Mysql – Use order from another select clause

Break it out a little more:

ORDER BY CASE WHEN @orderby = 1 THEN CONVERT(NVARCHAR(30) , ccd.CertEndDate) END ASC,
         CASE WHEN @orderby = 2 THEN CONVERT(NVARCHAR(30) , ccd.CertEndDate) END DESC,
         tp.lastname ASC,
         tp.firstname ASC

You only need the sort order to change on the first field, so don't enclose the others in the CASE.

It should be noted that we don't include an ELSE for each CASE, which means any other value will return NULL and be discarded from the ORDER BY.

Try this:

SELECT id, 
  title, 
  pollid, 
  COUNT(pollid) AS clean_count,
  group_concat(DISTINCT u.name) AS user
FROM 
(
  SELECT DISTINCT user_id, pollid 
  FROM tbl_votes
) AS tmp_tbl 
JOIN tbl_polls 
  ON tbl_polls.id = tmp_tbl.pollid
JOIN tbl_users AS u 
ON tmp_tbl.user_id = u.user_id
WHERE not isnull(tmp_tbl.user_id) 
GROUP BY pollid 
ORDER BY clean_count DESC

This is the sample data that I used:

    CREATE TABLE tbl_polls (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  title VARCHAR(50)
  );


CREATE TABLE tbl_users (
  user_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(50)
  );

CREATE TABLE tbl_votes (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  pollid INT,
  user_id INT,
  INDEX (pollid,user_id),
  FOREIGN KEY (pollid) REFERENCES tbl_polls(id),
  FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES tbl_users(user_id)
  );

INSERT INTO tbl_polls (title)
VALUES ('Title 1'),('Title 2'),('Title 3');


INSERT INTO tbl_users (name)
VALUES ('Bob'),('Jack'),('Joe'),('Tom');

INSERT INTO tbl_votes (pollid,user_id)
VALUES (1,2),(1,2),(1,2),(1,3),(2,4),(2,1),(2,4),(2,4),(3,1),(2,1),(1,4);

SQL FIDDLE DEMO

I have used group concat to get the names for your list. Furthermore, to speed up your database have you tried adding index to the foreign keys?

B.T.W. I don't understand your comment that some some votes lack pollid and user_id. If that is the case have a look at this.