Cast vote for a referendum

Easily vote Aye, Nay, Abstain, Split and choose conviction on any active referendum to voice your opinion.

Supported voting directions

SubWallet supports all 4 possible voting directions for a referendum:

• Aye: Vote in favor of the referendum

• Nay: Vote against the referendum

• Split: Split your voting power into both Aye & Nay

• Abstain: Vote counts for the referendum support (total voting balance) but not for its approval

• When you choose Split or Abstain, your vote is always counted with the fixed conviction multiplier (0.1x)

• When you vote Aye or Nay, you can select your conviction multiplier from 0.1x up to 6x.

Conviction & Lock-up period

Polkadot utilizes an idea called voluntary locking that allows token holders to increase their voting power by declaring how long they are willing to lock up their tokens; hence, the number of votes for each token holder will be calculated by the following formula:

Votes = Tokens x Conviction Multiplier

The greater the conviction, the greater your voting power, and the longer the tokens will be locked for that referendum. Particularly:

Lock Period (1 period = 7 days)	Conviction	Length in Days
0	0.1x	0
1	1x	7
2	2x	14
4	3x	28
8	4x	56
16	5x	112
32	6x	224

Cast your votes

Step 1: Open the SubWallet extension and select the "Governance" tab at the bottom of the screen.

The Governance feature is available only for Polkadot-supported accounts. If you are currently in either single-account mode or all-accounts mode and none of your accounts support the Polkadot ecosystem, you will see a toast error when trying to click on the tab.

Step 2: In the Governance screen, select the network in which you want to see referendums.

In this case, we'll select the Polkadot Asset Hub network.

You'll see the referenda list for the chosen network.

Step 3: Select an ongoing referendum by clicking the "Ongoing" tab, scrolling down, or searching using the icon. Once done, click on that referendum to view its details.

Step 4: In the Referendum details screen, select "Vote" to start voting for your chosen referendum.

If you're in "All accounts" mode, you will need to select the account you want to use for voting first. If you're in Single account mode, skip this and go to Step 5.

Step 5: Fill in the required information, such as voting amount and voting multiplier (conviction).

You can select either "Use governance lock" or "Use all locks" to fill in the Amount field.

• Use governance lock: your entire current lock balance due to on-chain voting/delegating will be used to vote.

• Use all locks: your entire locked balance (due to staking, governance, etc.) will be used to vote.

Once done, select the direction you want to vote. In this example, we will vote "Aye" for the referendum.

If you want to vote "Abstain" or "Split", as your vote is always counted with the fixed conviction multiplier (0.1×), you will need to choose the vote direction first, then enter the amount you want to vote:

• For "Split": enter Aye & Nay amount

• For "Abstain": enter Aye, Nay & Abstain amount

Your total voting power will be calculated as the sum of the entered amounts multiplied by the fixed conviction multiplier (0.1×).

Once you have entered the desired amounts, click “Vote” to proceed.

Step 6: Check the information and confirm your voting request by clicking "Approve".

Step 7: Your voting request has been submitted!

You can either click "Back to home" to return to the homepage or "View transaction" to see transaction details in the History tab.

If you click "View transaction", SubWallet will display the latest transaction record in your transaction history, along with the extrinsic hash of the transfer.

To view your votes on the referendum, repeat the first 3 steps of the guide. Your votes will then appear on that referendum page.