Check these first
- The show is an Expert show. People's Choice is not available on Basic shows.
- People's Choice is switched on under Voting & Judging on the Edit Show page.
- The results have not been announced. Announcing closes voting on the public pages.
- The car's class is not set to Excluded (Grouped categories only).
- If you use the location check, the radius suits the size of your venue.
New to People's Choice? Start with how to run a People's Choice vote that feels fair, or open the live demo to see the organiser screens, then test voting on your own show.
The vote button is missing, or voting is refused
Why is there no vote button on the car's page?
The voting panel only appears when People's Choice is switched on for the show and the car's class can be voted on. Check three things. First, open the show's Edit Show page, find the Voting & Judging card and make sure People's Choice is on (that card only appears on Expert shows). Second, if the page says "Voting is closed" instead of a button, the results have been announced: open the show's People's Choice tab and click Unannounce to reopen voting. Third, if you use Grouped categories, check whether the car's class is set to Excluded on the People's Choice tab. A car in an excluded class shows no voting panel at all.
Voters see "People's Choice voting is not enabled for this show". What do I do?
People's Choice is switched off for the show, or it was switched off after the voter opened the page. Turn it on under Voting & Judging on the Edit Show page, then ask the voter to reload the car's page and tap Vote for this car again.
Voters see "People's Choice voting requires an Expert show". What do I do?
People's Choice is an Expert show feature. The message appears when the show is on the Basic tier, for example a show that was Expert and is no longer. Upgrade the show with the Upgrade show button on the People's Choice tab (or from the show's page), then ask the voter to try again. Basic shows also print dash cards without a QR code, so a Basic show has no voting QR to scan in the first place.
Voters see "This car's class isn't eligible for People's Choice voting". What do I do?
You are using Grouped categories and the car's class is set to Excluded. Normally the vote button is hidden for these cars, so a voter only sees this message if they opened the page before the setting changed. Open the People's Choice tab, find the class under Assign classes to categories and change it from Excluded to one of your categories (or All Show). If voting has already started the assignments are locked, see the locked-settings question below. Single winner and Per class shows have no excluded classes.
Voters get an error after they tap Vote
A voter sees "You've already voted in" a category, or "Vote recorded for another car". Is that a fault?
No. Each voter gets one vote per category. On a Single winner show the category is the whole show, so the message reads "You've already voted in this show." On a Grouped categories show it names your category, and on a Per class show it names the class. The voter can still vote once in every other category. A vote cannot be moved to a different car afterwards, and there is no organiser tool to remove one voter's vote. If the same voter opens the car they already chose, they see "You voted for this car!".
A voter sees "Too many votes from this device. Please wait a few minutes and try again." What causes it?
The show treats the same network address plus the same browser as one device. If a vote was cast from that device in the same category in the last 15 minutes by a different voter, the next vote is held back. At a busy show this happens when many phones share one Wi-Fi network, or a mobile carrier gives many phones the same address, and similar phones look identical. The voter should wait a few minutes and try again, or switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data and try again. As the organiser, you can tell attendees to vote on mobile data rather than the venue Wi-Fi. The hold applies per category, so a vote in one category never holds back a vote in another. There is no setting to switch this check off.
Voters see "Something went wrong. Please try again." What does that mean?
The vote did not reach the show or the show could not accept it. The usual cause is a lost or weak mobile connection on the show field, so ask the voter to move to better signal and tap Vote for this car again. If it keeps happening for one car only, check that the entry has not been withdrawn or deleted. If it happens for every car, contact support with the details at the end of this guide.
Do cookies, private browsing or in-app browsers affect voting?
Yes, in small ways. The show recognises a returning voter with a cookie in their browser, which lasts a year. In a private window, with cookies blocked or after the voter clears their cookies, the browser forgets them, so the show may show "Too many votes from this device" instead of "already voted" on a repeat attempt. The first vote itself is not blocked by this. Apps that open links in their own built-in browser (social media apps, for example) can behave differently, and location prompts are often less reliable there, so the safest advice is to scan the QR code with the phone's normal camera and open the link in Safari or Chrome.
The "voters must be near the show" location check
Where do I switch the location check on or off, or change the radius?
On the show's Edit Show page, open the Voting & Judging card, make sure People's Choice is on, and use Require voters to be near the show. Switch it off to stop checking distance altogether. The Radius is in miles, from 0.1 to 50, with a default of 1. Choose Require location to refuse votes that cannot be placed near the venue, or Prefer location to accept them anyway. Changes apply to the next vote.
A voter sees "You're too far from the show to vote in People's Choice." They are at the show. Why?
The show measures a straight line from one saved point for your venue address to the voter's phone. The vote is refused if the phone is outside your radius, so a large site such as a fairground or an airfield may need a bigger radius than 1 mile. The saved point also comes from your venue address, so a vague address can land the point away from the real entrance. Save the address again on the Edit Show form with the town included to look it up again (see the question on the missing location below). Widen the radius, or switch the check off on the day, and the next vote goes through.
A voter sees "This show requires your location to vote. Please allow location access and try again." What should they do?
Your show is set to Require location and the voter's phone did not share a position. The phone asks for permission when the voter taps Vote for this car, and waits up to eight seconds. The voter should tap Allow when asked, switch on Location Services for their browser in the phone's settings, and try again. If they refused earlier, the browser remembers that and the site's location permission has to be reset in the browser's site settings. If you would rather not lose genuine votes to a refused pop-up, change the setting to Prefer location.
What does Prefer location do with votes that have no location?
With Prefer location, a voter who declines to share a position, or whose phone cannot find one, can still vote. The vote counts in the results. The show records that the location was not verified, but no results screen separates those votes out, so do not count on seeing them.
The Voting & Judging card says "This show has no location on file". What does that mean?
The show has no saved map position, so the distance check cannot run. Voting works normally and voters are not refused for distance, but nobody is actually checked. The position is looked up from the venue address, within your club's country (set in your organisation's Settings). To look it up again, save the show's address on the Edit Show form. The app also looks it up again whenever you change the address, and if a changed address cannot be found it clears the old position rather than keeping one that no longer matches. If it still has no location after you save, check that the address includes the town and that the country matches your Settings. If that does not help, switch the location check off, or contact support.
QR codes, printing and the Vote page
Where does the QR code on the dash card lead?
Each dash card QR code opens that entry's public car page. The voting panel is on that page. The QR label reads "Scan for details and vote" when People's Choice is on and "Scan for details" when it is off. Dash cards only carry a QR code on Expert shows. A blank pre-printed card that has not yet been linked to an entry opens a page for the unclaimed card, not a voting page.
A voter scans the QR code and gets "page not found". Why?
The car's page is not available when the show is still in Draft, when the entry has been withdrawn, or when the QR code was printed for a different show or club. Publish the show, check the entry's status on the Registrations list, and reprint the card if it belongs to a different entry.
The QR codes are blank on screen or on the printout. How do I fix it?
The QR picture is fetched from an outside QR service when the print page loads, so it needs an internet connection. Open the print page while you are online, wait until every QR code has appeared, then print. If the codes are missing on screen too, refresh the page. If they still do not appear, contact support.
On Grouped categories, the Vote page shows no cars, or says the categories are not set up. Why?
The Vote page is only available when People's Choice is on and the mode is Grouped categories. It says "Voting categories haven't been set up yet." until you create a category, and "No cars checked in for this category yet." until entries in that category's classes are checked in and have a car number. A car also only appears in a category if its class is assigned to it on the People's Choice tab. Classes left on All Show vote in a show-wide group and do not appear under any category. Once results are announced the page says "Voting is closed."
Locked settings, results and closing the vote
I can't change the voting mode, categories or class assignments. Why?
They lock when the first real vote is cast. You will see "Voting has already started" and a note that the mode, categories or assignments are locked to keep results consistent. Do all your setup before you open voting. If the only votes are test votes, the show owner can remove them with Clear judging data on the Edit Show page, which also unlocks the settings. That button permanently deletes all judge scores, all People's Choice votes and all awards for the show, so use it only before real judging begins. If real votes exist and something must change, contact support rather than clearing anything.
Where do I see the votes, and why can't I see them?
Vote counts are on the show's People's Choice tab, one leaderboard per category. The tab is shown to people who can view judge results, and the results section appears when judging and People's Choice are both available on the show. If the tab says "No votes yet", no vote has been accepted yet. Ask a volunteer to cast a test vote and read the section in this guide on testing.
Voters see "People's Choice voting is closed for this show" and I want voting open. What do I do?
Results have been announced, and announcing closes voting: the vote is refused, and the car's page shows "Voting is closed" in place of the button. To reopen voting, open the show's People's Choice tab and click Unannounce next to the results (the button reads Announce Results when voting is open). Voters can then vote again. Announcing again closes it.
How do I close voting?
Click Announce Results at the top of the results section on the People's Choice tab. The button appears once at least one vote exists. Votes sent after that are refused with "People's Choice voting is closed for this show", and public pages show "Voting is closed" instead of a vote button. If you announced too early, click Unannounce to reopen voting.
How to test voting before the day
A test vote on your real show is a real vote until you remove it, and the first vote locks the voting mode, categories and class assignments. So finish your setup first, then test.
- Set your voting mode, categories, class assignments and location check, and turn People's Choice on.
- If you use Require location, open a car's page on your phone away from the venue and tap Vote for this car. You should be refused with "You're too far from the show to vote in People's Choice." A refused attempt does not record a vote, so it is a safe test.
- Scan a printed dash card with your phone's camera and check it opens the car's page with the vote panel.
- Cast one vote. You should see "You voted for this car!" and "Thanks for voting!".
- Open a second car in the same category. The button should read "Vote recorded for another car".
- Open the People's Choice tab and confirm the count is 1.
- Remove your test vote with Clear judging data on the Edit Show page (show owner only, and it also deletes scores and awards, so do it before judging starts). You type the show's name to confirm. Our guide to resetting a show for staff testing explains what it does and does not clear.
When to contact support
Contact support when the fix above did not work, when a setting you need is locked after real votes, or when the location check still has no position on file after you save the address. Email hello@carshowexpert.com and include:
- The link to your show's public page.
- A screenshot of the exact message on the voter's screen.
- The time it happened and your time zone.
- The car number, or the link the QR code opens.
- The phone and browser used, and whether it was on Wi-Fi or mobile data.
- Your voting mode and whether the location check is on, with the radius.
Before show day, you should
- Confirm the show is Expert and People's Choice is switched on
- Finish your voting mode, categories and class assignments before the first vote
- Size the location radius to your venue, or switch the check off
- Print dash cards while online and check every QR code appears
- Tell attendees to vote on mobile data if the venue Wi-Fi is busy
- Cast and then clear one test vote