Polls

We will host your poll for free! Well alright it may not be the main reason you would want us to host your poll, but it is a good one.  It will not cost you a penny, and it will allow you the freedom to find the views of potentially millions of  individuals without leaving the comfort of your chair.

The internet is vast, and offers the potential to have your poll viewed by a world wide audience.  Now we do not want you to think that this will come without any work on your part, but it will save you a lot of time and money. You will be able to lead people to your poll at Lobby It, instead of taking your poll to them individually.

In addition to this you will have people visiting Lobby It to vote on other polls who may well wish to vote on  yours also.  At Lobby It we too are committed to helping your polls succeed by directing as many visitors to our site as possible.

You can have it voted on by people from all over your country, as well as the world at any time of night or day, and the more time you put into following the guidelines below, the more successful your poll will become.

You are sitting in front of potentially one of the best tools to make your poll succeed.  Take the time to e-mail as many of your friends and colleagues as possible to tell them of your poll and ask them to visit Lobby It to vote on it.  Then ask them if they would mind doing the same, perhaps even forwarding your original message with a note to pass it on.  Imagine you just e-mail five friends, and each of them e-mail five and so on, it will not take long before you start to see the number of votes building up. 

Use the power of bulletin boards, discussion forums and newsgroups to spread the word.  Pass the message on to people you meet and tell them to visit Lobby It  to vote on it.  

Search for all the internet websites which cover issues similar to your poll and ask them to put a link to  Lobby It so people will be able to vote on your poll and on the other current polls. 

Use the media, write letters to local newspapers if the issue is of interest to people in your area, or national newspapers if it is of wider appeal.  Write to radio or television stations telling them of your poll, and ask if they would be interested in doing an interview with you. They may not be able to help, but if you don't ask you'll never know.

If you can think of other suggestions then please e-mail them to us in order that we can share them with all our visitors and  help them to make their polls succeed.

Remember, these are just suggestions, you do not have to use them all, but the more people who find out about your plight, the more successful your poll  is likely to become.

"There are risks and costs to a programme of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." - John F Kennedy

What happens with your poll when you submit it to Lobby It is that it is personally reviewed.  We review each submission in order that we can get an understanding of your cause and objectives.  We will inform you by e-mail to let you know if, and when, your poll will be going live at Lobby It. 

We do not make any judgment of your poll, as it is conceivable that we will not agree with every cause.  However, just because we do not have the same viewpoint this will not stop your poll being hosted by us.  We believe strongly that every person has a right to their beliefs.

Think carefully before you submit your poll, do try to ensure that any explanatory text or titles for your polls are not defamatory towards an individual or organisation and that any statements you make are correct, so you do not leave yourself open to legal action from the target of the poll.  We do not wish to receive polls which incite violence or prejudice and remember we reserve the right to refuse submissions of polls which we feel are unsuitable for the Lobby It website. 

Your poll may be removed if it spends a reasonable amount of time unsupported by new voters.  Please ensure this doesn't happen by putting a plan of action together to promote your poll, use the hints above to help you with this.

When submitting or poll we will always require that you submit your name and e-mail address. We will check e-mail addresses routinely to ensure their validity.

If submitting a poll your name and e-mail address and contact details will remain confidential at all times.

When submitting a poll please remember to ensure that your e-mail address is valid as your poll will not go live until we have verified this to be true.

When you submit a poll the following information shall be requested.

1. Poll Title
This is the title which will appear in the polls list and on the voting booth.  It needs to be short and descriptive, to clearly summarise your cause.

2. Poll Statement
This is  the actual text you will be asking people to cast their vote on. We recommend that you think about this carefully.  You should compose the poll statement off-line using a word processor. When you are sure that the statement is just right, and you have checked the spelling, you should then copy and paste the finished text into this field.

3. Poll Duration
Enter the desired duration of the poll.  Most polls will  have an end date, if this is the case then enter the date, otherwise leave the closing date dropdown lists set to n/a.

4. Poll Author Contact Details
You must complete your name and e-mail address as this is required to validate your submission. 

5. Location To Which The Poll Relates
The geographical location to which the poll relates.

6. Poll Options
This allows you to list the choices, they need to be concise, non defamatory and they must not incite violence or prejudice, and remember we reserve the right to refuse submissions of polls which we feel are unsuitable for the Lobby It website.  Common Options are often Yes, No, Don't know, but this will depend on the type of poll.

Voting on a poll is easy, you simply go to the polls list, and click on the vote button of the relevant poll. You can only vote once on a poll, once you have voted on it, you will see a bar graph of the votes to date.