One important use of polling (a type of election) is in the task of fundraising. Poll results help candidates and issue promoters guage the potential support for their candidacy or issue. Armed with this information they can better target scarce resources for maximum effect. Every year, the political parties hold fundraising events (a.k.a. fundraisers) to collect donations and pledges to support various candidates and issues. What better audience to poll than those willing to attend such events?
2023 Colorado GOP "Lincoln Day Centennial Dinner"
For the Republican Party in the state of Colorado, one of the prime fundraising events is called the "Lincoln Day Dinner", or some derivative thereof. The event was picked up by local Colorado media and also social media on X (formerly Twitter).
These events often invite guest speakers who share the same political beliefs as the party majority and 2023 was no exception. The main speaker that year was Kari Lake, a former candidate for Governor in the state of Arizona. A close ally for President Trump (the clear front runner in the 2024 election cycle), Mrs. Lake spoke to the number one concern of all Republican voters across the country, and that topic is Election Integrity.
In order to guage support for the former president, the party (under the leadership of newly elected chairman Dave Williams) conducted an informal straw poll to measure the support of President Trump from among the most up-to-date current list of candidates running at the time. This was not necessarily official "party business", rather a fun exercise just to get a feel where the attendees stood.
Technical Details
An EIP implementation was used to conduct the poll. From a technical perspective, what's interesting about this poll was the fact that it was an electronic election held in an anonymous mode, and held in real time. Voters could only vote once, and they could watch the results as the poll was occuring, although the decision to wait before announcing the results was held until everyone had a chance to vote.