You can vote FREE on Poll Everywhere polls from anywhere in the world, assuming you have either an Internet connection or a cellphone capable of sending a text message.

Tip: Presenters in countries without a Poll Everywhere SMS short code should consider including these instructions to the audience prior to running the poll.

First a bit of background:

It’s very expensive for Poll Everywhere to have local short codes in every area, around the world, so that’s not something we currently provide, and even though the Canadian, Australian and UK numbers support a wide variety of countries, normal international messaging rates still apply. For most people outside those countries, this means paying international texting rates (bummer). But Twitter has already paid for those local short codes in many countries around the globe (yay!)  If you’re in one of the countries Twitter supports, they can allow you to vote on our polls, from anywhere, and for free, using text messages (it even works with satellite phones, we think)!

Here’s what to do (and we promise, it’s easy!)

1.  Add your phone to Twitter (If you’ve already done this, skip to #2):

a.  If you can access the internet on your phone, download the free Twitter app and create an account or login.

b.  If you don’t have internet access:

1.  Send a text message containing either START or SIGNUP to your country’s short code from this list (since Poll Everywhere is based in the United States, we’d send the text message to 40404).

2. If you don’t have a Twitter account, and text SIGNUP, you’ll be prompted with steps for setting up a Twitter account (it’s easy!). Here’s an example of how you would begin if you already have a Twitter account:

c.  After texting START or SIGNUP to Twitter’s short code for your country (40404 in our case, since we’re located in the United States), you’ll be prompted with either the steps to add your phone number to your existing Twitter account, or the steps to create an account.

2.  How to vote on a Poll Everywhere poll!
Let’s say you’re looking at a poll like this…

a. If you have internet access, open the Twitter app onyour smartphone (Android and iOS have Twitter apps) and select the Compose button. Begin your tweet with @poll followed by the appropriate keyword/code seen on-screen. Here’s an example of how voting on the above poll would look:

b. To vote via SMS on Twitter, create and send a text message containing @poll NOFEES (or YESFEES if you like paying international fees!) to your country’s Twitter phone number (40404 if you were located in the United States). Here’s an example of how voting on the above poll would look:

That’s it – you’re all set!

Twitter is an amazing service…and with their resources, not only can people vote on Poll Everywhere polls from anywhere, they can do so at no charge for international text messaging!