Strawpoll
StrawPoll.com – Create a Straw Poll in Seconds
Simple. Fast. Free.
Choose the type of your poll:
How It Works
1. Create
Choose a poll type and fill it out.
2. Share
Send your poll to other people.
3. Get Results
Check the results in real-time.
Our Types of Polls
Straw Poll
A straw poll is a voting that can be used to help people to easily determine the opinion of a group or the public on some issue. Straw polls are very useful when only the majority opinion is important and not the opinion of each individual participant.
Features
Private or public polls
Anonymous voting
Unlimited participants
Real-time results
Avoidance of duplicate voting
Get Started
Meeting Poll
StrawPoll Meetings is a great and simple tool to schedule meetings and other times with clients, colleagues or friends. A meeting poll is very helpful in situations where the opinion of each individual participant is important.
Easy date picking
Always private
Email invitations
Votes can be edited later
Excel export
StrawPoll Features
Free
Save money! All our polls and meetings are 100% free to create.
VPN Detection
By default, VPN users are blocked from voting on straw polls.
Deadlines
Our polls run indefinetly. You can change that by setting a deadline.
Emoji Support
We support all Emojis natively. Feel free to use as many as you want!
Intranet
In schools, universities or at work, set the options accordingly.
Dashboard
Manage all your polls in a single place by using your account dashboard.
API
We provide an easy to use API for poll creation and result analysis.
Development
We are activly working on more features. Send us your feature requests!
Additional Information
Convinced?
If you want to join StrawPoll, you can sign up for a free account. It’s recommended, but not mandatory.
Any Questions?
We love to answer your questions! Check out all the frequently asked questions for an instant answer.
Still Curious?
At StrawPoll, we do our best to be as transparent as possible. Feel free to read our privacy policy
StrawPoll.com – Create a Straw Poll in Seconds
Simple. Fast. Free.
Choose the type of your poll:
How It Works
1. Create
Choose a poll type and fill it out.
2. Share
Send your poll to other people.
3. Get Results
Check the results in real-time.
Our Types of Polls
Straw Poll
A straw poll is a voting that can be used to help people to easily determine the opinion of a group or the public on some issue. Straw polls are very useful when only the majority opinion is important and not the opinion of each individual participant.
Features
Private or public polls
Anonymous voting
Unlimited participants
Real-time results
Avoidance of duplicate voting
Get Started
Meeting Poll
StrawPoll Meetings is a great and simple tool to schedule meetings and other times with clients, colleagues or friends. A meeting poll is very helpful in situations where the opinion of each individual participant is important.
Easy date picking
Always private
Email invitations
Votes can be edited later
Excel export
StrawPoll Features
Free
Save money! All our polls and meetings are 100% free to create.
VPN Detection
By default, VPN users are blocked from voting on straw polls.
Deadlines
Our polls run indefinetly. You can change that by setting a deadline.
Emoji Support
We support all Emojis natively. Feel free to use as many as you want!
Intranet
In schools, universities or at work, set the options accordingly.
Dashboard
Manage all your polls in a single place by using your account dashboard.
API
We provide an easy to use API for poll creation and result analysis.
Development
We are activly working on more features. Send us your feature requests!
Additional Information
Convinced?
If you want to join StrawPoll, you can sign up for a free account. It’s recommended, but not mandatory.
Any Questions?
We love to answer your questions! Check out all the frequently asked questions for an instant answer.
Still Curious?
At StrawPoll, we do our best to be as transparent as possible. Feel free to read our privacy policy
Straw poll – Wikipedia
A straw poll, straw vote, or straw ballot is an ad hoc or unofficial vote. It is used to show the popular opinion on a certain matter, and can be used to help politicians know the majority opinion and help them decide what to say in order to gain votes.
Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups. [1][2] Impromptu straw polls often are taken to see if there is enough support for an idea to devote more meeting time to it, and (when not a secret ballot) for the attendees to see who is on which side of a question. However, in meetings subject to Robert’s Rules of Order, motions to take straw polls are not allowed. [3]
Among political bodies, straw polls often are scheduled for events at which many people interested in the polling question can be expected to vote. Sometimes polls conducted without ordinary voting controls in place (i. e., on an honor system, such as in online polls) are also called “straw polls”.
The idiom may allude to a straw (thin plant stalk) held up to see in what direction the wind blows, in this case, the wind of group opinion. [4][5][6]
United States politics[edit]
A formal straw poll is common in American political caucuses. Such straw polls can be taken before selecting delegates and voting on resolutions. The results of straw polls are taken by the media to influence delegates in caucus later (as well as delegates to political conventions), and thus serve as important precursors. Straw polls are also scheduled informally by other organizations interested in the U. S. presidential election.
Well-known American straw polls include the Ames Straw Poll and the Texas Straw Poll, both conducted on behalf of their respective state Republican Party organizations. Being run by private organizations, they are not subject to public oversight or verifiability. However, they provide important interactive dialogue among movements within large groups, reflecting trends like organization and motivation. [1][2]
The Ames straw poll achieved a reputation as a meaningful straw poll during the presidential campaign because of its large voter turnout and relatively high media recognition, as well as Iowa’s being the first state to vote in caucuses before the primaries. In 2015 the Iowa Republican Party voted to abolish the poll, after a majority of presidential candidates declined to participate. The Iowa State Fair Straw Polls for both the Republican and Democratic races were conducted at the Iowa State Fair instead.
The U. territory of Guam holds a presidential straw poll during every presidential election, despite the island’s having no official say in the election.
Other types of polls[edit]
Straw polls are contrasted with opinion polls, usually conducted by telephone and based on samples of the voting public. Straw polls can also be contrasted with honor-system polls (such as online polls), in which ordinary voting controls are absent. In an ordinary event-based straw poll, controls common to elections are enforced: voting twice is prohibited; polls are not open for inordinately long periods of time; interim results are not publicized before polls close; etc. Honor-system polls may be conducted wholly online, conducted at one location over a period of months, conducted with interim results publicized, or even conducted with explicit permission to vote multiple times.
The meaning of results from the varying poll types is disputed. Opinion polls are generally conducted with statistical selection controls in place and are thus called “scientific”, while straw polls and honor-system polls are conducted among self-selected populations and are called “unscientific”. However, as predictors of poll results among larger populations (i. e., elections), each method has known flaws.
A margin of error is intrinsic in any subset polling method, and is a mathematical function of the difference in size between the subset and the larger population; sampling error is constant across different poll methods with the same sample sizes. Selection bias, nonresponse bias, or coverage bias occurs when the conditions for subset polling significantly differ from the conditions for the larger poll or election; event-based straw polls, where registration often closely mirrors voter registration, suffer less from nonresponse bias than opinion polls, where inclusion generally means owning a landline phone, being the party that answers the phone, being willing to answer the poll questions, and being a “likely voter” based on pollster criteria. Response bias occurs when respondents do not indicate their true beliefs, such as in bias due to intentional manipulation by respondents, haste, social pressure, or confusion; such biases may be present in any polling situation. Wording of questions may also inject bias, although this is more likely in a telephone setting than in an event-based ballot setting.
By relying on identity information, such as that publicly traceable to telephone numbers or voter registration addresses and that voluntarily provided by respondents such as age and gender, polls can be made more scientific. Straw polls may be improved by: asking identity questions, tracing group-based trends, and publishing statistical studies of the data. Opinion polls may be improved by more closely mirroring the larger poll or election anticipated, such as in wording of questions and inclusion procedure. Honor-system polls may be improved by adding ordinary voting controls; for example, online polls may rely on established social-networking and identity providers for verification to minimize multiple voting.
See also[edit]
Straw polls for the Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012
References[edit]
^ a b Vote on the Michigan Republican debate – The Debates –
^ a b My Open Letter To Ron Paul Supporters – Political Capital with John Harwood –
^ Robert, Henry M. ; et al. (2011). Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed. ). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. p. 429. ISBN 978-0-306-82020-5. A motion to take an informal straw poll to “test the water” is not in order because it neither adopts nor rejects a measure and hence is meaningless and dilatory.
^ Christine Ammer. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997)
^ E. Cobham Brewer. Brewers Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (London: Cassell, 1894)
^ William Safire. Safire’s Political Dictionary (New York:, Random House, 1978)
