Appointing a Proxy

From the voter who will vote for you. They generate it in their own voter portal and share it with you, and you enter it in your portal to complete the appointment.

1. Ask the voter who will attend to share their proxy code with you. They will find it in their own voter portal, under Proxy voting.
2. Sign in to your portal using your emailed link or your access code.
3. Open Proxy voting, enter their code under Have a proxy code?, and confirm.

You will see a confirmation naming the person who will now cast on your behalf, and both of you receive an email confirming the appointment.

Many members lodge a proxy the traditional way instead of doing it in their portal: a signed paper form, an email to the office, or a phone call. Your association can enter that appointment for you so it still takes effect.

When an administrator records an appointment this way, the association's proxy register shows that it was recorded by the association, who entered it, and what it was based on: a signed form, an email, a phone call, or an in-person request.

You will receive the same confirmation email you would get if you had appointed the proxy yourself, and it names your association as the party that recorded it.

The appointment is real either way. Your vote is carried by the person named, exactly as if you had entered their code yourself.

Appointments close when voting opens, or at the deadline your organization has set, whichever comes first. If voting opens ahead of the stated deadline, the deadline no longer matters and appointments are already closed.

• You can appoint one person, not several.
• You can't appoint someone who has already appointed a proxy of their own.
• If you are already holding someone else's proxy, you can't hand your own vote on to a third person.
• Your organization may cap how many proxies one voter is allowed to hold, so a code can stop working once that person is full.

If a code is rejected, check it with the voter who gave it to you. They may have generated a new one, which immediately retires the old one.

You can revoke the appointment yourself, from your portal, at any time up until voting opens. Your vote returns to you and you can cast it normally.

After voting opens, only an administrator can void a proxy, and they record a reason for doing so. If you need one voided at that point, contact the meeting administrator.

Sometimes you're appointed as someone's proxy holder, whether they did it themselves or your association recorded it for them, and you don't want to carry their vote. You can decline.

1. Sign in to your portal and open Proxy voting. Everyone who has appointed you is listed under Voters you are casting for.
2. Press Decline next to that member's name, and confirm. You cannot undo a decline from your portal, so check the name before you confirm.
3. That member's vote returns to them and they are told it is theirs again. If appointments are still open, they can appoint someone else instead.

You can decline any of them yourself, right up until voting opens, even if the appointment deadline has already passed. A passed deadline never traps you in an appointment you did not agree to hold.

They cast the vote, not you. If you try to vote yourself afterwards, the system won't let you.

You'll still receive the formal meeting notice, because notice is owed to every voter no matter how they plan to vote. You will not receive the voting invitation or reminder emails, because the person you appointed is voting in your place. If your inbox goes quiet after you appoint a proxy, that's expected, not a sign something went wrong.

The person you appointed casts once, and that single vote carries their own weight plus the weight of everyone who appointed them. When they cast, your weight is carried with it and you are recorded as represented on that question. If they never cast, no vote is recorded for you, so it is worth confirming they intend to attend.

Holding proxies for other voters and want to divide those votes between options? See splitting your votes.

Setting this up for your organization? See the administrator guide to proxy voting.