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Author: Kristenson, Joel

Last Updated: 2016-09-09

Overview

This article walks through the steps to import voters, vote history, and add elections from the state voter database (we have on file).  This KB is just for political campaign customers and would not work in the nonprofit product.

Note: As of the time this article was written we have these 19 states on file (from A to Z):

· Alaska

· Arkansas

· Colorado

· Florida

· Idaho

· Indiana

· Louisiana

· Michigan

· Minnesota

· Missouri

· New Jersey

· New York

· North Carolina

· Ohio

· Oklahoma

· Rhode Island

· Vermont

· Washington

· Washington D.C.

Tip: Use the Ctrl+F hot key to jump to different sections of this article (example: “#1”, “#2” or “Related Resources”.

Outline

#1 – Import ‘Voters’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

#2 – Import ‘Elections’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

#3 – Refreshing/Importing ‘Voter History’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

#4 – Related Resources

#1 – Import ‘Voters’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

If you’re in a state where we have the voter roll on file you’ll see a link under the Application Menu in the upper-left that says something like ‘Your State’ Voter List.  In my example is said Minnesota Voter List:

Click on that link and then click [OK] to login.  No credentials are required they’re already hard coded into the software.

Run a search query for the list of voters you want to import from the state database into your local db.  In my example I searched for everyone who voted in the last general election (2014), and lived in a specific precinct (Golden Valley P-1A) which produced 1,184 voter records (shown below).

Tip: You can ‘hand-import’ voters one-by-one if you click on the [Import] button next to their name in the grid.  This is not as common as running a mass import but can come in handy, here’s an example:

To begin the mass import operation click on File > Import from State Database (in this case the Minnesota State Voter Database):

You have the option to import attributes which could be a wide range of things that your state board of elections might collect during an election on their voters i.e. race, ethnicity, or more typically the source of the data.  Check the box to import attributes if you want to bring them in, and then click [OK].  In my example I select to import attributes along with all the other voter data.

Depending on the size of the list you’re importing the operation could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.  In my case it was only about 1k voters and took about 3 minutes.  Trail Blazer will provide a load animation during the process as shown below.

Once the process is complete you’ll get a popup message with the results.  The system will automatically merge existing records during the import if it’s an exact match with the voter record(s) already in your database, click [OK] to finish.  In my example out of the 1k+ voters I was importing 283 were new.

You can now return to your own ‘voters’ list, and run the same search query to make sure the records were imported/updated correctly.

That completes the steps to mass import voters – continue reading to learn how to bring in new elections and voter history.

#2 – Import ‘Elections’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

Your current list of ‘searchable’ elections will reside in the Voters list under the Vote History tab.  My example is below where I had 12 elections in my database.

To begin importing new/old elections from the state database navigate to the ‘Elections, Voter History List’ by following Application Menu > System Manager > Lists > Elections, Voter History

Select File > Import State Elections

You’ll receive a popup message.  Click [OK] to proceed with the selection of which elections to import.

Check the boxes next to the elections you want to import, and then click [OK].  In my example I selected all the general and primary elections.

It usually doesn’t take more than a few seconds for the process to finish.  You’ll receive a popup message with the results, click [OK] to continue.  In my example I imported 12 elections.

Click [Search] in the Elections, Voter History list to refresh it and display the new elections you imported.  My example is below where I had 12 more elections for a total of 24.

That completes the steps.  The following sections will show how to refresh voter history as well as setting the voter counts and vote percentages en masse once everything else has been completed.

#3 – Refreshing/Importing ‘Voter History’ from the State Voter Database into your Campaign’s Database

Navigate to the Voters list under the Application Menu.

Click [Search] to load all the voters in your database OR run a search query for a segment of voters in your database.  In my example I loaded all 72k.

Follow File > Utilities > Import Voter History from State File

Click [OK] to proceed with the operation.  THIS MAY TAKE A LONG TIME (hours) TO RUN IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 100k+ VOTERS IN YOUR LIST.

You’ll get a load animation as the process runs.

When the operation has finished you’ll get a popup message with the results.  Click [OK] to proceed.  In my example about ½ (47k) out of the 70k voters I had in my list had their voter history updated.

That completes the steps.

It’s not a requirement, but it’s a good idea to set your voter counts for the elections you imported.  To do that return the Elections, Voter History list, select File > Set Voter Counts

Click [OK] to proceed.

Click [OK] again you receive a popup notification that the process has completed.

Click [Search] to refresh the list and you’ll see the new voter counts for the elections you imported from the state database.

Last but not least you’ll want to refresh the voter history percentages in your database.

Navigate to the Voters list, click [Search], select ‘load all’, and click [OK].

Follow Edit > Set > Update Voter History %

Click [OK] when prompted.  This may take many minutes or many hours depending on how many voters you have.  In my example it took about 10 minutes for 70k voters.

The system won’t provide an update when the process is complete but it will give you a status bar as it’s underway.  Once complete you can run search queries by voter history for things like your ‘super voters’:

Related Resources

Article: Running an Import of Contact Data from Excel into your Database – Basic Overview

Article: Start Import

Article: Import Templates

Article: Pre-Import Check

Article: Field/Column Mapping When Importing Voter/Donor Data

Article: Import Information – Definitions and Column Data Type

Article: Importing District Information – from Non Registered Voters

Article: Importing Contributions

Article: Automatically Conform Addresses

Article: Auto-Merging Duplicate Address Records

Article: Address Management

Article: Why won’t some of my records merge

Article: Auto-Merge Duplicate Contact Records

Article: Address Normalization (unlimited addresses per person)

Article: Manually Merging Contact Records

Video: Importin 102 Importing your first list

Video: Attributes – Import with Date and Value

Video: Importing 102 Merge or Do Not Merge during import

Video: Importing 101 What to avoid

Video: Importing Contributions

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