Board voting software: proxies, weights and secret ballots

The rules are fixed before the first vote

A vote that changes its own rules halfway is not a vote. When a poll opens, Mithaq takes a snapshot of the eligible members, so adding a member later does not change who could vote. The quorum defaults to a majority of eligible members and can be set higher. The pass threshold defaults to more than half of the yes and no votes and can also be set. Where members carry different weights, as on some federation or shareholder bodies, each member's weight is fixed with the poll.

A poll can be tied to a meeting or stand on its own. It can also send a notice to members by WhatsApp when it opens, in addition to the notice in the portal.

Proxies with a paper trail, and changed votes that stay visible

A member can vote through a proxy. The proxy record names the principal and the proxy holder, carries an authorisation reference, the person who granted it, the time it was granted and an expiry time, and it can be revoked. The vote itself records both the member it represents and the member who cast it, so the minutes can say who voted on whose behalf.

On an open poll a member may change their answer before it closes. That is legitimate. What is not legitimate is the first answer disappearing, so Mithaq keeps each earlier answer with its time on the vote record.

Secret ballots, where the paper carries no name

For elections and other sensitive votes, a poll can be secret. Mithaq then keeps two separate things. The roll records who voted and when, and carries no choice. The papers record the choice, and carry no voter and no timestamp. The paper set is encrypted with AES-256-GCM on every write, and totals stay hidden until the ballot closes. Each voter receives a receipt once, to check later that their paper was counted. A secret ballot refuses a second vote.

We state the limit plainly. The people who run the server and hold the application key are trusted. This design keeps choices away from administrators in the normal course of work; it is not an end-to-end verifiable election system.

Conflicts are checked before the vote, not after

If a member has declared a conflict against a meeting, the server refuses that member's vote on it, and the refusal also applies when the member tries to vote as someone else's proxy. Where AI is switched on with a hosted provider, Mithaq also compares each new poll with members' declared interests and shows a hint when a vote may touch one. The hint never excludes anyone. The feature page on conflicts of interest explains both steps.