Run it in five minutes

You need Docker with the Compose plugin. Nothing else: no Python, no Postgres, no accounts anywhere.

git clone https://github.com/keirsalterego/ballotbench.git
cd ballotbench
docker compose up

The first run builds the image, starts Postgres, creates the tables, loads the shared Dogfood fixture event and prints something like:

fixture event sample-hack-2026: 8 tracks, 30 judges, 40 teams, 91 members, 41 projects, 126 reviews, 1 duplicate
seeded. test logins:
  organizer    Authorization: Bearer bb_demo_organizer_5c1e0a
  judge_a      Authorization: Bearer bb_demo_judge_a_8d24f1
  judge_b      Authorization: Bearer bb_demo_judge_b_3a9e77
  participant  Authorization: Bearer bb_demo_participant_61b0c4

Open http://localhost:8080. You’re looking at the public gallery.

Sign in

Every demo account has the password ballotbench-demo:

The bearer tokens are for scripts and the API: pass them as an Authorization header.

Two events are waiting

• Sample Hack 2026 is the fixture: 41 projects, 126 reviews, on its real dates, so submissions closed in March 2026. Sign in as the organizer, open it, and go straight to Calibration and results.
• Demo Hack (open) is empty and open for submissions for two weeks from your first boot. Use it to walk through an event yourself; the tour does exactly that.

Check what it claims

python3 run.py .dogfood.toml                                   # the official Dogfood checker (T1, T2)
python3 scripts/check_t3_t4.py .dogfood.toml                   # the same style of checks for T3 and T4
sh scripts/isolation_curl.sh                                   # tries to reach what it shouldn't
docker compose exec web python manage.py normalization_proof   # the judging maths, recomputed
docker compose exec web python manage.py verify_audit          # the audit log's hash chain

With the network off

The simplest proof: once the images are built, switch off your Wi-Fi (or pull the cable) and run docker compose up. The portal comes up, seeded, and http://localhost:8080 works, because a port on your own machine needs no outside network.

For a stricter proof, with no route out of the containers at all, there’s an override. A network with no way out can’t publish a port to your machine either, so you check it from inside the container, which is what CI does on every push:

docker compose down -v
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.offline.yml up -d --wait
docker compose exec web python -c "import urllib.request as u; print(u.urlopen('http://localhost:8080/projects').status)"
docker compose down && docker compose up -d --force-recreate      # back to normal

Start over

docker compose down -v deletes the database volume. The next up seeds a fresh copy.