Selects reference

The whole module at a glance — and straight answers to the questions that only come up at the worst moment.

Roles

Role	Can
Owner	Everything — rules, participants, close, reopen, delete. Always a participant; can never be removed from their own round. There's no ownership transfer; a selections admin steps in instead.
Curator	Runs the candidates and, in curator-led rounds, sees blind tallies early. Cannot close or delete the round, and has no final-pick power — winners are always computed.
Voter	Votes, with a weight of 1–10 when weighted voting is on.
Observer	Follows along and comments, never votes. People you share the round with join here.
Selections admin	With Manage all selections, acts like the owner on every round; a matching view right reveals rounds they're not on.

Modes and states

Thing	How it works
Voting modes	Pick (pick / reject / pass; winners = picks minus rejects) or Rating (1–10; winners = average score). Ties at the target keep all tied candidates as winners.
Round states	Draft → Open → Closed, with reopen (new deadline required) and delete. Rules — mode, blind, weighted, who decides — lock at open.
Color labels	Weak · Maybe · Strong · Alternate · Hero — commentary on the votes, never part of the score.

Practical limits

Surface	Ceiling
Deadline	Up to 90 days out; voting closes automatically at the moment it hits
Candidates	Files of any kind — images, video, audio, documents, archives; folders expand to the files inside. Collections, articles, and galleries can't stand for election.
Voter weight	1 to 10, frozen into the record at close
Visibility	Participants only — permission elsewhere in the brand doesn't open a round

Notifications

Moment	Who hears
You're added to a round	You
Voting opens / the round closes	The participants
Before the deadline	Nobody, today — there's no reminder; the workspace's past-due banner and the needs-your-vote tab carry the urgency

What happens when… people come and go

When…	What happens
A voter leaves the brand after voting	Their votes stand exactly as cast — leaving a brand never edits a selection. Their name stays on the breakdown.
You remove a participant from the round	Their votes persist and keep counting, but at weight 1 — the assigned weight leaves with the seat. The breakdown lists them as a historical voter.
The round's creator leaves	Only the owner or a selections admin can close, reopen, edit, or delete — so a departed owner's round waits for an admin. There's no ownership transfer to pass it along.
Someone deletes their whole account	Their votes stay under an emptied identity — the breakdown and the export show them as deleted; the numbers never move.
Turnout, after any of the above	Never shifts: “X of Y voted” counts everyone who ever held a voting seat, so a closed round's turnout is stable forever.

What happens when… time passes

When…	What happens
The deadline hits with votes still out	The round closes on schedule, whether or not anyone is online. Whatever was voted decides; in Pick mode a winner needs at least one positive score, in Rating mode at least one rating.
The deadline hits and nobody voted at all	It still closes on time — with zero winners. The candidates stay ranked; none is marked winner.
The deadline slips past before the auto-close runs	Votes still land until the close actually fires, and the workspace shows a past-due banner offering extend or close.
You extend the deadline mid-round	The automatic close moves with it — the old time is forgotten.

What happens when… files change or disappear

When…	What happens
Someone tries to rename, move, or delete a candidate's file mid-vote	Refused — candidates are locked while the round is draft or open. The lock lifts by itself at close.
Someone uploads a new version of a candidate mid-vote	Allowed — the entry follows the file, so everyone now sees the new version. Votes already cast are not reset; if that changes the picture, that's a conversation, not a surprise.
A file from a finished round is deleted later	The record doesn't break: entry, votes, ranking, and export all survive, with the file marked unavailable.
You remove an entry and later add the same file back	It returns as a brand-new candidate with no votes — the old votes stay in history but leave the tallies.

What happens when… rounds close, reopen, or go away

When…	What happens
You reopen a closed round	Voting resumes with every vote intact; a new deadline is required. Winners and tallies stay visible to participants while it runs again; the full breakdown and export wait for the next close. The weights sealed at the earlier close are kept as that close's audit record.
Someone tries to shift weights after close	Direct edits are refused — results use the weights sealed at close. Changing weights takes a reopen and a re-close, and both steps are themselves on the record.
You reopen after already exporting the winners	Nothing is undone — winners already exported to a collection or moved in Drive stay where they are. Reopening means keep voting, not rewind.
You delete a round	It's gone from the app — no restore — but the votes and history are kept in the platform's permanent record, and any scheduled close or reveal is cancelled. Deleting an open or closed round asks you to type its name; a draft takes a simple confirm.
Years later, you open a closed round	Every vote on its candidates — including votes people later changed, oldest first, with voter and time — plus the sealed weights, ranked winners, and turnout. The export adds a timestamp on every single vote.

What happens when… AI agents are involved

When…	What happens
An agent votes	It can — with the voting scope and its own seat in the round (owner, curator, or voter; observers are refused). Its vote is its own, recorded with the person it acted for — your seat never transfers to it.
An agent tries to pick the winner	It can't — nobody can. Winners are always computed from the tallies; there is no set-the-winner action for anyone, human or agent.
An agent works through a big round	Rate limits apply per agent installation, and hitting one returns an honest try-again-in-N-seconds answer.
You try to run Selects through the MCP connection	Not today — the MCP tools cover brand overview, search, files, guidelines, collections, and compliance. Selects automation uses the API with the selects scopes.

Where things land

Thing	Where
Winners	To Reviews, into a campaign, into a collection, into any Drive folder, or into round two — each handoff linking back to the vote (plan capabilities apply)
The decision record	CSV or JSON download from any closed round: candidate, rank, and every vote with rating, label, weight, and timestamp
The conversation	The round's comments panel, plus a thread on any single candidate