Ballots and results#

Results are entered as ballots. A debate can have several ballot versions; the one confirmed, non-discarded version is the result. Standings are calculated live from confirmed ballots.

Where things are:

Deep reference: results-and-ballots.md, ballot-intake.md, staff-access.md.

Ballot settings#

All on Configuration → Scoring & ballots unless stated.

Locked once ballots exist: the format, teams per debate, substantive speakers, reply scoring, preliminary ballot mode, Ballots ask for speaker scores and score criteria (existing ballots would no longer fit). Changing a scoring setting after ballots exist asks for confirmation; see Recalculating stored ballots.

Consensus and voting ballots#

Points. BP: 1st = 3, 2nd = 2, 3rd = 1, 4th = 0. Two-team: win = 1. N-team rooms: teams in the room − rank. Preliminary round points are multiplied by the round's weight (Round settings); wins and speaks are not.

Voting ballots in practice

1. Allocate a chair (the page says Allocate a chair before entering voting ballots).
2. The speaker order is set on the chair's sheet and shared by every sheet.
3. Enter each adjudicator's scores. Every sheet must produce a winner.
4. A tied panel (e.g. 1–1) is decided by the chair's sheet. With no chair sheet the ballot is refused.
5. Fill from private-URL ballots copies each adjudicator's latest private-URL sheet into the ballot and warns about disagreements and missing adjudicators.

Mean or median. Mean is exact (not rounded). Median follows Tabbycat: an odd panel takes the median; an even panel takes the mean rounded up to a whole number (75 and 76 give 76). With score criteria each criterion is combined separately. Team totals and margins are always the mean of the sheets' totals.

Deciding the winner#

This replaces the old Allow low-point wins switch (still read for older tournaments). It applies to every voting sheet as well.

Validation#

A ballot is checked before it saves; the page lists every problem.

• Speeches: exactly the configured number of substantive speeches per team, in order, by speakers on the team's roster.
• Scores: within range and on the step (or each criterion within its own range and step).
• Ranks / winner: see above. BP needs each rank 1st–4th once.
• Maximum margin, when set.
• Replies (two-team, reply scoring on): one per team, not by the last substantive speaker, and (by default) by someone who gave a counted substantive speech.
• Speech ranks, when on: no ties; with "ranks must follow the scores", a higher score may not be ranked below a lower one.
• Motion and vetoes: the motion must be one of the round's motions; a veto must be another of the round's motions.

Iron-person (ghost) speeches#

If a speaker appears twice the ballot is refused until the extra speech is marked Ghost (the button next to the speech). Ghost speeches never count in the speaker tab; they count towards the team total only with Team score includes ghosts.

Self-split ballots#

Allow self-split ballots for solo adjudicators (Assistants page, Tabbycat's Karl Popper rule). In a two-team voting round, when a debate has exactly one voting adjudicator, the ballot page shows This was a 2:1 split decision (self-declared).

• The winner is recorded with 2 votes and the loser 1, out of 3. Scores, winner and margin do not change.
• In standings the votes/ballots carried metric credits 2/3 and 1/3 of a panel.
• With Show splitting adjudicators on, the public site marks the adjudicator as splitting.
• Refused when the setting is off, the panel has more than one voting adjudicator, or the round uses consensus ballots. The checkbox is also on that adjudicator's private-URL ballot.
• Turning the setting off does not change saved ballots.

Motions, vetoes and preferences on ballots#

• Motion debated. With one motion in the round it is recorded automatically. With several, the ballot asks which was debated; private-URL and public-form ballots must answer (checked on the server, never defaulted).
• Vetoes (Record motion vetoes): one optional veto per team, from the round's other motions. Also offered on private-URL and public-form ballots. Vetoes appear in the motion statistics on Analytics, and publicly only once the veto statistics are released (see Public pages and releases).
• Motion preferences (Record ranked motion preferences, Motions page): each team's ranking of the round's motions, most preferred first. A ranking may not repeat a motion or put its vetoed motion first. Tab-room entry only.
• Record motions on ballots off: ballots, portals and printed sheets stop asking for the motion or vetoes.

Results-only ballots#

Ballots ask for speaker scores = Preliminary rounds only or Never: affected ballots record only the result (This round's ballots record the result only).

• Two-team: the winner (or each adjudicator's declared winner on voting ballots). BP: the ranks.
• Points and wins count; team speaks, margins and the speaker tab leave the debate out.
• Rounds without speaker scores do not count against speakers for "speeches missable".

Forfeits#

With Allow forfeits (two-team only), choose {team} forfeited on the ballot. The other team wins with 1 point; no speaker scores, margin 0. Forfeits are left out of speaks, margins and motion statistics.

Byes#

A bye needs no ballot. With Bye team results = Win, the team gets 1 point and a win in every format (in BP that counts as a third place), with no speaker scores and no margin. With Absent (default) nothing is added.

The bye notice on the ballot page still says the win comes "with prior average speaker scores". That text is out of date: standings award no speaker scores for a bye.

Postponed debates#

On the Draw page a debate can be marked postponed. Postponed debates are left out of standings, feedback and draw history and block round completion until resolved.

Versions, confirming and discarding#

Every save is a new version. The Ballot versions list on the entry page shows each with its status (Confirmed, Discarded, Awaiting check), the submitter (Tab room, Public form, Adjudicator (private URL)) and time, with Edit as new version, Confirm vN and Discard vN.

• Confirming a version unconfirms the previously confirmed one; drafts and other versions are left as they are (Tabbycat's behaviour). It writes the points and totals onto the debate and records who confirmed it.
• A ballot whose teams no longer match the current draw cannot be confirmed (protects regenerated draws).
• A confirmed or discarded version is never edited in place: corrections are saved as a new version.
• An unconfirmed new version leaves the existing confirmed result in force until it is confirmed.
• Discarding the confirmed version clears the result (you are warned). The debate goes back to draft if other versions remain, else none.
• Confirming or discarding a result withdraws the round's published results and team speaks so nothing stale stays public. Publish again when ready.
• Changing a result in a completed round asks for confirmation; results of an elimination round whose teams have advanced, or of a cancelled round, cannot change.

Two devices. On cloud tournaments, ballots of the active round sync live between administrator devices. If two devices confirm different versions before seeing each other, the sync status shows "N double confirmations"; discard the version that should not count. See Backups, restore and cloud sync.

Double entry#

With Require double-entry ballot verification:

• Review (default): the first person uses Save for checking. A different person sees Version N, entered by …, is waiting for your check, compares it with the paper and confirms or discards it. If they change anything they can only Save corrected version (needs another check).
• Blind: the checker re-enters the paper ballot without seeing the first entry (its scores are Hidden during blind check in the history). Matching entries confirm the result and the checked entry is discarded. If they differ, The two entries do not match lists the differences (motion, forfeit, vetoes, sides, ranks/winners, self-split, every speech, or every sheet) and lets the checker record either entry; the other is kept as a discarded version.

Who counts as "a different person". The signed-in account. Confirming your own entry is a rule a tab director can override with a recorded reason (see Audit log). On a signed-out single device people cannot be told apart, so the check is not applied. Data-entry staff with Confirm others' ballots are always held to the same-person rule, double entry or not.

Ballots from adjudicators' private URLs are their own record, not tab-room data entry, so double entry does not apply to them; use The tab room confirms (below) if you want to review them.

Ballots from adjudicators#

Adjudicators submit from their private URL if they are the chair or a voting panellist of the debate (trainees cannot). Turn it off with Ballot submissions from adjudicators through private URLs (then the server refuses them). A public ballot form is a separate switch.

The server re-checks every ballot with the same rules as the tab room. Private-URL ballots support ghost speeches, the motion, vetoes, results-only rounds and self-split; forfeits and motion preferences are tab-room only.

Ballots submitted through private URLs:

Either way, a debate whose result the tab room confirmed is never overridden by a later chair ballot, and rounds that are completed, published or advanced do not accept automatic results: the new ballot waits as an unconfirmed version.

Voting rounds. A private URL records only the submitter's own sheet. If they are the debate's only voting adjudicator, that sheet becomes the voting ballot. Otherwise:

• Without Individual ballots from every voting adjudicator, the ballot is stored unconfirmed and the tab room enters the panel (Fill from private-URL ballots takes it).
• With it, each voting adjudicator's latest sheet is merged into one voting ballot. Sheets must agree on speakers, motion, vetoes and sides; disagreeing fields are cleared and flagged, never guessed. With The chair confirms a clean merge is confirmed when the last sheet arrives; with The tab room confirms use Fill from private-URL ballots and confirm.

Public-form ballots are always unconfirmed. Ballot receipts can be emailed (Email and notifications).

Data-entry staff#

Staff with Enter ballots save unconfirmed ballots only, may overwrite only their own unconfirmed ballots, and only for rounds whose draw is released and still running. Staff with Confirm others' ballots can confirm or blind-check someone else's entry, but not where a tab-room override would be needed (completed, cancelled or released rounds, advanced eliminations). See Staff and roles.

Recalculating stored ballots when scoring changes#

Team totals, margins and voting aggregates are stored on each ballot. If you change Team score includes ghosts, Margin includes dissenters or Panel score aggregation after ballots exist, saving asks you to confirm ("the stored team totals of every entered ballot will be recalculated"). CrabbyTab then recalculates every live ballot (Tabbycat's resaveballots), updates the debates and writes a ballots.resaved audit entry listing ballots changed, ballots whose result changed (a winner decided by totals can flip) and ballots skipped (forfeits, results-only ballots, individual sheets, ballots that no longer fit the ballot mode). Other scoring settings (ranges, winner rule, forfeits, bye results, speech ranks, maximum margin) also ask for confirmation but are not recalculated.

Limitation: changing these settings through the REST API does not recalculate.

N teams per room#

For tournaments with rooms of other than 2 or 4 teams (e.g. the Public Speaking preset), ballots follow Tabbycat's "poly" rules:

A short last room is scored on its own teams. Each private-URL sheet in a voting round records scores only. Elimination rooms advance the declared teams, or the top two by rank (one in the final); a scores-only voting ballot cannot decide who advances. Forfeits and self-split are two-team only. Motion statistics are not computed for these tournaments.

Publishing results and completing a round#

On the Results page, card Round publication:

• Publish round results and Publish team speaks are separate; both stay disabled until every debate has a confirmed ballot or is a bye. Unpublishing is always allowed.
• Silent round hides this round's results from the public tab.
• Complete round (preliminary rounds) needs a draw, no postponed debates and a confirmed ballot for every non-bye debate. It can be reopened. Completion feeds break liveness and which rounds released tabs cover; standings do not wait for it.
• Elimination rounds use Proceed to next round instead (see Breaks and eliminations).

What the public sees is covered in Public pages and releases.

Details#

• Rehearsal results: Admin → Rehearsal tools can generate simulated ballots that satisfy every ballot rule in force.
• Paper intake: each printed sheet has a barcode id; the intake board tracks Missing → Received → Entered/Awaiting check → Confirmed, with Disputed for disagreeing entries.
• Not done: per-criterion scores are not shown on public scoresheets. BP voting ballots are not offered (Tabbycat stores no points for them either).