Running a Fair Online Poll Without a Third-Party Tool

A quick poll among colleagues or society members — "which date works best" — usually starts as a free third-party tool, and for something casual, that's fine. The moment the result actually matters — electing a committee secretary, deciding something people care about — "whoever clicks the most" stops being an acceptable failure mode.

Repeat voting is the specific thing worth solving for

A poll with no protection can be voted on repeatedly just by refreshing the page or opening it in a new tab. That's not a hypothetical edge case; it's the first thing anyone motivated to skew a result will try, and a link shared casually with no safeguard invites exactly that.

Two honest levels of protection, not one dishonest promise

No browser-based protection is completely unbeatable — someone determined can always vote again from a different device. The more useful question is whether a poll needs casual-repeat-voting protection or something stronger, like single-use codes handed to a known list of people. Those are genuinely different levels of protection, and picking the wrong one for what's actually at stake is where a poll's credibility usually breaks down.

What our Poll & Voting System actually does

Our Poll & Voting System supports polls with 2 to 10 options, open or closed whenever you choose. In open mode, anyone with the link can vote, limited to one vote per browser plus a cap per network address. In codes mode, you generate up to 500 single-use voting codes, each one counting exactly once — the stronger option when it actually matters who's allowed to vote. Duplicate votes are blocked even from repeated clicks or several open tabs, and votes are stored as hashes, never raw IP addresses or cookies.

Results show to a voter right after they vote, and to everyone once a poll closes, with vote counts and percentage bars on the dashboard.

Being direct about the honest limits: open polls are protected by a browser cookie and a per-address limit, which stops casual repeat voting but isn't tamper-proof — someone can still vote again from another device or after clearing cookies (a voting code is the stronger option for that). It's not suitable for binding legal or statutory elections, and there's no voter identity verification, ranked or multiple-choice voting, scheduled open/close timing, or result export.

FAQ

Can someone vote twice by refreshing the page or opening a new tab?

No — duplicate votes are blocked even from repeated clicks or multiple open tabs, in both open and codes mode.

Is this suitable for an official, legally binding election?

No — it's stated plainly that this isn't suitable for binding legal or statutory elections. For anything with real stakes, use codes mode rather than open mode.

What is the difference between open mode and codes mode?

Open mode lets anyone with the link vote once per browser, with a per-network cap. Codes mode issues single-use codes to specific people — a stronger guarantee that only intended voters can vote, and only once.