flag and block a vote, and Woobox says votes from IP addresses it has flagged as fraudulent do not count even when the voter appears to have succeeded, so the displayed count is the test. An organiser's ruling or a disqualification is never refunded, and neither is an account ban such as the permanent one Gleam says a breach of its terms may bring.