Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Choice poll. A committee vote with the quorum written into the question.
/poll "Adopt the new on-call rotation from next month? Counts if at least 6 of the 9 leads vote." "Yes" "No" "Abstain" limit 1 close after 2 days remind 3 hours before closing
Premium: vote limits, closing automatically, reminders
Limit votes: 1 per personClose automatically: after 2 daysReminder: 3 hours before closing
Choice poll. A week-long organiser vote with a reminder the day before it closes.
/poll "Approve the updated community code of conduct? Needs 5 of 7 organisers to vote." "Approve" "Reject" "Abstain" limit 1 close after 7 days remind 1 day before closing
Premium: vote limits, closing automatically, reminders
Limit votes: 1 per personClose automatically: after 7 daysReminder: 24 hours before closing
What it means in practice
A quorum is about turnout, not the result. If a 9-person committee has a quorum of 5, a vote with 4 participants decides nothing, however lopsided. Once the quorum is met, the normal rule (majority, two-thirds) decides the outcome among those who voted.
Under Robert's Rules, a group without a quorum can't transact business: it can only adjourn, recess, fix a time to adjourn to, or try to get a quorum. Your team doesn't need to be that formal, but it helps to decide the number before the vote, not after.
Applying a quorum to a Slack vote
Simple Poll doesn't have a quorum setting. A poll closes whether 2 people voted or 200. You apply the rule yourself:
- Say it in the question: "Counts if at least 6 of the 9 leads vote."
- Give it a deadline with
close after(Premium), so everyone knows when the count is taken. - Remind people with
remind 3 hours before closing(Premium). - Include "Abstain" so people who want to be counted without taking a side can be.
- Count voters, not votes. With
limit 1(Premium) each person casts one vote, so the total is the number of voters.
If the quorum isn't met, say so and decide what happens next: extend, re-run, or hand the decision to the owner.
Questions
Does an abstention count towards a quorum?
In meeting procedure, a member who is present counts towards the quorum whether or not they vote. In a poll, an "Abstain" option is how someone shows up without voting yes or no.
Can Simple Poll block a result if turnout is too low?
No. It has no quorum setting. State the rule in the poll and check the count when it closes.
Related
- What is a single-choice poll?
A single-choice poll lets each voter pick exactly one option. The result shows how a group splits when everyone has to commit to a single answer.
- How to close a Slack poll automatically
A poll that never closes never quite decides anything: votes trickle in, the result shifts, and nobody knows when to act. An automatic close fixes the deadline up front. In Simple Poll you add close after and a duration, and the poll closes on its own. Automatic closing is a Premium feature; anyone can close their own poll by hand.
- What is response rate?
Response rate is the share of people you asked who actually answered: the number of respondents divided by the number of people invited, times 100.
- What is plurality voting?
Plurality voting gives each voter one vote, and the option with the most votes wins, even if it has less than half of them. In single-winner elections it is also called first-past-the-post.