Voting Page
Set up judging for your hackathon on HackHQ. Weighted criteria scoring, judge management, audience voting, and progress tracking.
HackHQ's judging system handles the entire evaluation workflow: defining scoring criteria, managing judges, tracking progress, and calculating results.
The Voting tab
The Voting tab is your command center for all judging activity.
It has three main sections:
- Scoring Setup: Your voting mode, voting method, and criteria configuration
- Audience Voting: Stats and a shareable link for public voting (visible when audience voting is on)
- Judge Voting: Judge cards with progress tracking (visible when judge voting is on, see Adding Judges)
Getting started with judging
Choose your voting mode
Decide who scores submissions: a panel of judges, the audience via a shared link, or both. The voting mode picker at the top of the setup card controls which sections appear on the Voting tab.
Choose your voting method
Pick between Score Criteria (weighted rubric scoring) or Top Picks (pick and rank favorites). See Voting Methods for details on each option.
Add judges
Invite judges by name and email. Each gets a unique voting link. No account needed. See Adding Judges.
Choose how judges are assigned
By default, every judge reviews every submission. For larger events, you can assign specific submissions to each judge or split into parallel judging rooms. See Judge Assignment.
Open voting
Toggle Voting Open to let judges and audience members start scoring.
Monitor progress
Track which judges have completed their evaluations from the judge cards. Each card shows completion percentage, submissions voted, and last active date.
Lock and publish
When judging is complete, head to the Results tab to assign awards and publish the leaderboard.
Audience voting
Audience voting lets anyone with a link vote on submissions using the same voting method you configured for judges. This is separate from judge scoring and great for "People's Choice" awards or community engagement.
Audience voting is enabled by the voting mode picker. Pick Judges + audience to run a public vote alongside judging, or Audience only to skip the judging panel entirely. When audience voting is on, the Audience Voting card appears on the Voting tab with a shareable link and stats: total voters, total votes cast, and completion rate. No account needed.
You can use judge scoring and audience voting together. On the Results tab, toggle between "Judges", "Audience", and "All" views to see how each group ranked submissions.
Voting controls
Toggle Voting Open at the top of the Voting tab to control whether judges and audience members can submit scores. When voting is closed, judges cannot submit new scores, audience members see a "Voting is closed" message, and existing scores are preserved.
To restart the judging process, open the Setup panel and click Reset all votes. This deletes all judge and audience votes while keeping judge assignments intact.
What's in this section
Voting Methods
Score Criteria with weighted rubrics or Top Picks for simple ranking.
Adding Judges
Add judges, share voting links, and send email invitations.
CSV Import
Bulk import up to 1,000 judges from a spreadsheet with column mapping and preview.
Judge Assignment
Control which judges review which submissions.
Voting Interface
What judges and audience members see when they vote.