How Voting Weight Is Calculated
Exactly how Assembley turns a company voter's share capital and class into a voting weight — the capital × multiplier formula, when it is computed, and why it is frozen onto each ballot.
A company voter's voting weight is the number their vote counts for in the tally. When share classes are in play, that number is calculated rather than entered directly. This article shows exactly how, and why the timing of the calculation matters for integrity.
The formula
For a company voter who belongs to a share class:
voting weight = share capital × class multiplier
So a holder of 1,000 units of capital in A-shares (×10) has a voting weight of 10,000, while a holder of 500 units in B-shares (×1) has a voting weight of 500 — even though the first holds only twice the capital. Because both inputs are whole numbers, the result is always a whole number. See Creating Share Classes with Vote Multipliers.
For a company voter in a group without classes, there's no multiplier step — you enter the voting rights directly and they're used as-is.
When it is calculated
The voting weight is computed at the moment the voter is written — when you add them manually or import them — not live during the meeting. Whether you add a voter by hand or by file, Assembley resolves capital × multiplier there and then and stores the result as that voter's voting rights. The same is true on import: the Class column drives the calculation for each row. See Importing Voters from CSV or Excel.
If you later edit a voter's capital or class, their weight is recomputed at that point. See Editing and Removing Voters.
Why it is frozen onto the ballot
When a voter casts a ballot, their voting weight is fixed onto that ballot at the moment of voting. The tally never recalculates weight live — it uses the weight recorded with each vote. This matters for integrity: it means the result of a concluded vote cannot drift even if the register is edited afterwards, because the weight that counted is the one captured on the ballot itself. See How Vote Integrity Is Protected.
A worked example
Imagine two holders in an A/B-share company, where A-shares carry ×1 and B-shares carry ×10:
- Holder X — 10,000 capital in A-shares (×1) → voting weight 10,000.
- Holder Y — 5,000 capital in B-shares (×10) → voting weight 50,000.
Holder Y owns half the capital of Holder X, yet carries five times the votes. In structures where one class is weighted far above another, the holder with less capital can carry more votes — which is precisely the point of share classes, and precisely why capital and voting rights are tracked separately. See Share Capital vs Voting Rights Explained.
Where to go next
See Understanding Share Classes and Voting Rights for the conceptual overview and How Votes Are Counted for how those weights are tallied.
Related articles
- Creating Share Classes with Vote MultipliersHow to create share classes in Assembley, why vote multipliers must be positive integers, and how a voter's class turns their share capital into a voting weight.
- Share Capital vs Voting Rights ExplainedWhy Assembley keeps share capital and voting rights as two separate numbers for company voters, what each one is used for, and how keeping them distinct lets quorum and the tally both be correct.
- Understanding Share Classes and Voting RightsHow Assembley separates share capital from voting rights, how share classes apply an integer multiplier to compute voting weight, and why quorum is measured against capital while the tally uses voting rights.