Either, Question can be more specific in terms of name, department and other unique items.

Or you can load everyone in the directory and respondents can select anyone from here. How I’m saying is low level view. This has more if you wish to stick with this method

I have QSFs that can do this. The attached surveys use Select2 (loaded in the header) to allow searchable dropdowns and multiple selections. The first uses Drilldown questions because I think it is the easiest way to import large amounts of answer options (vs Supplemental Data, external database, or Multiple choice question). Selections are saved to Embedded Data fields, separated by a comma. If you have more than 10,000 names, you would need to use a second Drilldown question. Compiling the votes would be a little tricky/manual, since each name will need to be counted from within the Embedded Data fields (Excel formula to search for names within a string).

I think the easiest way to compile votes would be where each candidate is a Multiple Choice answer option (second attachment). However, you would need several Multiple Choice questions to do this as each one can only hold 1000 choices. Maybe split the questions up by department?

This might not be a better solution or helpful, but I built a similar form. The nominator has to select which awards they want to nominate for, to show/hide each block, then the questions within those blocks are required. I’m using the autocomplete text input to search the list of employees, but that list is less than 1,000 so I’m not sure it would work in your case with a larger number of names and wanting to multi-select. You could force people to submit the form multiple times for each award if they want to nominate more than one person for an award category which is what we did.

Then on our results dashboard I broke them out in each category.
 

​@Tom_1842 Thank you, the QSF for 1000+ option drilldowns you posted works really well! I noticed that when I type in an answer, it must match the beginning of the answer choice in order to jump the participant to that option. I’m wondering, is there a modification that would allow a survey participant to type in any substring that matches any part of the answer choice and get a filtered list? Some of my answer choices are kind of long. For example, if they want to choose “Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake”, they would have to begin by typing “Eastern”, but I’d like them to be able to get there by typing “Diamond” or “Rattle” instead (case-insensitive would be ideal if that’s possible).

Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide.

Hi, ​@KOgles!

I’m not sure I fully understand, but here are a few thoughts based on what I got.

1. Use a Repeating Group via Loop & Merge with a cap limit

• Add one set of questions (like “Nominee Name”, “Reason for nomination”, “Department”, etc.)

• Set Loop & Merge to repeat, for example, up to 20 times.

• Include a question like “Would you like to nominate another person?” to trigger the next loop.

• This keeps each nomination as a separate row in the export, making your data much cleaner.

  RespondentID | NomineeName | Reason | Department
  12345         | Maria       | Liderança | CX
  12345         | João        | Inovação  | TI

   

2. Use a form-based approach with Text Entry set and a defined structure

• If you really need it open-ended, use a Matrix Text Entry or repeated text fields (Name 1 / Reason 1, Name 2 / Reason 2).

• It’s not dynamic, but way easier to compile later.

3. Consider an integration approach

• For 10k users, it might be worth connecting the survey to a directory or employee list (e.g., via API or contact directory) and using an autocomplete field for names.

• That way, respondents type just a few letters and pick from validated names — cleaner input, easier export.

Hope it helps.