Writing poll questions

I have one thing to say about this.

Never, ever, never, ever, never do "I don't know" or "Undecided" or whatever. Absolutely ruins the poll.

Give them two or three or four, where appropriate, absolute answers. Never leave them an out where they can basically say, "I voted in this poll despite having no opinion."

They must make a choice or not vote. Absolutely.

 

Interned at an alt-weekly this summer and one of our questions was: "Should marijuana be legalized?" The response was 100% yes. Even knowing the area pretty well it astounded me that everyone said yes.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of undecided either. And anything you can do to make a question not simply say yes or no is welcome, in my mind.

Here's an example of one we ran last fall:

Did you notice the NCAA's speed-up rules at work this weekend?
Yes, and I didn't like it: 48.9%
Yes, and I liked them: 23.4%
What speed-up rules?: 17.2%
No, but I wish I had: 5.0%
No, and I hope I never do: 4.4%