What is vote delegation in a DAO, and why does turnout matter?
Delegation lets token holders give their voting power to someone else, or to themselves, without giving away their tokens.1,2 Many DAOs need it because turnout is low: a 2022 study found that on average under 10% of all Compound and Uniswap tokens voted on proposals.3
Votes you have to switch on
In many on-chain DAOs, tokens don't vote until they are delegated. OpenZeppelin's voting code says voting units "must be delegated in order to count as actual votes". A holder who wants to vote themselves must delegate to their own address.2
Uniswap's guide makes the same point for UNI. It compares delegation to voter registration: "it needs to happen in advance for your vote to count".1 It also says delegation must happen before voting starts on any proposal you want to take part in.1
Delegating does not move your tokens. Uniswap says your tokens stay in your wallet and delegation "only assigns voting power".1 Because it is recorded on-chain, delegating costs gas.1
Why delegates exist
Ethereum.org calls delegation "the DAO version of representative democracy". Holders give their votes to people who volunteer to follow the protocol and vote on it.4 Arbitrum's guide says that if you don't have the time to take part yourself, you can "still make your voice heard" by delegating.5
Arbitrum's guide suggests checking a delegate before choosing one.5
- Their values and their stated positions on proposals.5
- Their track record, if they have one.5
- How much they engage with the community and listen to feedback.5
- Their technical knowledge and experience.5
How the rules work
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| One delegate at a time | Compound's token lets each holder delegate to one address at a time6 |
| Votes follow balances | Compound says changes to a holder's balance automatically change the delegate's voting rights6 |
| You can change your mind | Uniswap says you can update your delegation at any time1 |
| Proxies under Utah law | Utah's DAO Act says a member may be represented by a proxy7 |
The 2022 study of Compound, Uniswap and ENS pointed to a side effect of the one-delegate rule. A holder who wants to split their votes between delegates has to move tokens into several addresses first.3
Delegate platforms
Delegation usually happens through a governance website. Uniswap's guide shows how to delegate on Agora, where you can browse delegates' profiles, or on Tally.1 Its process page adds that Tally wound down in April 2026 and that its app continues under ScopeLift and would be renamed. In October 2026, the app's own site said "Tally is now Cactus".8,9 Arbitrum points holders to the "Delegates" tab of its on-chain governance interface.5 Snapshot offers its own delegation page, and some DAOs list their delegates there.10 Naming these platforms is not a recommendation.
Turnout is often low
The 2022 study found that, on average, less than 10% of all Compound and Uniswap tokens took part in votes on proposals.3 It compared this with shareholder meetings at US companies, where it cited turnout of about 70%.3 It also found that only a very small number of delegates actually voted.3
Low turnout makes quorums hard to reach. In May 2025, a proposal on the Arbitrum DAO's forum cited research showing that participation as a share of votable tokens had fallen "from 8% in early 2024 to 4-5% in early 2025".11 It proposed cutting the quorum for constitutional proposals from 5% to 4.5%.11 The cut took effect: a January 2026 forum proposal quoted the rule then in force as "at least 4.5% of all Votable Tokens", and proposed basing quorums on delegated tokens instead.12 As of October 2026, Arbitrum's constitution does this. For a constitutional proposal, the quorum is half of the delegated tokens, but never below 150,000,000 tokens or above 450,000,000.13
Add up the tokens delegated to the address when the vote's snapshot is taken, including the delegate's own tokens if they delegated to themselves. Tokens delegated later, and tokens never delegated, don't count. If a holder sends tokens away before the snapshot, the delegate loses those votes.2,6,14
- Guide to Voting. Uniswap developer documentation (read 24 October 2026).
- Governance API reference. OpenZeppelin Contracts 5.x documentation (read 24 October 2026).
- Analyzing Voting Power in Decentralized Governance: Who controls DAOs? (version 1). Robin Fritsch, Marino Müller and Roger Wattenhofer, arXiv:2204.01176, 3 April 2022.
- Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). ethereum.org (page last updated 26 June 2026; read 24 October 2026).
- How to delegate your voting power: A guide for $ARB token holders. Arbitrum DAO governance documentation, public preview (read 24 October 2026).
- Compound v2 Docs: Governance. Compound documentation (v2, read 24 October 2026).
- H.B. 357, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Amendments (enrolled copy): the Decentralized Autonomous Organization Act, Utah Code Title 48, Chapter 5. Utah Legislature, 2023 General Session; signed by the Governor 13 March 2023 (read through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, because the Legislature's site did not respond to us), 2023.
- Governance Process. Uniswap developer documentation (page says it was last updated in April 2026; read 24 October 2026).
- Compound Governor Contracts Upgrade (Compound proposal 393). Tally (now Cactus), Compound governance proposal page (read 24 October 2026).
- Delegation. Snapshot documentation (read 24 October 2026).
- [Constitutional] AIP: Constitutional Quorum Threshold Reduction. Arbitrum DAO governance forum, post by the forum account "Arbitrum", 2 May 2025.
- [Constitutional] DVP Quorum for ArbitrumDAO: Implementation & Parameters. Arbitrum DAO governance forum, post by the forum account "Arbitrum", 29 January 2026.
- The Amended Constitution of the ArbitrumDAO. Arbitrum DAO governance documentation (read 24 October 2026).
- Create a proposal: snapshot block number. Snapshot documentation (read 24 October 2026).
General education built from the publicly available sources listed above. Not financial, legal, tax or investment advice. Naming a company, project or regulator is not an endorsement either way. Last checked 2026-10-24. Terms and disclaimer.