Connect Operations
uploading postal vote list from electoral services (AV)
Prepare your file for uploading > For loading a postal file you need only 2 columns, Polling District and polling number so if its up to date and in csv format then all you have to do use excel to reduce it to just 2 columns, polling district and polling number. take off the row headers at the top. If its a pdf then you have an extra job of getting it into csv format. if its out of date and you dont want to get a current one then you are going to have to do some matching with Van ID's to make sure you are working on the right people.
* run bulk uploads > upload a new file
check the settings are right, usually tick mapping template as none and "First row contains column header information" as unticked. tick the advanced box and then find and upload your prepared .csv file.
At the mapping part you map twice, once for the polling number and then again for postal proxy..>>
Polling Number > set local authority to barnsley (or whatever) and set the 2 column choices to the poll district and poll number correctly" > next.
Do this process again this time selecting "Apply Postal/Proxy vote data".
And ignore all the options except right at the bottom "Ballot Type Name" select perm postal (2026 - this now seems to be at the top of the form)
if it looks right click finish. You will now be switched to a batch screen, after a minute or so you will see a prompt to approve your batch > do it.
It will now show you any mismatched records, possibly faults with the supplied file or other errors, if its a low number just accept it.
Marked Register Update for Postal Voters
Using Polling numbers isnt sufficient. You have to get the VAN ID.
There are two ways - this is usually the easiest >
Get the excel sheet from electoral services, strip it down to just the people who voted, the ones with a 'Y'. You only need the polling district and polling number column. Upload this to connect. Map once with PD and PN and then again as a saved list.
Once its processesed go get the list in connect, it will now have matched Van ID. download this list.
Now strip this list down in excel, all you really need is VAN ID.
Upload back up to connect again. This time map the "VAN ID" from the drop-down and then choose "apply voting history." A text box will appear with a pen inside it. Type in the year of the election you are updating. You will get a choice of elections appear. Choose the correct one. and click the Select button. next choose as absent as we are marking these as voted by post.
if it looks right click finish. You will now be switched to a batch screen, after a minute or so you will see a prompt to approve your batch > do it.
It will now show you any mismatched records, possibly faults with the supplied file or other errors, if its a low number just accept it.
Marked Register Upload for On The Day Polling Station Voters
Get a ward sized file from the advanced bit of connect (xl file)
selecting the right register date is a bit of a grey area. General advice is to choose the one just before polling day.
find it in your downloaded files and download it
Now we need to use the the online OCR tool registr to reconcile this data (if you dont have access to registr - you can apply here https://lib-dem-registr.herokuapp.com/all-sessions )
the registr website is here
You should have the pdf files for each polling station (box) of the on the day marked register for the ward and this xls file youve just downloaded from connect
(you have to open this xls file and resave it as csv file, or registr complains)
load the csv and your matching pdfs and click go (it says its going to charge you - but it doesnt)
it will move you to a screen where you see your job is processing - now you wait, go get a coffee, it will email you when its done, usually a few minutes
you can work with big or small batches, as long as everything matches. when done click on it and it shows you a validation screen and it wants you to check its work but it doesnt help you identify the polling station so without a clue to the officers style its hard to know if its a good guess or not - good luck.
it then lets you download a marked file with Y for the folk who voted. Open it up remove all the rows without a Y. remove all the columns except VAnID - cos thats all you need.
[How good a job has the OCR done - if you have data from electoral services you can check each polling station. Sometimes the OCR gets fooled by the style of a particular officer in one polling station and misses heaps - or all of the marks. look at the spreadsheet and get the totals voted for each box - this should match ( give or take) the totals from electoral services. if one of the boxes is significantly different - say worse than 80% then its looking like you will have to do that polling station box manually - sorry.]
back to connect > bulk upload > upload a new file. upload this one and map it this time using the vanid. map again for Apply Voting History. Type the year of election and a range of options will be displayed for you to select. next choose voted. these are the 2 mappings you need , now click ‘Finish’
your upload should now be processing on the screen. wait for the approval,(might need to refresh) it might have a handful of failures, dont worry if its only 1% or so.
Done, in a minute or so that data should show up in your database.
*************
** Emailing with targetted email
in EMAILS tab, go green create new email - then create from existing - to look for a previous email to copy - and give it a new internal name
next pick either a saved search or saved list - dynamic vs static as usual. - (b&p memberers is in searches)
continue
use a real name in *from name. but use a name@barnsleylibdems.org.uk in both *from and *replyto
after saving theres a send sample email option
*******
Old domain Hosted by geekwebhosting.co.uk, Owned and run by LIB Dem James Harvey
controlpanel.geekwebhosting.co.uk
username: kevin.bennett12@gmail.com
password: clue irish - recentyear - bang
webmail: webmail.geekwebhosting.co.uk
Setting up a mailbox access on your email client
Incoming Mail Server: mail.rblibdems.org.uk or 79.170.40.114
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.rblibdems.org.uk or 79.170.40.114
extra email set up info:
Incoming Server imap.rblibdems.org.uk (for POP3 use pop3.rblibdems.org.uk)
IMAP Port 993 (143 for non-SSL)
POP3 Port 995 (110 for non-SSL)
Outgoing Server smtp.rblibdems.org.uk
SMTP Port 465 (25 or 587 for non-SSL)
Username bev.thornley@rblibdems.org.uk
Authentication is required for IMAP, POP3, and SMTP.