Hi folks,
With the August 3rd elections fast approaching, we wanted to highlight what the MDP data team is doing for early and absentee vote data in VAN.
Early Vote Data in VAN
Local clerks are going to have ballots in their offices by Saturday, June 19th, and we’ll begin uploading AV data statewide from the Secretary of State on Monday, June 21st (The SoS doesn’t deliver this on weekends). We plan on uploading these files to VAN every week day before noon.
Some clerks may not begin making ballots available until June 24th, at which point their data should begin showing up in the statewide upload.
When we begin uploads, absentee ballot information will be visible on voter records under the early voting section.
 Early Vote Data in Create a List
You can use early vote data in your lists to target people with absentee ballots, remove people who have already voted, or any other criteria you want to use with early vote data. Application Returned, Ballot Sent, and Ballot Returned will all be available under the “Early Voting” section of Create a List starting June 21st.
Please note that the specific dates a ballot was sent/received do depend on human data entry, so it’s not unusual to see some dates that fall outside of the normal range, or even this century. This does not mean that the whole file is inaccurate, just that one person made a typo somewhere when entering data.
Early Vote Data in miniVAN/Phone Banks
You can also display early vote information, such as whether someone has a ballot, for your volunteers in miniVAN and virtual phone banks.
miniVAN
To display early voting information in miniVAN, create a new miniVAN format. Under person fields, you can add “Ballot Mailed” and “Ballot Returned.”
Virtual Phone Bank
To display early vote data in a virtual phone bank, edit your phone bank and go to the Contact & Location Information section in the right hand column. Select the box for “Voted Status” and hit save.
You can also exclude voters who have already returned their absentee ballots in both miniVAN and Virtual Phone Banks. On the set-up page, check the box "Exclude Anyone Who Has Early or Absentee Voted" to remove them from your final turf or phone bank.
A Couple Frequently Asked Questions
Why are some dates in the future?
Some clerks front date their ballots mailed, so if they plan on sending out a batch of ballots tomorrow, they'll mark them today. In our internal reporting, we only include dates up to the present, but we'll include all available data in VAN for your campaign decision making.
I saw a smaller number of AV ballots in VAN today than in a news story from the local paper. What gives?
The number of AV Ballots Requested/Sent/Received on any given day depends on what time of day you ask the local clerk. If we receive a file at 9:30am but the reporter calls the clerk at 1pm, that represents 3.5 hours of mail delivery, application processing, data entry, etc. Those additional ballots will be reflected in our next file.
We'll send around another reminder email the day we begin uploading AV data. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer and happy campaigning!
All the best,
The MDP Data Team | 