So you’ve downloaded the PollTracker iPhone app, the best and fastest source for political polling data. Thanks!

We’ve outlined a few tips for getting started.

First Things First — Choose Your Landing Page

Opening up the app will bring you to a series of intro screens that will give you some information on how to use the app. On the last screen, you’ll be prompted to choose whether you’d like the traditional “Home” screen to load when you open the app, or if you’d like to go directly to our Presidential Dashboard.

Here’s the breakdown:

If you’re just interested in the presidential contest, and want to track the specifics of the race, you’ll probably want to have the Presidential Dashboard as your landing page, where you can see swing state numbers, key voter groups and issues. Everything else is still accessible through the bottom navigation bar.

If you’re more of a political junkie and want to know about the battle for Congress in addition to the presidential race, just keep the “Home” page as your landing spot. There, you’ll find our editors’ picks for the top congressional races and ballot questions across the country. Editors swap in the hottest contests based on the latest polling data to flag movement in important races, keeping the page fresh and up to date.

Track Your Local Races

Now that your landing page is set up, you can enable real-time notifications that ping you when a new poll is added to the races you want to follow. All you need to do is “Favorite” any race by clicking the ribbon in the top right of a contest page.

In the “All Polls” tab, you can get granular and search by state, race or keyword.

Notifications

Now that you’ve got your favorite contests lined up, you’ll receive a push notification to your phone when a new poll comes out and is entered into our system. The notification will bring you to the contest page of the app, where you can see that poll and the current PollTracker Average of the race, which includes all public polling.

Share it!

When there’s a new poll or average in a race that’s important to you, let everyone know! At the top right of a contest or individual poll page, there’s a share button that allows users to Tweet, post to Facebook or send PollTracker data via e-mail.

Even easier, users can swipe across any contest “cell” (those horizontal set-ups with the two faces and candidate averages) and share it directly from any page.

Read More

Click “Analysis,” the last button on the navigation bar, to read the latest poll breakdowns and analysis from the PollTracker editors.