Import Data - Electoral List
An "Electoral List" refers to a comma-delimited text file (eg. .CSV) which contains information for each voter you be tracking. In many jurisdictions, an electoral list (and perhaps revisions to the electoral list) are provided to registered candidates by the government or a government agency. In other jurisdictions, such lists are available - perhaps for a fee - by private companies. It is not important how the electoral (or voters) list is obtained, it only matters that the information it contains is in a specific format.
If you the information you receive is not already in .CSV comma-delimited text-based format, you will have to convert the information into this format so that it can be read by the Voters In Mind system.
Each line (or row) of the list must contain all of the information for the voter, his or her name and address along with other information which may or may not be required (as described below.) If the list you received is not in the proper format, it must be modified so that it is in the format required by the system.
After uploading the list into the system, it will subsequently need to verified and then processed as described in Import Data. If errors are found, further manipulation of the list may be required before it is uploaded again.
As shown near the top of the page when you go into Import Data, each line of the list contains 16 pieces of information. You should easily be able to view and manipulate the information as required using Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, or other spreadsheet software. Each line must contain all 16 required fields, not all are mandatory and you may not be provided with all of the information, and if you all, it may not exist for every voter on the list.
It does not matter in which order the voters appear on the list, but each line must contain one (and only one) voter and all of the information for that voter must be in the correct order and as error-free as possible. The system is able to detect many different problems with the data and reject it, but other things may cause it problems. For example, if you have one line referring to Sparrow Ave. and another line referring to Sperrow Ave., the system will create two different streets in the system which could cause confusion.
As shown near the top of the Import Data page, the 16 pieces of information each voter must (or in some cases may) have are: (1) District Code, (2) Poll Number, (3) Poll Voter Number, (4) Family Name, (5) First Name, (6) Birthdate, (7) Gender, (8) Street (Civic) Number, (9) Street (Civic) Number Suffix, (10) Apartment Number, (11) Apartment Number Suffix, (12) Street Name, (13) Postal Code, (14) City, (15) Province/State Code, (16) Language Code.
After you have uploaded one Electoral List into the system, it is even more important that the data is correct when you upload additional lists, especially if voters on the new list already exist in the system. The process of uploading Electoral List will try to match-up existing voters and dwellings with voters and dwellings on the new list, merging data and attempting to avoid duplications. It is probable there will be some duplications regardless of how careful you are, but you certainly will want to minimize such occurances.
(1) District Code: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. This may also be referred to as "political area code", and in most cases is analogous to "ward" or "riding" and it is a mandatory field. This is not to be confused with "city" although it is certainly possible they could represent the same geographical area. As an example, many cities have a number of councillors each representing a specific ward, region, riding or region, in addition to a mayor who represents the entire city. In each ward there may be a number of candidates who stand for election and only the people in that particular ward are allowed to vote for one of those candidates. Each ward across the city could have their own set of candidates wishing to represent that district. If a city has 8 such districts, each will be referred to by a unique code (eg. "ward1"). The system will use the code on the electoral list to create a new ward in the database, or call up an existing district previously created. If you use more than one code for each district, the system may split up voters incorrectly. If your data doesn't contain a district code, you will have to use something. (Once created, you may change the name of each district in your system if you wish its name to be more descriptive.)
(2) Poll Number: Mandatory. Numeric. Normally, districts are split up into "polls" with a small number (100-500) voters. This must be a number. If your data doesn't put every voter in a poll, then use 1.
(3) Poll Voter Number: Mandatory. Numeric. Each voter must be uniquely identified with a poll voter number within each poll. If each voter doesn't have a poll voter number you will have to provide one for each voter. Basically, within each district there can only be one voter for any poll/poll voter combination. On election day, you may be provided with "bingo sheets" indicating the poll/poll voter numbers of those who have voted. Once entered into the system, you are able to ignore those who have already voted.
(4) Family Name: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. Last name of the voter.
(5) First Name: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. First name of the voter.
(6) Birthdate: Optional. Alphanumeric. The electoral list you get may include the voter's birthdate. This field can be left blank if you don't have it. The birthdate can be a valuable asset if you know it and can be used in the system to calculate voting probabilities among other things. In addition, from campaign to campaign, the birthdate can be used to identify existing voters on new electoral lists. The birthdate should be in YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD format, although the system will accept MM/DD/YYYY format.
(7) Gender: Mandatory. M or F. When installed, the system will allow two codes, "M" for Male, or "F" for female. This however is database drive, meaning you could add other genders if you wish and have them accepted. Refer to the Genders section of the help.
(8) Street (Civic) Number: Mandatory. Numeric. The civic number of the house (dwelling)
(9) Street (Civic) Number Suffix: Optional. Alphanumeric Sometimes dwellings have a suffix, such as "A". If the house number is 223B, the "223" should be the civic number and the "B" should be in its own field.
(10) Apartment Number: Optional. Alphanumeric. If there's an apartment number.
(11) Apartment Number Suffix: Optional. Alphanumeric. If there's an apartment number, there may be suffix, such as Apt. 3B. The "3" should be the apartment, the "B" should be the apartment suffix.
(12) Street Name: Mandatory. Alphanumeric This should be the actual street name, omitting any street type, such as "St.", "Ave.", "Circle" etc. This should not be confused with "street code". The system will assign a "street code" but on the imported electoral list, it should be the street name (eg. "Birmingham") The important thing is standardization. Every voter on the same street should have the identical street name.
(13) Postal Code: Optional. Alphanumeric. The system can handle standard postal, or zip codes from Canada and The United States. Such as regular 5 digit zip codes, 10 character zip+4 codes (which includes the hyphen), and 6 character Canadian postal codes.
(14) City: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. As with street names, this should be the city name, not the city code. Unless you are running for some state-wide office, it is likely every voter will have the same city.
(15) Province/State Code: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. This is a two character code which represents the Province or State. Unless you are running a nation-wide campaign, it is likely every voter will have the same code. You could set up the required state or province in State/Province Entry, but the system will create any required states/provinces that do not already exist. To avoid confusion, it is highly recommended to use standard 2 character codes (eg. New York's code is NY).
(16) Language Code: Optional. Alphanumeric. The 2 character code representing the language the voter is most comfortable (or is registered) with. It is quite possible this information will not be provided to you with the Electoral List.
The following data (which you can download by clicking here) is the sample data that you'll see referenced elsewhere in this help section (and in the videos that will eventually be created). Note that some of these lines intentionally contain bad information which will be rejected by the Import Data process, such as the line for Avimelekh Hawkins which contains an invalid district code, and the line for Servaos Piovene which contains an invalid birthdate.
ward1,1,1000,Duarte,Stipe,19390802,M,10,,,,Berry View,20030,Alco,MA,EN ward1,1,1001,Salzwedel,Aspen,19560907,M,13,,,,Zephyr,20040-1001,Alco,MA,EN ward1,1,1002,Hornick,Hrothgar,19560907,m,13,A,,,Zephyr,20040,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1003,Adcock,Morana,19641121,F,20,,100,,Spring Dale,,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1004,Philips,Slava,19561123,F,20,,102,,Spring Dale,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1005,Quintana,Tedore,19740625,M,20,,102,A,Spring Dale,28829,Alco,MA,SP ward bad,2,1006,Hawkins,Avimelekh,19420518,F,17,,,,Iron Barn,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1007,Sadik,Llyr,19420628,M,18,,,,Iron Barn,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1007,Wasylyshyn,VÃgi,19451107,M,19,,,,Iron Barn,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward1,2,1008,McCrae,Ãdhamh,19490224,M,19,,,,Iron Barn,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward,2,1009,Rupertsson,Gero,19640317,M,19,,,,Iron Barn,28829,Alco,MA,EN ward2,1,1000,Piovene,Servaos,10000001,M,202,A,100,B,Lake Landing,30010,Alco,MA,EN ward2,1,1001,Bassani,Eden,19631118,F,202,A,100,B,Lake Landing,30010,Alco,ME,SP ward2,1,1002,Reyer,Heraclio,20100101,M,202,,110,,Lake Landing,30020,Alco,MAS,EN ward2,1,1003,O'Reilley,Edward,19600102,M,230,,,,Lake Landing,30025,Alco,MA,EN ward2,1,1004,Leon,Timotha,19591301,F,232,,,,Lake Landing,30025,Alco,MA,EN ward2,2,1005,Stabile,Brendanus,19300820,M,1078,,,,Terminé,77777777777,Benning,MA,EN ward2,2,1006,Cremaschi,Deidre,19660101,F,1080,,,,Termine,30030,Benning,MA,EN ward2,2,1007,Ruzzier,Coleman,19660101,M,1081,,,,Terminé,30030,Benning,MA,EN ward2,2,1008,De Vitis,Félicité,29,F,1081,,,,Terminé,30030,Benning,MA,FR ward2,2,1009,Griffin,Wolfgang,19800820,M,1082,,,,Terminé,30030,Benning,MA,EN ward2,2,1010,"La Hoya",Sheryl,19750208,F,1082,,,,Terminé,30030,Benning,MA,EN ward2,3,1000,Durante,Melville,19900602,M,50,,,,Autumn Lane,30040,Benning,MA,EN ward2,3,1001,Kendrick,Alger,19650317,M,51,,,,Autumn Lane,30040,Benning,MA,EN ward2,3,1002,Westerberg,Hillel,19561224,F,52,,,,Autumn Lane,30040,Benning,MA,EN