diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3026b2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+VOTE_HOST=http://localhost:8080
+VOTE_STATE=1000000
+VOTE_OIDC_ID=develop
+VOTE_JWT_SECRET=ahahaisdfjioThisShouldBeRandom
+VOTE_OIDC_SECRET=no peeking (on wiki)
+DEV_DISABLE_ACTIVE_FILTERS=true
+DEV_FORCE_IS_EVALS=true
+VOTE_CONDITIONAL_URL=https://conditional.csh.rit.edu/gatekeep
+VOTE_TOKEN=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
+VOTE_MONGODB_URI=mongodb://vote:c1f66aac6b4fafbef3c659371b8a50ed@mongodb/vote?authSource=admin
+VOTE_ANNOUNCEMENTS_CHANNEL_ID=
+VOTE_SLACK_APP_TOKEN=
+VOTE_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 20e2001..212e1b8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-.env*
+.env
 vote
 .idea/
-.vscode/
\ No newline at end of file
+.vscode/
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 306981a..a692756 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,23 +11,7 @@ Implementation
 
 ## Configuration
 
-If you're using the compose file, you'll need to ask an RTP for the vote-dev OIDC secret, and set it as `VOTE_OIDC_SECRET` in your environment
-
-If you're not using the compose file, you'll need more of these
-
-```
-VOTE_HOST=http://localhost:8080
-VOTE_JWT_SECRET=
-VOTE_MONGODB_URI=
-VOTE_OIDC_ID=
-VOTE_OIDC_SECRET=
-VOTE_STATE=
-VOTE_TOKEN=
-VOTE_CONDITIONAL_URL=https://conditional.csh.rit.edu/gatekeep/
-VOTE_ANNOUNCEMENTS_CHANNEL_ID=
-VOTE_SLACK_APP_TOKEN=
-VOTE_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=
-```
+Copy `.env.example` to `.env` and fill out the info
 
 ### Dev Overrides
 `DEV_DISABLE_ACTIVE_FILTERS="true"` will disable the requirements that you be active to vote
diff --git a/api.go b/api.go
index e7cc385..1a11815 100644
--- a/api.go
+++ b/api.go
@@ -195,6 +195,10 @@ func CreatePoll(c *gin.Context) {
 		}
 		poll.AllowedUsers = GetEligibleVoters()
 		for user := range strings.SplitSeq(c.PostForm("waivedUsers"), ",") {
+			if len(user) == 0 { // When it's empty (and probably in other cases) the split can return an empty string, which changes the total
+				continue
+			}
+
 			poll.AllowedUsers = append(poll.AllowedUsers, strings.TrimSpace(user))
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/docker-compose.yaml b/docker-compose.yaml
index 4902a92..0d279f3 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -13,15 +13,9 @@ services:
     container_name: vote
     depends_on:
       - mongodb
-    environment:
-      VOTE_HOST: 'http://localhost:8080'
-      VOTE_JWT_SECRET: 4874c601dda90a01c7543c571be08680
-      VOTE_MONGODB_URI: "mongodb://vote:c1f66aac6b4fafbef3c659371b8a50ed@mongodb/vote?authSource=admin"
-      VOTE_OIDC_ID: vote-dev
-      VOTE_OIDC_SECRET: "${VOTE_OIDC_SECRET}"
-      VOTE_STATE: 27a28540e47ec786b7bdad03f83171b3
-      DEV_DISABLE_ACTIVE_FILTERS: "${DEV_DISABLE_ACTIVE_FILTERS}"
-      DEV_FORCE_IS_EVALS: "${DEV_FORCE_IS_EVALS}"
+    env_file:
+      - path: .env
+        required: false
     ports:
       - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"