Behind the scenes of an online election run on ONLZ
There is plenty of talk about the security and legality of online voting. But concretely, what does an election run with ONLZ look like, from the first setup to the announcement of results? Here is the real course of a vote, seen from the inside, including from the control bureau on voting day.
Step 1, Setup: the election in minutes
It all starts by creating the election. You define the colleges (blue-collar, white-collar, young workers, executives), import the voter list, enter the candidate lists, and set the voting window (opening and closing date and time).
This is where the legal split takes shape inside the tool: one vote per college, each with its own ballot. The point of this phase is simple: the digital configuration should mirror the company's legal reality exactly.
[Screenshot to insert: the election setup screen in ONLZ.]
Step 2, Distributing the credentials
Once the election is configured, each voter receives their voting credentials through the chosen channel: email, SMS, a printed personal code, or a combination to cover every population. Two-channel authentication ensures that only the right voter can vote, and only once.
At this stage, the dashboard shows who has received their access, without ever revealing how anyone voted, the system separates identity from ballot from the start.
[Screenshot to insert: the credential distribution tracking.]
Step 3, Voting, from any device
On the day, the voter logs in from their smartphone, tablet or computer, or from a kiosk installed on site. They identify themselves, reach their ballot, make their choice, and confirm. The system immediately shows them a confirmation that their vote is recorded, no uncertainty, no ballot getting lost.
For the voter, the whole thing takes under a minute. On the system side, the vote is encrypted and detached from any identifying data: even ONLZ cannot know who the person voted for. That is the heart of the cryptographic system.
[Screenshot to insert: the voting screen and the confirmation the voter receives.]
Step 4, The control bureau, on voting day
This is the part rarely seen. Throughout the vote, the polling bureau, chairperson, secretary, assessors, and the witnesses appointed by the lists, follows the process from a dedicated dashboard.
What they see: the real-time turnout, college by college, with no information whatsoever about the content of the votes. They can trigger a fresh reminder if one college's turnout lags, watch the flow, and check that everything is running normally. It is the digital equivalent of watching a ballot box, except here, oversight rests on verifiable indicators rather than a physical object.
The witnesses keep their full role: they observe, and can have any remark entered in the minutes.
[Screenshot to insert: the control bureau's view, real-time turnout.]
Step 5, Closing and counting
At closing time, the voting window shuts automatically, no vote can be added after that. The count is instant and automated: the system decrypts and tallies the ballots, applies the D'Hondt method to allocate seats, and produces the results by college.
Where a paper count takes hours and ties up staff, the electronic count is immediate and reproducible. And above all, it is verifiable: logs and digital seals let you check that the tally matches the ballots cast.
[Screenshot to insert: the automated counting screen.]
Step 6, The results
The results appear by college: number of voters, distribution of votes by list, seats allocated. The bureau can generate the minutes and the documents to hand to the employer. What, in the paper procedure, plays out on day Y+1 and Y+2 is here available within minutes of closing.
[Screenshot to insert: the results screen and the minutes generation.]
What this behind-the-scenes reveals
Seen from the inside, an online vote is not a black box, quite the opposite: every step is more traceable than on paper. The setup mirrors the legal framework, distribution is tracked, the vote is confirmed to the voter, the bureau watches turnout in real time, and the count is instant and verifiable. Ballot secrecy is never compromised, identity and ballot stay separated from start to finish.
Want to see these screens for real, on your own test election? Request a demo.
