What does it really cost to run social elections? A line-by-line breakdown
"How much does it cost?" is the question everyone asks and no one answers straight, because there is no single price. The real cost of a social election breaks down into several lines, the heaviest of which is almost always the one people forget. Here is the calculation, line by line, and where online voting changes the equation.
Line 1, Internal time (the most underestimated)
This is the hidden cost, and the biggest. Running social elections mobilises, for months:
- HR, who drive the whole procedure, the deadlines, the lists;
- IT, for data preparation, access, infrastructure;
- management, for communication and local logistics.
The procedure runs over 150 days, with about ten intermediate deadlines. Every poorly anticipated step is paid for in overtime. When an HR director looks back on their 2024 elections, it is almost never the technology that took up their time, it is the administrative time. Cost it out: a share of several people's time over several months quickly becomes the top line of the budget.
Line 2, Printing and mailing
For a paper vote: printing the ballots (per college, stamped), the convocations, and the mailing, sometimes by registered post for remote voters. On a large or multi-site headcount, this line climbs: paper, finishing, postage, and the time to stuff envelopes.
It is the first line online voting makes almost entirely disappear.
Line 3, Polling-station logistics
Voting day has a material and human cost: booths, boxes, equipment, room setup, and above all the mobilisation of staff, chairperson, secretary, assessors, tied up on their work time, multiplied by the number of bureaus and sites.
A multi-site company mechanically multiplies this line. This is where online voting (or hybrid, with a few kiosks) strongly cuts the bill: fewer physical bureaus, less staff mobilised, less equipment.
Line 4, Counting
The paper count takes hours and ties up the bureau. Electronic counting is immediate and automated. The saving is not just time: it also removes manual counting errors, which can themselves trigger a challenge.
Line 5, Legal risk (the most expensive when it materialises)
This is the line no one budgets and that costs the most when it hits. A challenged and then annulled election has to be run again: the whole procedure, all the time, all the logistics, a second time, not to mention the damage to the social climate.
The classic grounds for a challenge (badly drawn lists, a contested TBU split, a questionable count, late postal ballots) are all financial risks. Reducing that risk through traceability and verifiability is not a luxury: it is insurance against the highest cost.
Where online voting changes the equation
Line the costs up. Online voting adds one line (the software) but reduces or removes:
- printing and mailing (line 2) → nearly eliminated;
- polling logistics (line 3) → strongly reduced;
- counting time (line 4) → nearly eliminated;
- legal risk (line 5) → reduced by traceability.
On a small single-site setup, the maths can stay tight. But as soon as there is volume, several sites or dispersed staff, the saving on lines 2 to 5 generally offsets, and often exceeds, the software cost. And the internal time (line 1) drops too, because the tool automates what used to be done by hand.
In short
The cost of a social election is not a software price: it is mostly internal time, printing, polling logistics, counting and legal risk. Online voting adds a tool cost but lightens all the other lines, the more so the larger, more multi-site or more dispersed the company. The right move: cost out every line, not just the "vendor" one.
To prepare your 2027 budget with the right timing, read Social elections 2028: the countdown starts. And if you want a costing tailored to your structure, let's talk.
