Vottiv Polling allows campaigns to run professional, statistically valid voter polls directly from the platform. This guide walks through the full polling workflow—from creating and launching a poll to reviewing results and turning insights into action.

Why Polling Matters

Polling helps campaigns understand what voters are thinking so you can make informed strategic decisions. By collecting real feedback on priorities, preferences, and local issues, polling allows you to:

Test messaging
Identify key issues
Understand voter sentiment
Adjust outreach strategy before Election Day

Accessing the Polling Dashboard

From your account home:

Open the left-hand navigation
Click Polling

On the Polling page, you’ll see:

Create a Poll
Active Polls
Archived Polls

You’ll also find a Learn About Polling section that explains the methodology and key concepts used in Vottiv polling.

Creating and Launching a Poll

Step 1: Start a New Poll

Click Create Poll
Enter a poll name

Example:
Utah County Traffic Priorities

Step 2: Add Questions

You can add questions in one of two ways:

Select an existing survey, or
Use AI to generate questions

When using AI, Vottiv:

Reviews your poll description
Generates AAPOR-compliant, neutral questions

If needed, you can:

Edit the description
Regenerate the question
Manually adjust wording

Step 3: Select a Voter Group

Choose an existing voter group from your account.

Vottiv will display:

Total voters in the group
Voters with cell phone numbers
Percentage of reachable voters

This helps you evaluate the quality and size of your potential sample.

Step 4: Set Your Sample Size

Use the sample slider to select what percentage of the group you want to contact.

As you adjust the slider, Vottiv automatically shows:

Estimated margin of error
Estimated cost
Expected response count

Example:
A 25% sample may produce a margin of error around ±2%.

Step 5: Review and Confirm

Before launching, review:

Poll name
Selected voter group
Sample size
Cost
SMS message preview

You can regenerate the SMS message if needed.

Step 6: Payment and Launch

Choose a payment method:

Campaign credits
Credit card

Once payment is confirmed, the poll launches immediately.

What Voters Experience

Voters receive a single SMS message with a link to the poll.

No login required
No app download
Questions can be completed in seconds

This reduces friction and improves response rates.

Viewing and Understanding Poll Results

Once responses start coming in, you can analyze results directly in Vottiv.

Step 1: Open Poll Analytics

Go to Polling
Find your poll
Click View Analytics

Step 2: Review the Overview Tab

The Overview tab provides a high-level snapshot, including:

Total poll cost
Overall response rate
Summary performance metrics

This is a quick check before diving deeper.

Step 3: Review Question Results (Results Tab)

Click the Results tab to view charts for each question.

Each result is shown in two ways:

Light color: Raw responses
- The actual percentage of respondents who chose each option
Dark color: Weighted responses
- Adjusted to better represent your target population

You’ll also see a confidence interval for each result.

Example:
52% ± 3% means the true value likely falls between 49% and 55%.

Tip:
Use weighted results when making strategic decisions—they better reflect the full population.

Step 4: Understand Your Sample (Stratification Tab)

Click the Stratification tab to see how your sample breaks down into subgroups (strata), such as:

Age
Party affiliation
Geography

For each stratum, Vottiv shows:

Share of the sample
Invites sent
Responses received
Response rate
Weight applied

How Weighting Works

Weighting ensures no group disproportionately influences results.

Overrepresented groups
- Weight less than 1
- Their responses count less
Underrepresented groups
- Weight greater than 1
- Their responses count more

This keeps results representative, not skewed by the loudest respondents.

Step 5: Review Open-Ended Responses (Comments Tab)

Click the Comments tab to read any open-ended feedback submitted by voters.

This qualitative data can provide context and nuance behind the numbers.

Turning Poll Results Into Action

Once you’ve reviewed:

Overview metrics
Weighted vs. raw results
Stratification and weights
Open-ended comments

You can use poll insights to:

Refine campaign messaging
Adjust targeting
Prioritize issues
Design follow-up polls to test new ideas

Poll Lifecycle Summary

Create and launch a poll
Collect responses via SMS
Review weighted and raw results
Analyze stratification and comments
Apply insights to campaign strategy

Archived polls remain accessible for reference and comparison.

Watch Polling in Action

Prefer to see it step by step?
Watch our short video walkthroughs to see how to create a poll and analyze poll results in Vottiv.

▶️ Creating a Poll in Vottiv
Learn how to build questions, select a voter group, set your sample size, and launch a poll.

▶️ Analyzing Poll Results in Vottiv
Learn how to interpret weighted vs. raw results, understand confidence intervals, explore stratification, and turn insights into action.