--- title: "Voting on a proposal" description: "Decision makers of the circle a proposal applies to record their consent, by raising no objection or by objecting with a reason, during the review period or in a governance meeting." category: structure-governance section: proposals-and-decisions tags: [permissions] type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal --- # Voting on a proposal ## Voting on a proposal A submitted proposal is decided by the **decision makers of the circle it applies to**, not by everyone in that circle. Each of them either records no objection or objects with a reason. One objection is enough to send the proposal back to its author as a draft; if nobody objects before the deadline, the change is applied automatically. ## Who can vote The server accepts a vote only from an active decision maker of the proposal's circle. Anyone else is refused, including administrators and including members who hold a role in the circle but are not decision makers. Two things follow from that: - **Belonging to the circle is not enough.** Decision maker is a separate setting on each assignment. It is switched on by default, so most circle members are decision makers until someone turns it off from the circle's **Members** tab. - **You never vote on your own proposal.** When the review period opens, Talkspirit records the author's consent for them, so the author's own decision is already counted. If you lose decision-maker status while a proposal is open, you can no longer vote on it or change a vote you already cast. ## Where do I find proposals waiting for my vote? You are notified when a proposal opens for decision. The notification is titled **A proposal is open for your decision** and arrives both by email and in the app. It goes to the circle's decision makers, minus the author. Open it to go straight to the proposal. To find them yourself, open **Structure**, then **Proposals** under **My organisation**. Click **Filter** and select the **Awaiting my vote** quick filter. ![The Proposals list with the filter panel open, showing the quick filters including Awaiting my vote](/images/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal/01-proposals-awaiting-my-vote-filter.png) The list opens with a **My proposals** filter applied, which hides everyone else's proposals. Remove that filter before you conclude there is nothing to decide. ## When is there something to vote on? Voting on a proposal outside a meeting happens only when your organisation adopts proposals **through a review period**. An administrator sets this in **Structure settings**, then **Decision settings**, under **Proposal adoption**: - **After a number of days, if no objections are raised.** This opens the review period described below. The field accepts 1 to 365 days and shows 7 by default. - **Immediately.** The proposal is adopted the moment it is submitted, and nobody votes. If your submitted proposals sit in the **Submitted** group with no buttons, no countdown and no vote count, the review period is not actually in effect for your organisation yet, even if the settings screen shows it selected. Ask an administrator to open **Decision settings** and save that screen once. ## How do I record my decision? Open the proposal. Two buttons sit next to the vote progress bar and the countdown: 1. Click **No objection** to consent, then **Confirm validation** in the dialog. 2. Click **Object** to raise an objection. Talkspirit walks you through an **Objection Assessment** of five yes-or-no questions and a free-text box, then **Submit objection**. If your answers suggest the objection may not be valid, the product says so and offers **Proceed anyway**. Only the text you write is recorded with your vote. Organisations that do not use the Holacracy methodology see **Validate** and **Decline** instead. **Decline** opens a single box for your reason and a **Submit objection** button. You can change your answer for as long as the proposal is still open. ![A submitted proposal with an active review period: the progress bar shows 1 of 3 members voted, a countdown reads 2 days 19 hours remaining, and the No objection and Object buttons sit ready for the signed-in decision maker's vote](/images/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal/03-proposal-vote-controls-progress-countdown.png) ## What happens if someone objects The proposal returns to **Draft** as soon as the first objection is recorded. Nothing is applied. The author is notified that the proposal was objected to and can see the reason, rework the proposal and submit it again. Resubmitting starts a fresh round: earlier votes are cleared and the deadline restarts. ## What happens at the deadline - **No objection was raised.** The proposal is adopted automatically and the changes are applied to the circle. Decision makers and the author are notified that the proposal was adopted. - **Some people never answered.** Silence counts as consent. The proposal is still adopted. - **Everyone answered early.** The proposal is adopted as soon as the last decision maker consents, without waiting for the deadline. - **The circle has only one decision maker.** There is nobody left to object, so the proposal is adopted at submission. ## Discussing a proposal before you decide Use the **Comments** tab on the proposal to ask questions or suggest changes. The **Activity** tab records what happened and when, including who objected. ![A submitted proposal, with the Comments and Activity tabs at the bottom of the details panel](/images/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal/02-submitted-proposal-page.png) If a proposal needs a conversation rather than a written exchange, open the proposal's actions menu and choose **Bring to a meeting**. See [How do I bring an item to a meeting?](/structure-governance/how-to-use-bring-to-meeting). ## Deciding a proposal in a governance meeting A proposal carries in-meeting decision controls only when it is created from an agenda item of a live governance meeting. There the facilitator drives the workflow steps and adopts or rejects the proposal in the room, instead of a review period running in the background. A proposal you bring to a meeting from the Proposals page keeps its own lifecycle. ## What's Next? - [How do I create a proposal?](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-proposal) - [How do I submit and track a proposal?](/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal) - [What is a decision maker of a circle?](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) - [What are decision settings?](/structure-governance/what-are-decision-settings) - [How do I run a governance meeting?](/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings)