It only takes a few seconds to create a LivePoll: just choose a question and include as many potential answers as you’d like. Once created, the poll is published instantly in the liveblog. Publish as many polls as you’d like and get real-time results as readers weigh in.

How to create a new poll

Click “Polls” from the menu on top of the grey text box (it’s nestled between “Upload” and “Webcam”)

Type the poll question in the grey box under the title “Question." Type in the various options/answers readers can choose from in the grey boxes under “Answers.” There is no limit on how many answers there can be. The default is four, but more can be added by clicking enter.

Review the question and answers. Be careful to avoid typos – You can’t edit the text after it’s created (we wouldn’t want anyone to be tempted to skew the poll results, now would we?)

When the poll is good to go, click the “Create” button. The poll is instantly published in your liveblog, and readers can vote immediately. You can publish as many polls as you’d like. We suggest you pin important ones to the top using the push pin icon at the bottom of each post.

How to open or close a poll

From the back end, the poll includes a red hyperlink identifying the status of the poll: Open or Closed. Click on the link to turn the poll on or off. Readers cannot vote once a poll is closed

How to vote on a poll 

Readers can vote on a poll by simply clicking the circle beside the answer they want to vote for. Once they’ve clicked on a choice, they’ll see how many votes each answer received, the percentage of votes each received and a bar graph representing that percentage. Readers cannot vote once a poll is closed. Instead of circles, readers will just see the results.

Poll results

When a reader votes for an answer, the results show up in the back end on the poll post itself. The poll creator will see the number of votes for each answer alongside the percentage of votes each answer received. A black bar graph helps provide a visual representation of the votes. On the front end, the reader sees the same results.