You may receive questions from respondents about your Polco survey or poll. We’ve created this list of FAQs to help you and your staff answer these questions during the time the survey or poll is open.
If your respondents have questions about mailed surveys (these respondents are part of your probability-based random sample), we’ve compiled a separate list of FAQs here for your reference.
What is Polco? Why isn’t this polling done by the local government?
Polco is a private company that helps residents give input to their local governments to better inform policy decisions. Using Polco saves the local government money by replacing older, more expensive methods of getting input. It saves staff from having to build and maintain online engagement tools or manage multiple input channels. The website lets a broader range of people give public input and protects respondents’ privacy. Your personal information is never shared with anyone, not even your local government.
What does Polco do with my personal information (name, email and ZIP code)? Why am I asked for it? Why do I have to create an account?
Polco uses your ZIP code - and, after continued use, your name - to verify your residency against publicly available voter information in your state. With verified respondents, we can reduce the risk of one person answering many times. By entering your email address, you can create an account and find out when we post a new question on Polco.
Will my personal information be sold or shared?
When you participate on Polco, all personally identifiable information will be safe, never shared, and never associated with the input you provide. Polco’s privacy policy (located here, for reference) is very strict and designed to protect your information. Email addresses are kept separate from the survey responses and are not tied to any data that we receive from Polco. Email addresses are not sold or shared with other parties, for any reason, ever; not even our own staff and elected officials have access to this information.
Why am I receiving emails from Polco?
You may have opted to follow our local government’s Polco profile during a previous survey. We’re conducting another survey right now and sent email invitations to all subscribers because we value your input. You can opt out of these emails at any time using the unsubscribe option at the end of the email.
I no longer want to receive emails. How do I stop them from coming?
At the bottom of each email is a link to stop receiving messages. Simply click the link and follow the instructions to unsubscribe.
I’m a registered voter. Why am I not verified?
Sometimes Polco isn’t able to match personal information against the voter file. This is generally because of a recent change of address (the public file updates quarterly) or spelling inconsistencies (for example, Mike versus Michael). If you think you should be on the voter list and are not matched, contact us at success@polco.us.
Why did I receive a question from groups that aren’t my municipal or county government?
Polco helps build and sustain a healthy dialogue about public policy in our communities. While most questions posted on Polco are from local governments and elected officials, a few other agencies might also use Polco: news organizations, school or special districts, universities and nonprofits. If your city overlaps boundaries with any of these entities, you can choose to subscribe to get their questions too. You will not receive those questions without your consent.
Will my session time out?
While creating a survey, your session times out, and you’ve lost all the work you’ve done. While not a huge factor, we do recommend using Chrome. It’s highly unlikely the issue lies within Polco, since our “timeout period” is 30 days out. Our best recommendation would be to ask your Customer Success Manager to look into the issue as soon as possible.