Votably
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Veto rounds

Each round, everyone vetoes the option they like least. The most-vetoed option is eliminated, and rounds continue until a single survivor remains.

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Add at least two. Paste a list to fill several at once.

Each round, everyone vetoes one option. You advance rounds until one survives.

Everyone with the link builds the list together, then you start voting when it's ready.

Settings

Voters see a live countdown. When it hits zero, voting closes on its own.

Shows who voted. Choices stay private.

Anyone with the link can add an option to the list.

How it works

  1. The creator lists the options and starts the first round.

  2. Everyone vetoes one option they'd rather not see win that round.

  3. The most-vetoed option is eliminated, and the creator advances to the next round until one survives.

What is a veto vote

A veto vote flips the usual question. Instead of asking everyone what they want most, it asks what they want least, and removes that from the running. Each round, every voter casts one veto against the option they'd be least happy with. The option collecting the most vetoes is eliminated, and the field narrows by one.

This elimination vote repeats round after round, with the creator advancing the group to the next round each time, until only one option is left standing. Because it's built on rejection rather than preference, a veto vote is good at surfacing the option nobody actively dislikes, even if it wasn't anyone's clear first choice.

It works especially well on lists where the group agrees more on what's wrong than what's right: a shortlist nobody can rally behind, or a set of options where a few people would strongly object to certain picks. Vetoing lets those objections count without anyone needing to justify them out loud.

Related ways to decide

BracketMarch Madness for your listRanked choiceRank the options, watch the runoffWishlistPool ideas, then approve

Best for

Lists nobody agrees on

When the group can't rally around a favorite, a veto vote finds the option with the fewest objections instead.

Avoiding a bad pick

Veto voting is built to rule out options people strongly dislike, which a simple popularity vote can miss.

Multi-round group calls

The creator advances each round live, so the group watches the field narrow together instead of waiting on one final tally.

When to use something else

Bracket also narrows a list round by round, but it asks who should win each matchup rather than who should lose. Ranked choice gets to a similar elimination result in one pass instead of live rounds, which is faster if the creator can't run rounds live. Wishlist is the better starting point if the options themselves still need to be collected.

Questions people ask

Is there a free veto vote tool with no account?
Yes. Votably's veto vote is free, needs no account for the creator or voters, and runs from a single link, so a group can eliminate options round by round straight from their phones.
How many rounds does a veto vote take?
Votably eliminates one option each round of a veto vote, so it takes as many rounds as there are options minus one, though the creator can end it early once a clear survivor is likely.
What is the difference between a veto vote and a regular poll?
A regular poll asks what people want most, while Votably's veto vote asks what they want least and removes the most-vetoed option each round, which is useful when a group can't agree on a favorite but agrees on what to rule out.

Decisions are kept for 30 days, then deleted. One vote per phone. The creator decides when results are revealed.