Overview: Early voting

Early Voting is our tool for identifying voters who have turned in their ballots for the current election, either by voting early or absentee. Eliminate voters who have already cast their ballots from your target universe before launching your GOTV efforts.

As early vote data comes in from your Secretary of State or elections office, VAN administrators typically load it into My Voters. On SmartVAN, this is done through TargetSmart. If you have not purchased access to My Voters and would like to, please contact your Account Executive or email salesteam@ngpvan.com.
 

Using Early Voting

Early and absentee vote data is stored separately from vote history, and early vote locations are stored separately from polling locations. You can view Early Voting data on a contact record and in Create A List.

With Early Voting you can:

• View early vote data on a contact record

• Exclude people who have voted early or absentee from your GOTV efforts

• Narrow your list to people who have been issued a ballot so you can remind them to send it

• Help voters successfully cast their ballots by providing early/absentee voting and polling locations

To maintain early vote data, locations, and settings, state and national administrators can:

• Request to reset the election in the database, clearing old early vote data

• Change default early voting settings in Create A List to make GOTV more efficient

• Enable or disable Early Vote Fields

• Upload early vote data with Bulk Upload

• Bulk upload early voting locations, or load via API 

Using SmartVAN for early voting

There are a few differences in how early vote data and locations are maintained on SmartVAN:

• TargetSmart provides voter file data, including early vote data. To receive notifications about upcoming voter file updates on SmartVAN, contact their support team.

• While neither TargetSmart nor VAN provides early voting locations, you can send polling location files in a support request for us to upload.

• Our team updates some early vote settings in advance of an election. You can also send an in-app Support Request to have settings changed. Keep in mind, however, that settings are statewide and our ability to change them depends on how those changes affect all users.

Available fields in Early Voting

The early vote fields that you can use varies from state to state, depending on the data that each state provides, and which fields the state or national administrators have enabled. To have fields added or removed, submit an in-app Support Request.

The early vote fields that you can use varies from state to state, depending on the data that each state provides, and which fields the state or national administrators have enabled. Admins can activate and deactivate Early Vote Fields in the system

There are a variety of possible available Early Vote Fields which include:

• Ballot Application Requested - Date an absentee or early vote ballot was requested

• Ballot Application Request Method - Indicates how the ballot was requested

• Ballot Application Mailed - Date an application for a ballot was mailed

• Ballot Application Returned - Date the ballot application was returned to the clerk. This can also be considered the date the voter signed the application before it was returned.

• Ballot Type - Indicates if the requested ballot was provided to a voter for any reason. Values include:

  • Absentee

  • Civilian

  • Mail In

  • Military

  • Overseas

• Ballot Party - Some states have both parties on the same ballot, some have different ballots per party. This could also vary between primaries and general.

• Is Permanent Absentee

• Ballot Mailed - Date the ballot was mailed to the voter

• Ballot Addresses - Allows searching by Street, City, State, Zip, and Country

  • Ballot Address 1

  • Ballot Address 2

  • Ballot Address 3

  • Ballot City

  • Ballot Zip9

  • Ballot State

  • Ballot Country

• Ballot Return Status - Indicates that a ballot was accepted, or the reason it was rejected. Current status of the ballot. This can change over time is ballots are reissued. Values include:

  • Accepted

  • Cancelled

  • Conflict

  • Duplicate

  • ID Not Provided

  • No Application

  • Not Voted

  • OK

  • Pending

  • Rejected

  • Returned after Deadline

  • Returned Undeliverable

  • Signature Different

  • Signature Missing

  • Spoiled

  • Witness info Incomplete

  • Wrong Voter

• Ballot Received - Date ballot received after voter returned it.

• Ballot Cancelled - Date a ballot was cancelled

• Ballot Reissued - Date a ballot was reissued to a voter

• Ballot Rejected - Date a ballot was rejected

• Ballot Rejection Reason - Most recent reason a ballot was rejected. Ballots can be reissued and have different rejection reasons over time.

• Early Voted - Date someone was marked as early voted

• E-Day Voted - Indicates voters who vote on election day

Watch this tutorial on Early Vote data

Read more about polling and early vote locations

Read more about searching on early/absentee vote data

Administering Early Vote

As a state or national administrator, or a SmartVAN committee administrator, running efficient GOTV efforts requires knowing how to maintain early vote data for your users.

Read more on clearing early vote data and managing settings

Read more on uploading early vote data

Read more on updating early voting locations

Read more on administering Early voting in VAN 

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