# Consequences of editing post containing poll
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 2, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884 "2022-08-02T20:00:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884/1 "2022-08-02T20:00:17Z")
Continuing the discussion from [How to Create Polls](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-create-polls/77548):
> [@Creating and managing polls](https://meta.discourse.org/t/creating-and-managing-polls/77548/1):
>
> **Can polls be edited?**
> All votes are cleared when a poll is edited, to ensure the poll creator can’t change the choices a user voted for. As such, by default polls can only be edited for 5 minutes after being created.
What is it that triggers the clearing of a poll?
Is it just editing the `[poll]` tags and anything between them?
Or would editing any other part of a post that contains a poll also clear the poll?
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### Author:  [@darkpixlz](https://meta.discourse.org/u/darkpixlz)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884/2 "2022-08-02T20:04:55Z")
I think that it’s pretty dumb that all votes get completely wiped every time I edit a post. I get that it’s dangerous to let people edit options and keep it, but if I add, remove, or edit the poll it shouldn’t completely wipe it.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884/3 "2022-08-02T20:09:55Z")
Do you mean that editing the post (even without editing the poll) clears the poll?
If so, I suppose the answer is to have nothing but the poll in the original post and have any further comments in a second post.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884/4 "2022-08-02T20:11:22Z")
It’s only editing the poll itself that resets the votes. You also only have a 5 minute window to edit without it telling you you can’t any more. After that time you’d need to rename it to put a ‘new’ one in (which would also reset the votes).
You can edit any text above/below and it will have no effect on the votes. 👍
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-editing-post-containing-poll/234884/5 "2022-09-01T20:11:38Z")
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