The invention provides methods of determining a consensus sequence from multiple raw sequencing reads of a nucleic acid target. The nucleic acid target includes an anchor segment of known sequence and an adjacent segment of unknown sequence. The anchor segment provides a means to assess the quality of a raw target sequencing read. Raw target sequencing reads meeting or exceeding a threshold are assigned to an accepted class. The consensus sequence of the adjacent segment can be determined from raw target sequencing reads in the accepted class. Successive polling steps determine successive consensus nucleobases in a nascent sequence of the adjacent segment. Raw target sequencing reads can be removed or reintroduced from the accepted class depending on their correspondence to the most recently determined consensus nucleobase and/or the nascent sequence.