Kentucky Democratic Party

Default Survey Questions & Activist Codes for Your Campaign

As campaign committees are set up in Votebuilder, three (3) standard survey questions and one (1) standard activist code for the campaign’s voter contact efforts will be created. 

In order to better standardize data for short and long-term usage, the ability for users to create survey questions has been disabled. Looking at the last two campaign cycles for comparison (2018 and 2020), the candidate and volunteer survey questions created in Votebuilder went from  33% of questions being mapped to Master Survey Questions in 2018 to 91% being mapped in 2020. This improvement was the result of KDP shifting survey question creation from campaigns to KDP Admins when campaigns were set up with accounts. 

If new questions not included below are needed, please submit the form below with the question text and answers for review. After review, the State Admin(s) will work with the campaign to best implement the survey question per best data standards.

To request the addition of new codes and questions, please complete the New Survey Question/Activist Code Request Form: https://forms.gle/b4RtPe4wfqTBKzyu9

The default trio of Survey Questions include the standard Candidate ID Question on a 1 - 5 scale to measure support levels; a Volunteer Ask to identify potential volunteer leads; and a Vote Method** question to track how voters will cast their ballots since voting options have been expanded in Kentucky. 

In the event of a competitive primary with multiple candidates (more than two), an additional Candidate ID Question - Opposition Preference* - will be created to most accurately record information on which opponent a voter may be specifically supporting. 

Should the campaign be involved in a primary contest and advance to the General Election, the KDP Data Team will create and standardize a Candidate ID Survey Question for the General. 

In the event that a requested question/code is duplicative in nature, the KDP Data Team will work with the campaign to incorporate best practices to utilize existing questions/codes. For instance, if a campaign wants to create a volunteer question for a specific campaign event, it will be easier for the campaign to build that question into their script as an ask, use the main survey question to record the person’s answer, and schedule them into the event in MyCampaign with an appropriate Event Status below. 

The naming scheme detailed below has been created to more accurately catalog and find survey questions in Votebuilder and are tailored to each candidate. This is done to better provide support to campaigns at scale - if additional survey questions are needed, please let us know and it can be created in the committee. 

This naming scheme breakdown for Legislative offices is as follows:

Office_OfficeNumber_CandidateLastName_MonthYearOfElection

SR = State Representative, SD = State Senate (District), CD = Congressional District

With all County Officer (Judge/Executive, County Clerk, Magistrates, Commissioners, County Attorney, Jailer, Coroner, PVA, Surveyor, Constable, Sheriff) elections taking place in 2022 - to best standardize the naming schemes for survey questions and activist codes - the first characters will include the COUNTY FIPS CODE and AN ABBREVIATION of the office name.

For the Jefferson County Clerk, the abbreviation would be: 111CC_LAST_MMYY.

Please see below for the full list of abbreviations for County Offices: 

For  mayoral races, the naming scheme for these will include AN ABBREVIATION of the city name followed by the letter M to represent it is for the mayoral contest. For City Council races, the naming scheme is AN ABBREVIATION of the city name followed by the letters CC.

For the Lexington mayoral and city council races, the abbreviations would be as follows: LexM_LastName_MMYY; LexCC##_LastName_.

For the Louisville mayoral and city council races, the abbreviations would be as follows: LouM_LastName_MMYY; LMC_##_LastName_MMY.

For judicial races, abbreviations will be determined by the office type and district number. For the most part, this will include AN ABBREVIATION of the office type followed by District Number and District Division.

For Circuit Court Judge Races, the abbreviation would be as follows:  CCJ_DistrictNumber-DivisionNumber_LastName_MMYY.

For District Court Judge Races, the abbreviation would be as follows:  DCJ_DistrictNumber-DivisionNumber_LastName_MMYY.

For Court of Appeals, the abbreviation would be as follows:  COA_DistrictNumber-DivisionNumber_LastName_MMYY.

* Opposition Preference, if needed.

** For further documentation on the Vote Method Survey Question, please click HERE. 

If a candidate is in a Primary where the top vote getters will move onto the General (such as City Commission/Council races), a Commit to Vote survey question will be created in order to make voters think about committing to vote for that specific candidate - amongst others. 

Naming Scheme: City Name/Office Abbreviation_LastName_C(ommit)T(o)V(ote)_Primary

The Activist Code included in the committee has been created to mark supporters who are interested in displaying a Yard Sign. As an Activist Code, individuals talking to voters will be able to solely indicated ‘Yes’ they want a Yard Sign without worrying about other options. 

An additional activist code is available for those candidates (including Lexington City Council) who are collecting petitions to get their names on the ballot. When a voter signs a petition for the candidate, the user entering that information into VAN can mark the petition activist code on the voter's profile, indicating they did sign the petition. A year (indicated as YY below) will be included at the end of the Activist Code to better track which campaign cycle the petition was collected.