Method of starting poll/votes/pause:

Chat commands.
For example You type: "/pause" into the chat and it starts a poll/pauses it or whatever.

Or if you want to vote or pause for a certain time you type: "/pause_60"(For 60 seconds. You replace the 60 with however many seconds you want to pause/vote on pausing it for).

You might want to make a limit of course so you don't pause it for too long.

Pros:
Easier to make (I think). No new hotkeys or anything.

Cons: Not really any major cons unless you forget how to spell pause.

Key pause
Hold down a certain key for 5 seconds. Probably P. Starts a poll/whatever method below says.
Pros:
It would be easy to make, people would like it, and it would be easy to do no matter what.

Cons:
Might not be as easy as I think it would be, and its still possible you could set it off on accident.

Host pause
Only host can pause. Does it from lobby same way he can kick players mid game.

Pros:
Simple.

Cons:
Some host would be selfish/a jerk. Wouldn't work with some Methods below.

Method 1.
Any player may choose to pause. Each player gets a set amount of time they can pause. (EG 90 seconds. Maybe changes depending on amount of teams/players.)
When A METHOD FROM ABOVE IS ACTIVATED then the game will pause when:
A. When the current opponents turn is over
B. If its the player who wants to pause the game's turn.
C. If its nobody's turn or in between turns.

Method 2.

CHOOSE METHOD FROM ABOVE TO START A POLL. If you click the 9 key then you vote YES to pause the game. If you hit the 0 key you vote NO to pause the game.
If a certain percentage of the players vote YES then the game pauses for 90 seconds. Percentages %70-%100 If a poll has been denied then you cant make a poll start again for X minutes. (2 minutes?)

Method 3.
Only host can pause. Does it from lobby same way he can kick players mid game.

Method 4.
Each player gets one/two pauses per game. he may pause only at the end of someones turn/on his turn. Each pause is worth 90 seconds. "Maybe be able to set it up so you can use one pause after another even if you are afk? Decide how many pauses each players gets depending on how many teams there are?

Side suggestions:

AFK flag:
If you hold down the K key for 5 seconds you are considered AFK, until you tap the K key. If you are afk your turns only last 5 seconds. AFK players may not vote for pauses. AFK players are not considered parts of percentages/votes/polls.

Pause restrict:
Host may choose whether pausing is allowed or not. A symbol appears next to the rooms name in lobby to say that pausing is allowed. (the host can not change whether pausing is allowed mid game)

AI control:
Kind of like the AFK flag, you can click an afk button except instead of skipping your turns, an AI player controls your turns while your gone. You would need to make it so you couldn't do this in the MIDDLE of your turn, and that the computer is like level two/three. If you did this you would need to improve the AI a little bit for modes other than default. Also you would need to make sure you don't do a level 5 computer because they never miss the long range shots. Then you could just go afk when you know you need to do a long range shot next turn. also you could only go AI controlled twice a game. Maybe even only once. Then your turns aren't wasted while you're gone. You should be able to come back mid turn, but only while your hedgehog is touching the ground. Otherwise if you come back mid UFO/rope you could easily crash. This would not be in addition to pause, this would replace pause.

Comment and tell me what you think of these ideas!