A poll in which customers are invited to choose between cartons of popcorn printed with pictures of presidential candidates; (now also) any poll based on informal counting or tallying.
Origin
1950s; earliest use found in The Post-Standard.
Definition of popcorn poll in US English:
popcorn poll
noun
US
A poll in which customers are invited to choose between cartons of popcorn printed with pictures of presidential candidates; (now also) any poll based on informal counting or tallying.