--- title: "Holding an election for an elected role" description: "Fill an elected role in Talkspirit by running an election proposal, or nominate someone directly for a temporary mandate with an end date." category: structure-governance section: roles-and-assignments tags: [permissions] type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role --- # Holding an election for an elected role ## Holding an election for an elected role An election in Talkspirit is a proposal. You create a proposal of type **Election**, say which role it is for, add the nominees, and the circle's decision makers vote on it. When it is adopted, everyone on the nominee list is assigned to the role. There is a shorter route as well: nominating someone directly from the role page. That fills the role for a fixed term without a vote, and it is covered at the end of this article. Elections do not require the Holacracy add-on. The add-on only lets an organisation rename the word, so if yours has renamed it you will see your own word wherever this article says election. ## What you need Role elections must be switched on for your organisation, and the role must be marked as an elected role. Both settings are covered in the last section. To create the election you must be a **decision maker** of the circle the role sits in. Being an organisation administrator is not enough on its own, and the creation fails with a generic error if you are not. Anyone assigned to a role in a circle is a decision maker of that circle by default, so in practice this means being part of the circle. Voting needs the same right. Adding or removing a nominee does not: in the interface the nominee list belongs to whoever created the proposal, and whether anyone else may edit it depends on your organisation's **Decision settings**, where the default is **Only the author can edit**. ## Run the election as a proposal Start the election from the agenda of a governance meeting held for the circle that contains the role. 1. Open the meeting, and in the **Agenda** panel open the item the election belongs to. If there is none yet, use **Add an item** and open it. 2. Click **Actions**, then **New Election**. ![The agenda item panel with the Actions menu open, showing New Task, New Goal, New Project, New Proposal, New Election, New Metric, New Checklist and Link existing](/images/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role/01-agenda-item-new-election.png) 3. Check the title and the circle, then click **Create**. 4. Open the new proposal. It carries an empty **Election** card. Pick the **Role**: this list holds only the roles marked as elected in that circle. 5. Add your **Nominees**. The search offers the circle's own members first, and typing a name searches the whole organisation. Add everyone you want to put forward. 6. Set an **End of mandate** date if the term is fixed, or leave it empty for an open-ended mandate. 7. Save the card, then click **Submit** on the proposal. 8. The circle's decision makers now vote **No objection** or **Object**. Once every decision maker has voted and nobody has objected, the proposal is adopted automatically and each nominee is assigned to the role, with the end-of-mandate date as the end date of their assignment. > **Warning:** the nominee list is not a shortlist to choose from. Every name on it is elected when the proposal is adopted, so put forward only the people you actually want in the role. If someone clicks **Object**, the proposal returns to draft so you can rework it and submit again. A proposal whose nominee list is empty cannot be adopted. The **Proposals** app offers a second route, **Add proposal** followed by **Election**, but it cannot be completed at the moment: its **Which role should be elected?** step always reports **No roles found in this circle**, which leaves **Create proposal** greyed out. Use the meeting agenda until that is fixed. ## Nominate someone directly, for a fixed term On a role marked as elected, the button under the Members list reads **Nominate a member** instead of **Add member**. This route assigns someone straight away, with no proposal and no vote. 1. Open the role page. 2. Under **Members**, click **Nominate a member**. 3. Set an **End of mandate** date. 4. Search for the person and click their name. They are assigned immediately. > **Note:** the hint under the date field says the date is optional. On an elected role it is not. Leave it empty and the assignment is refused, with a message saying the role must be filled through an election or assigned only as a temporary mandate with an expiration date. Use this route for an interim holder while an election is being organised. Ending a mandate needs no election of its own: unassigning an elected member works exactly as it does on any other role, as described in [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role). ## Where elections are switched on **For the whole organisation**, which needs administrator rights: open **Structure settings**, then the **Circles settings** tab of **General settings**. The **Role elections** card holds three switches. - **Roles can be elected** is the master switch. While it is off, no role is filled by election, whatever a circle has configured. - **Allow circles to override this setting** lets each circle choose its own elected roles. - **Roles must be elected** forces every role in the organisation to be filled by election. ![The Role elections card, with Roles can be elected switched on, and Allow circles to override this setting and Roles must be elected switched off](/images/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role/02-role-elections-settings.png) **For one circle:** open the circle, choose **Settings** from its menu, and use **Role configuration** on the **General** tab. **Elected roles** lists the roles filled by election in that circle. You can edit that list only when the organisation allows circles to override the setting and does not force every role to be elected. Otherwise it shows the current list, read only. ## What's next? - [Voting on a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal) - [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role) - [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) - [Configuring circle settings for my organisation](/structure-governance/how-to-configure-circle-settings-for-my-organization)