Absentee ballot and early vote information may be uploaded into Data Center for filtering voter lists in upcoming elections. After setting up the posting file, go to Tools > Upload New Data to add or update voter data.
Step 1: Set up the posting file
The Upload Tool will process text (CSV) and Excel files (XLS or XLSX) by mapping specified field values against the database. Unique column names are required for field mapping.
Before uploading a new absentee posting, verify that the posting's election exists in the database. Go to Admin > Elections and add the new election if necessary.
The posting file must contain at least one date value:
Absentee ballot request date - when the voter requested an absentee ballot
Absentee ballot return date - when a completed absentee ballot was received by the elections office
Early vote date - when a voter cast an early vote
Records can be matched on a single voter identifier, such as State Voter ID, RNC Registration ID (RNC Reg ID) and RNC ID (or Client ID). To be sure that the identifier matches records in the database, look up a voter record first in the site and verify the identifiers will apply. Otherwise, records may be matched on the voter's name, address and phone number if available.
All records for files using RNC Reg ID as a voter identifier must contain a valid, properly formatted unique identifier values. Records containing blank or NULL RNC Reg ID values will be rejected with an error.
Step 2: Upload the posting file
Go to Tools > Upload New Data and select Absentee/Early Vote as the upload type. Click the Select button and follow the prompts to add the file to be uploaded. Click Continue when ready to add the file for processing.
Step 3: Map fields for data matching
When the file has been successfully loaded, follow the prompts to set up the election and field mapping values for the posting.
Select Election from the drop-down menu. If the election is not displayed, go to Admin > Elections and add the election to the database's election list.
If appropriate, select County. Generally this is not necessary unless the posting file applies to one county only.
A template may be selected for files which were previously uploaded with a saved template.
Map the posting field values against the file's column names. At least one date value for Ballot Request Date, Ballot Returned Date and Early Vote Date must be included. Map other field names as needed to identify voter records.
Click Save Template to retain your field mapping selections for similar postings. You may preview your selections, and when ready select Upload File to submit the posting for processing.
Step 4: Verify updated voter records
The posting file will be added to the Upload Queue and will be processed within a few minutes to an hour depending on the number of records. Go to My Data > My Uploads to review the processing results. Non-matched records may be downloaded into a text file for troubleshooting. Please contact Data Center Support if no records were matched or if an error was reported.
Voter records are updated in two ways. When provided, the voter record will be updated with Ballot Request, Ballot Return and Early Vote dates which can be selected in Advanced Counts by election, ballot type and date ranges. The ballot status will also be appended to the voter record for Absentee Ballot Primary Status and Absentee Ballot General Status. Please refer to Advanced Counts: Absentees for more information.