Batched release and the exit pool

The response count is every answer that landed. While a poll's open, the charts aren't quite that: a few answers are always held in reserve, and the rest reach you in randomly chosen groups of three to five; when the poll closes, everything left shows at once; no answer is ever left out.

#When it applies

It's on for every poll. You don't switch it on. It matters most for:

• Any poll that keeps collecting after its first results, where a one-person jump would let someone subtract their own answers from the next refresh.
• An Exit pool: one standing poll for leavers, sent on a last day or hung as a QR by the exit interview, with no useful close date.

The speak-up inbox works differently. Once its first reports are in, each new report is shown on its own, because each one's answered on its own. The respond page says so before anyone submits. See The Speak-up inbox and case status.

#Why there's a reserve

If you've seen the results for a group of people and then see them again with one more person added, the difference is that person's answer. Encryption can't stop that arithmetic. So we never show you a state that's one person short of another.

Here's how that works:

• We always keep three in reserve. While a poll's open, at least three answers are waiting that you haven't seen.
• Groups are picked at random. When enough are waiting, a group of three, four or five is released, and which answers go in it is chosen at random from everything waiting. It isn't the oldest ones, and it isn't whoever answered last. Knowing when someone answered doesn't tell you which group they're in.
• The size is secret. It's drawn on our server and never shown to an admin, so nobody can time their own answers to force a small reveal.
• At close, everything left shows. That last group is never smaller than three, so it's as safe as any other change, and nobody's answer is left out.

The line under the count says it while the poll's open: "A few answers are always held in reserve until the poll closes, so no one's answer can be picked out."

#When results first appear

Nothing is readable until the poll's minimum group size has answered, and it's never below three. While the poll is open, the first results appear three answers after that, because the reserve has to fill first. If the poll closes before then, everything shows at close.

A poll that closes below its minimum group size shows nothing. Its respondents were told results need that many people, and that promise holds.

#How to run an exit pool

The Exit pool template is a standing poll with no useful close date. HR sends the ballot to each leaver on their last day, or hangs a QR by the exit interview. Nothing's readable until eight leavers have answered, and then only in random groups, with a few always in reserve.

1. Start from Exit pool. Create from the template. Leave the far-future close date as it is.
2. Send one at a time, or a group. Last-day send is the usual path.
3. Read groups, not weeks. On an exit pool, the results page shows a Release batches card from the first group, one row per group. Other polls show it once they have released two. Groups are random picks from the reserve, so don't try to match one to a departure.
4. Publish from what's released. The public page shows the document you published. If you ever close an exit pool, the reserve is released at close like any other poll.

#A reminder before close

If you emailed a poll's link to people, they get one reminder about a day before it closes. It's worded for people who've already answered too, because we can't tell who has, and it says nothing about results. You can switch it off in the poll's distribution settings. Private polls with personal links, access-code polls and polls shared only as a link don't get one: we don't keep those addresses. See Reminders before a poll closes.

#What respondents see

New polls don't show a live response count on the poll page, because anyone with the link could watch it go up and guess when someone answered. If you turn it on, it moves by one per answer. It's not how your charts move.

At the top of the ballot, respondents see How this poll protects you, which tells them when anyone first sees results and that answers come through in groups.

Point people at How to stay anonymous in a workplace survey.

#Limits and gates

• Nothing shows below the poll's minimum group size, open or closed.
• While open: first results at the minimum group size plus three, later groups of three to five, three always in reserve.
• At close: everything left shows as one last group of at least three.
• Sample (demo) polls don't batch and keep no reserve.
• Cuts only appear once a poll has closed, behind a floor of five (or the minimum group size, if that's higher).
• Whoever controls an open link or a batch of access codes could fill a poll with fake answers around one real one. No threshold stops that. Ballots tied to a roster that person doesn't control do.

See also Demographic cohorts and minimum thresholds, Threat model. Each page covers the adjacent settings and workflow steps.

#Related

• Viewing results
• Aggregate results and anti-inference controls
• Publishing results as a signed document
• Public results link