Patent ID: 6993563

Claim:
In an electronic mail system for transmitting a message item, a method for sending to a plurality of recipients a message item and automatically tallying responses of said plurality of recipients to said message item, comprising the steps of: creating said message item, said message item including a query, a plurality of predefined responses, and a plurality of first voter properties that correspond to a name associated with each of said plurality of recipients; transmitting said message item to said plurality of recipients; receiving a reply message item that is a message item form for display from at least one of said recipients, said reply message item including reply data corresponding to one of said predefined responses stored in a second voter property that associates said reply data with said recipient; tallying said response in a copy of the transmitted message item, the response tally corresponding to said reply data included in said reply message item, providing a name for said recipient, which sent said reply data, based upon one of said plurality of first voter properties and said second voter property; and wherein said response and said name are displayed in said reply message item when said reply message item is opened.