CHANGES TO VOTE HISTORY IN VAN
FOR ELECTIONS IN 2022 & BEYOND
VOTE HISTORY IN VAN: OVERVIEW
Based upon the success of Absentee and Early Voting in 2020, the ways in which eligible Kentuckians could vote in elections was changed and expanded. While the ability to vote absentee by mail reverted back to how they were pre-2020 with eligibility requirements, the online absentee ballot request remained for voters with these voters also being able to drop their ballot off in drop boxes. Along with that, all counties offer at least three days of no-excuse early voting running the Thursday through Saturday before Election Day.
Unlike 2020, however, the State Board of Elections does not provide anyone with the dataset of who requested a ballot, returned a ballot, or voted early (excused or no-excuse) during the election due to KRS 117.085.12.
Following Open Records Requests (ORR), the SBOE provided this information for both the 2022 Primary and General Election. Going forward, these lists will be provided by ORR under KRS 117.086.
VOTE HISTORY IN VAN: CREATE A LIST
In Votebuilder, vote history for the 2022 Elections and other elections moving forward will be found in several places. In these sections, there will be new codes and terms that users will see and want to know.
In Create a List (CAL), users will see the familiar election name (2022 Primary/General) in the left column and ‘Voted’ or ‘Didn’t Vote’ in the right column. However, two new options (shown below) appear in the right column to let users sort on those who voted ‘Early’ or by ‘Mail’. Selecting ‘Voted’ will select everyone who voted, regardless of their vote method. Similarly, selecting ‘Early’ or ‘Mail’ will just display those voters who used that specific method.
VOTE HISTORY IN VAN: VOTER PROFILE
When a user wants to view individuals voters and vote method, those will be found in the voters’ profile under ‘Voting History’. For the 2022 General, users will see four different codes to reflect how a voter cast their ballot in the 2022 General Election:
Y → Voted in the 2022 General Election, in person on Election Day
E → Voted in the 2022 General Election, early in person
M → Voted in the 2022 General Election, by mail
Null/Blank “ ” → Did not vote in the 2022 General Election
A demonstration of Vote History in VAN is available in screenshots at: https://kydemocratshelp.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/44002162549-2020-general-election-vote-history
VOTE HISTORY IN VAN: METHODOLOGY
To determine the vote method to display in Votebuilder, KDP and the DNC utilized the Absentee and Early Vote file provided by the SBOE to link records in the backend.
In order for someone’s vote method to display in Votebuilder, they must have voter credit on the raw file from the SBOE. If no voter credit is displayed, and the voter requested a ballot, the value will still appear as ‘blank/null/ “ ” ’.
Due to problems with the way the files are provided (including the lack of a unique voter file ID and limited person-level information), it is impossible to provide full coverage of the vote method.
Based upon the data received, a few of the vote methods appearing in VAN can be defined as:
VOTE HISTORY IN VAN: DNC MATCH RATE
Based upon the matching of the Voter File / AVEV data by the DNC, the following table represents the coverage rate for the 2022 Primary and General Election Vote History in VAN.
Primary:
General:
VF/AVEV Match refers to voters who both have voter credit and were present on the AVEV file; the VAN Total is the total number of voters with that specific credit in Votebuilder. Match rate shows the total percent of which are directly matched using both files.