FAQ: Can you track who is voting and what they vote for?

FAQ: Can you track who is voting and what they vote for?

Answer:

The answer is absolutely yes; you can. Each keypad is uniquely identified in the system. All the keypads are programmed with an identity.  For example, you are operating a system with 100 keypads, they would typically be numbered 1-100 and operate on a particular channel. The keypads are then tracked by individual unit as they communicate with their respective base station. Therefore, if I press 1 for “Yes” on keypad #6, the system knows that #6 has responded with an answer of “yes” each time the results are tabulated. After the message is received from the base station, it sends a message of “Received” to let participants feel confident that their votes were recorded.

Many people ask if there is a way to “stuff the ballot box” or vote multiple times on a particular poll or question. The answer is no. Let’s say an individual responds five times to a particular polling question or survey question.  The system knows that keypad #6 is responding each time.  It simply replaces your previous response with the subsequent response on that particular question. Respondents may change their selection as many times as they like while the voting period is open on a particular question.

You can even identify and link the identity of the individual who is participating by keypad. For example, we can say that keypad #6 is assigned to Morgan Smith and each time she responds we are going to track that by her keypad’s identity of #6. All the data is stored in an SQL database under the hood. With this data stored, we can track Morgan Smith’s votes and tabulate and analyze the data in very sophisticated ways.

Option Technologies audience response systems can track data by individuals or subgroups. A subgroup tracking question could be, “What region of the country are you from?” All of the respondents’ subsequent responses could then be tracked by their regions. Everything goes into the database as an individual response; therefore, the ability of tracking by subgroups is not limited to aggregate data and the response of each individual in a particular subgroup can also be analyzed.

You can even play interactive quiz games. Track and show scoreboards for individual participants by name or keypad number.  Assign individuals to teams and show scoreboards for groups of participants in a quiz competition.