Polling App

Create polls, collect votes, and get community feedback live.

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You can install and manage Root's own Apps on desktop or mobile. Apps from other developers, and Bots, are installed from Root on desktop. Once installed into a community, Apps and Bots can be used on Root desktop and mobile.

What is Polling?

Polling is a community app that lets members vote on questions, rank options, and discuss results. Community owners configure who can manage all polls (poll admins), who can create and manage their own polls (poll creators), and who can vote (voters), so every poll reaches the right audience.

Whether you need a quick yes/no check or a detailed ranked vote, Polling gives your community a structured way to make decisions together.

Polling shows its screens in the language you use for Root.

How it works

A poll is a question with a set of options that members can vote on. Every poll has a type that controls how voting works and a status that tracks where it is in its lifecycle.

Poll types

Type	How you vote	Best for
Single Choice	Select one option	Simple decisions with one clear answer
Multiple Choice	Select one or more options	Questions where several answers apply
Ranked Choice	Rank options in order of preference	Prioritizing a list of ideas or candidates
Yes / No	Select Yes or No	Quick binary decisions

Poll statuses

A poll moves through these statuses during its lifetime:

Status	Meaning
Draft	Created but not published. Only poll admins and the poll creator who made it can see it.
Active	Open for voting. Visible to all members.
Closed	Voting has ended. Everyone can still view a closed poll and its results.

Poll admins, and poll creators on their own polls, publish a draft to make it active, and close an active poll to end voting.

Results

Results appear as progress bars sorted by vote count. For ranked-choice polls, results display a point score calculated from each voter's rankings (first place earns the most points, last place earns the fewest).

You can see results after you vote, when the poll closes, or if you are a poll admin. Members who do not have permission to vote can always see results.

Reactions and comments

Every poll has a reaction bar and a comment section. Reactions let you respond with one of five emoji: Like, Love, Fire, Insightful, or Interested. You can reply to top-level comments, but replies cannot be nested further. You can edit and delete your own comments. Poll admins can also delete anyone's comment.

If comments are turned off for a poll, existing comments stay visible, but no one can add new ones.

Roles and permissions

Polling uses three permission groups configured by community owners:

Role	Description
Poll Admins	Users and roles with full poll access: create, edit, close, delete, vote, comment, and react on any poll. They can also delete any comment and change Polls settings.
Poll Creators	Users and roles who can create polls, and edit, close or delete their own. They can't see other people's drafts or change settings. This group is optional.
Voters	Users and roles who can vote, comment, and react on polls.

What poll admins can do

• Create, edit, and delete polls
• Publish draft polls and close active polls
• Vote, comment, and react on any poll
• View all polls including drafts and closed polls
• View results at any time
• Delete any comment
• Change Polls settings and edit the guidelines
• Create polls with no limits

What poll creators can do

• Create polls
• Edit, publish, close, and delete their own polls
• View their own drafts (but not other people's drafts)
• Delete their own comments (but not other people's comments, even on their own polls)

Poll creators can't change Polls settings. Poll admins can limit how many polls a poll creator can have open, and how many they can create each day. See Poll settings.

What voters can do

• Vote on active polls
• Comment on and react to polls
• View results after voting or when a poll closes
• Change their vote while a poll is still active

Create a poll

Poll admins and poll creators can create polls from the main polls list.

1. Select the Create Poll icon .
2. Enter your question in the Question field.
3. Optionally add a description to provide more context.
4. Choose a Poll Type: Single Choice, Multiple Choice, Ranked Choice, or Yes / No.
5. If you chose Single Choice, Multiple Choice, or Ranked Choice, add at least two options. For Yes / No polls, the options are created automatically.
6. For Ranked Choice, choose How many options must a voter rank?: All of them (the default) or At least a smaller number.
7. Check Publish immediately to make the poll active right away, or uncheck it to save as a draft.
8. Check Allow comments to let members comment on the poll, or uncheck it to turn comments off.
9. Select Create Poll to finish.

Create poll fields

Field	Required	Limit	Notes
Question	Yes	200 characters	The main poll question
Description	No	2,000 characters	Additional context for voters
Poll Type	Yes	N/A	Single Choice, Multiple Choice, Ranked Choice, or Yes / No
Options	Yes (except Yes / No)	30 options, 200 characters each	Minimum 2 options required
Publish immediately	No	N/A	Checked by default
Allow comments	No	N/A	Checked by default

Vote on a poll

Voters can cast or change their vote on any active poll.

1. Open the poll from the polls list.
2. In the Cast Your Vote section, make your selection:
   • Single Choice / Yes / No: Select one option.
   • Multiple Choice: Select one or more options.
   • Ranked Choice: Rank the options by preference. The poll creator sets whether you rank all of them or at least a set number.
3. Select Submit Vote.

To change your vote, adjust your selection in the Update Your Vote section and select Update Vote. You can change your vote as long as the poll is active.

Edit a poll

Poll admins can update the question, description and options of a poll that is not closed. Poll creators can do this for their own polls.

1. Open the poll and select Edit from the options menu (three dots).
2. Update the Question, Description or Options. Check or uncheck Allow comments to turn comments on or off.
3. Select Save Changes.

Once a poll has votes, you can still correct the wording of its options, but you can't add or remove options.

From the poll's options menu (three dots), poll admins, and poll creators on their own polls, can also select Close Poll to end voting on an active poll.

To publish a draft and make it active, open the draft's Edit screen and select Publish.

Delete a poll

Poll admins can delete a poll at any time. Poll creators can delete their own polls. Deleting a poll removes it along with all its votes, comments, and reactions.

1. Open the poll and select Delete from the options menu (three dots).
2. Confirm the deletion.

Add guidelines

Poll admins can add guidelines at the top of the polls list. For example, tell members what to ask about and who can create polls. Members see the guidelines once they have text.

1. On the polls list, select Add guidelines for this community. To change existing guidelines, select Edit guidelines (pencil icon).
2. Enter your guidelines. You can use Markdown.
3. Select Save.

Poll settings

Poll admins can choose where Polling announces polls and who it notifies, and set limits for poll creators.

1. On the polls list, select the Settings icon (gear).
2. Under Announcements, choose an Announcement channel. Then turn on When a poll opens, When a poll closes, or both. Polling posts a message in that channel with a link to the poll. Announcements are off until you choose a channel.
3. Choose an Announcement language. Polling posts announcements in this language. Everyone still sees Polls in their own language. Until a poll admin picks one, this is the language of the first poll admin who opens Polling.
4. Under Limits for Poll Creators, set Open polls at a time (3 by default) and New polls per day (5 by default). Enter 0 for no limit.
5. Under Notifications, turn When a poll closes on or off. It tells everyone who voted, and the poll creator, that the results are in. This is on by default.

Limits apply only to poll creators. Poll admins have no limits. Open polls at a time counts a poll creator's active and scheduled polls. New polls per day counts the polls they created in the last 24 hours, including polls that were deleted. At the Open polls at a time limit, a poll creator can still save drafts, but can't publish another poll until they close one. At the New polls per day limit, they can't create another poll, including drafts.

Limits

Item	Limit
Question length	200 characters
Description length	2,000 characters
Option text length	200 characters
Options per poll	30
Comment length	2,000 characters
Comments per poll	100
Guidelines length	2,000 characters
Open polls at a time (poll creators)	3 by default, 0 to 100
New polls per day (poll creators)	5 by default, 0 to 100