Import Data - Voted List
A "Voted List" refers to comma-delimited text file (eg. .CSV) which contains records of who has voted. Importing a list of who has voted may be quicker than using the Record Votes or Record Votes (Date/Time) options.
In order to work, the voters in the database must be recorded with a district (political area), poll number, and poll voter number for the campaign in question. The data being imported must contain a row or entry for each voter which also must contain this information. In this way records of people who voted can be matched up with voters in the database so it can be recorded who has voted. Knowing who has and who has not voted in the past can be useful in knowing how likely somebody will vote in subsequent elections.
Each line (or row) of the list must contains a reference to a voter for the current campaign, indicating whether or not that person has voted.
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 6 required fields, all but the voted data and time are required to contain valid information.
It is not necessary for every voter to be imported at any one time. You could upload a list of only 10 voters if you wish. Later on you could upload another list with 10 different voters.
As shown near the top of the Import Data page, the 6 pieces of information each voter must (or in some cases may) have are: (1) District Code, (2) Poll Number, (3) Poll Voter Number, (4) Voted Y/N, (5) Voted Date, (6) Voted Time.
References to the same voter can be uploaded on different lists. If a voter is flagged as having voted on one list, subsequent uploaded lists may show the same voter as voted or not. The system will flag the voter as having voted or not regardless of how he or she might have originally been flagged. For example, if one list shows a voter as having voted, a subsequent upload can show the same voter as not having voted. Once processed, the system will show the voter as somebody who has not voted.
(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. It is important that this code matches the code as defined in the system for the voters in question. Existing political area (or district) codes can be found in Political Areas Maintenance. Note that the you list should contain the actual code, not the description.
(2) Poll Number: Mandatory. Alphanumeric. Up to 5 characters long. Normally, districts are split up into "polls" with a small number (100-500) voters. The list uploaded must have poll numbers which match the poll numbers already in the system corresponding to the district on each item.
(3) Poll Voter Number: Mandatory. Numeric. Each voter must be uniquely identified with a poll voter number within each poll. The district/poll number/poll number combination for each entry should correspond to an equivalent voter in the database for the campaign in question. If these codes don't all match, there is no way for the system to know which voters are being referred to.
(4) Did Vote: Mandatory. Y or N Presumably the list being uploaded contains only people who have voted, therefore this field will be "Y" for every line. The system will handle "N" which will set the voter in question to "did not vote" if that voter is flagged as somebody who has voted.
(5) Voted Date: Optional. YYYYMMDD The system can keep track of when a vote was cast for each voter. This is not necessary however. If entered, this date must correspond to a date in Voting Days Maintenance for the campaign in question.
(6) Voted Time: Optional. HHMM Like the voted date, this is optional. If it exists if must be the same as a time entered in Voting Times Maintenance. It is assumed that a list of whoever has voted may be obtained more-or-less each hour of the day on election day. So if the time is 1100, then the voter is assumed to have voted sometime after the polls opened to 11 AM. 1200 would indicate that the voter voted sometime between 11 AM and noon, and so on.
The following data (which you can download by clicking here) is the sample data that you'll see referenced elsewhere in this help section. Note that some of the rows intentionally contain bad information.
ward1,1,1000,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,1,1001,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,1,1002,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1003,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1004,Y,20151102,1101 ward1,2,1005,Y,20151102,1100 ward bad,2,1006,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1007,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1007,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1008,Y,20151102,1100 ward1,2,1009,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,1,1000,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,1,1001,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,1,1002,Y,A0151102,1200 ward2,1,1003,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,1,1004,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1005,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1006,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1007,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1008,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1009,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,2,1010,Y,20151102,1200 ward2,3,1000,Y,20151102,1400 ward2,3,1001,Y,20151102,1400 ward2,3,1002,Y,20151102,1400