---
title: "Archiving and Deleting an Election"
slug: "archiving-and-deleting-an-election"
description: "Compare archiving and deleting elections: what each saves or erases, auto-archiving after five years, Archived Elections, and cloning an archive to a Draft."
updated: 2025-12-02T15:01:43Z
published: 2025-12-02T15:01:43Z
canonical: "help.simplyvoting.com/archiving-and-deleting-an-election"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.simplyvoting.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Archiving and Deleting an Election

> [!WARNING]
> Important Update
> 
> Starting January 12, 2026, Simply Voting will begin automatically archiving elections that are older than five years. Archiving helps reduce the amount of personally identifiable information (PII) we retain unnecessarily, while still letting you access key information.
> 
> Finished elections with recorded votes will be automatically archived once they are five years old. Finished elections with zero recorded votes will be permanently deleted once they are five years old.
> 
> If your organization needs to retain data for longer than five years, please reach out to [Support](/v1/docs/contacting-support)—we’re happy to discuss options.

## What’s the Difference Between Archiving and Deleting?

|  | Archiving an Election… | Deleting an election… |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Election Details** | Saves | Deletes |
| **Results Summary (CSV)** | Saves | Deletes |
| **Questions** | Saves | Deletes |
| **Options** | Saves | Deletes |
| **Descriptions** | Saves | Deletes |
| **Votes** | Deletes | Deletes |
| **Electors** | Deletes | Deletes |
| **Certified Results (PDF)** | Deletes | Deletes |
| **Reports** | Deletes | Deletes |
| **Election Log** | Deletes | Deletes |

## Archiving an Election

**Finished** elections with at least 1 vote cast can be archived. **Archiving** an election:

- Saves the election’s name, start & end dates, number of votes, number of electors, and ballot content (questions, options, and descriptions) under **Archived Elections**.
- Saves a summary of the results as a downloadable CSV file under **Archived Elections**.
- **Permanently erases** the Certified Results PDF from your account.
- **Permanently erases** all associated elector data, logs, and individual votes from Simply Voting’s servers.

> [!WARNING]
> **Important:** Archived elections cannot be restored. However, you can [clone an archived election](/v1/docs/archiving-and-deleting-an-election#cloning-an-archived-election) into a new Draft to recover its contents (questions, options, and descriptions).

To archive an election, navigate to the **Elections** page and click on the **Archive** button in the **Action** column next to the desired election, then confirm.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(137).png)

To review your archived elections, navigate to the **Elections** page and click on the **Archived Elections** button.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(139).png)

On the **Archived Elections** page, you may search for a specific election using the **Find An Election** search bar.

You may also download summary results in CSV format by clicking on the **Download Results** button in the **Action** column.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(153).png)

## Cloning an Archived Election

Cloning an archived election allows you to create a new **Draft** using the original election’s contents, including question titles, question details, option names, and option descriptions. The original list of electors, however, cannot be recovered.

To clone an archived election, navigate to the **Archived Elections** page, click on the **Clone** button in the **Action** column next to the desired election, define a new **Election Name** for your draft, then click **Create**.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(155).png)

## Deleting an Election

### From the Elections page

**Draft** and **Finished** elections can be deleted from the **Elections** page. Deleting an election:

- **Permanently erases** the election’s name, start & end dates, number of votes, number of electors, and ballot content (questions, options, and descriptions) from your account.
- **Permanently erases** the Certified Results PDF from your account.
- **Permanently erases** all associated elector data, logs, and individual votes from Simply Voting’s servers.

> [!WARNING]
> **Important:** Deleted elections cannot be restored.

To delete an election, navigate to the **Elections** page and click on the **Delete** button in the **Action** column next to the desired election, then confirm.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(138).png)

### From the Archived Elections page

Deleting an archived election **permanently erases** all remaining election data, including the election’s name, start & end dates, number of votes, number of electors, ballot content, and summary results CSV from Simply Voting’s servers.

> [!WARNING]
> **Important:** Elections deleted from the Archive cannot be reinstated.

To delete an archived election, navigate to the **Archived Elections** page and click on the **Delete** button in the **Action** column next to the desired election, then confirm.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a78bcdfe-0fc1-4248-a709-1fe58ecd1ca1/Images/Documentation/image(154).png)