I really like the idea of a two tier polling system. Among other advantages I see in it is that, assuming that the number of people voting in the second poll does not drop of greatly from the number that participated in the first, it will mean in general that a lot more people will have voted for the winning book. I know it is speculation, but it seems to me that this could lead to a greater number actually participating in the book discussion given that more will have actually voted for the book under discussion. That to me is what is really the important thing to seek.

I agree with others that the open versus hidden polling question is a separate issue that is being settled in the poll in this thread.

I agree with those who have suggested that the increased number of days for the entire selection process of book-of-the-month for the following month can be accommodated by allowing this process to overlap the discussion period of the book for the current month.

I love!, love!, love! the idea of settling all issues regarding the book club for next year now. This does not just include this debate over the polling process, but other issues as well. I believe that the issue of having two months devoted to classics was decisively settled here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...hlight=classic Let's also settle the issue of whether books of any sort may be nominated regardless of the monthly category and the related issue of just how many times a year the same book may be nominated. Get all this settled and then for the next year repeated debates on these issues will not be necessary.