however, in the back end it keeps creating each new poll unit, even after throwing the error that the title has been used. then, when i look at the master plan for my multi-stage poll unit all the poll units that were created (and throwing errors and never let me advance to the next step to add the images for users to vote on. please help guys.
At the moment, each survey step title needs to be unique. In your screenshot, I can see that there are two steps named "Pick your favorite cover(s)".
Could you try renaming one of those steps and then check whether you are able to proceed to the next step?
We will also discuss internally whether survey step titles should really be required to be unique, as this restriction may not make much sense in all cases.