# Account Voting Power

### Voting Power

An account's **voting power** indicates the weighting of a vote cast by that account in a proposal. The amount of SHX held in an account at the relevant ledger snapshot gives that account voting power for a particular proposal's vote.

#### Ledger Snapshot

To calculate SHX account balances for voting, a **snapshot** of the ledger is taken. A time will be announced for the vote, and the first ledger to close after that time will be selected as the snapshot. The snapshot will contain a point-in-time list of all accounts holding SHX and their respective balances.

The ledger sequence/height and time will be published, allowing account holders to verify their voting power in advance of the vote. A snapshot of all relevant protocols/blockchains will be taken, which currently includes both Stellar and Ethereum.

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### Not All Balances Are Equal

Since balances are recorded at the account level as per the ledger, to ensure and maximize your voting power, SHX should be moved to an on-ledger wallet that you control the secret key for.

Balances held on exchanges will not grant you voting power, as you will not have access to the secret key(s) necessary to sign for that account.

In addition, certain accounts (Stronghold owned wallets and other aggregate accounts such as exchanges) will be excluded from the snapshot and therefore have no voting power.
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If you have SHx balances across multiple protocols, you must vote with each holding separately, even if the account ID of the wallet holding the balances is the same across those protocols.

#### Voting Power Calculation

An account's voting power for any governance vote is calculated as the number of SHx in that account's possession at the vote's designated ledger snapshot. Fractional SHX balances are counted.

For example, an account holding `24,591.9135 SHX` in the ledger snapshot will have a voting power of `24,591.9135`.

### Stronghold Voting Power

SHx in Stronghold's possession will have a voting power of zero. As such, Stronghold will be unable to participate in proposal votes.


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