Running the event
Handle Incomplete Judging
What to do when a judge cannot finish, or forgets to submit before the scoring window closes.
The most common event-day problem is a judge who cannot finish on time. Here is the playbook.
The three scenarios
| Scenario | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Judge is slow but working | Draft status, for a while. | Wait. The draft autosave means nothing is lost. |
| Phone died or lost connection mid-vote | Draft status, no update. | Have them re-open their scoring page (the token still works on another device) and continue; the draft restores. |
| Judge is gone and will not return | Not Started or Draft after the window closes. | See the options below. |
Options when a judge is unavailable
- Wait for a resubmission. If the judge can still come back (even later), the simplest fix is for them to re-open the page (on any device, with the same token) and submit.
- Recalculate with fewer judges. The scoring system handles a missing judge: their absent votes are treated as a no-placement, and the ranking is computed over the judges who did submit. Publish the partial result knowingly, or hold publication.
- Bring in a substitute judge. If the original judge truly cannot return and another can fill in, a fresh token can be issued for a different judge (or a new judge row added) and the substitute scores. Issuing that token is a step your account administrator can do. It changes the judge set for the competition, so do it only if the original judge is not coming back.
- Accept and document. If your event rules allow a reduced-judge result, publish it and write down who judged and who did not (see Data corrections).
The one thing not to do
Do not manually edit the votes to "fill in" the missing judge. The scoring is deterministic and auditable; hand-editing votes breaks the audit record and makes the result harder to stand by.
If a judge submitted and then realized a mistake
The judge cannot edit their submission. The recovery path is:
- A fresh token is issued for the judge (the old one stops working). This is a step your account administrator can do.
- The judge re-enters, on any device.
- The ranking is re-run and, if already published, re-published.
This is deliberate: it forces a conscious, logged correction instead of a silent edit.