On signing an agreement before results are tallied

To observe an analogous situation: I would not, for instance, expect a company to have an employee sign an unconditional non-compete agreement *before* receiving a binding job offer. It's reasonable for the employee to say "I'll sign the agreement once you offer me the job, the offer can be conditional on signing the agreement, but I'm not signing something that I'll continue to be bound to even if you don't give me a job
offer".