You posed several issues, I answered one of them: not all polls are for everyone. It would produce a useless set of data if I accounted for everyone's slightly veering tastes. Equally, accounting for "I don't know" has never appealed...
The point? In some cases we take the data and use it in other projects, others are general gauging of interest and I admit sometimes I just want to know what everyone's favourite biscuit for dunking is... (here:
http://www.theanswerb...k/Question859080.html )
All the votes are anonymous so it's just a broad indicator for whatever issue we're interested in. Sometimes the data is used immediately, sometimes we put it aside for future use (and comparison).
You can add comments to polls, they all have a question stickied in a section. Currently it is a bit hard to get there from the front page... A flaw we should address sooner rather than later. Here is the discussion which came from the "Parents VS Grandparents" poll:
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1040510.html (worth a read as it is quite interesting.)
The current poll can be commented on here:
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1042731.html
Do you not think it is interesting that many people would prefer to have an excellent summer holiday over a perfect Christmas? It surprised me.