December VoteSource Newsletter

Welcome to the December edition of the VoteSource Newsletter.

Missed our last edition? Catch up by clicking here.

Or click here to browse all previous editions.

Rollover

We have started to receive files for the Annual Electoral Register Rollover from December 1st. This reflects the annual canvass of electors carried out in the Autumn every year. In addition to adding and deleting electors, it reorders the Electoral Roll number of constituents.

We are pleased to announce that rollover is complete for the following local authorities. If your authority is not yet listed this is most likely because we have not yet received the rollover file. We are refreshing the News article in VoteSource regularly with updated local authorities so please do check there for more information.

• Adur District Council
• Amber Valley Borough Council
• Angus Tayside
• Argyll and Bute and Dunbartonshire Valuation Joint Board
• Arun District Council
• Ashfield District Council
• Ashford Borough Council
• Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board
• Babergh District Council
• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Basildon Borough Council
• Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
• Bassetlaw District Council
• Bath and North East Somerset Council
• Birmingham City Council
• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Blackpool Borough Council
• Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
• Bolsover District Council
• Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
• Boston Borough Council
• Bournemouth,Christchurch and Poole Council
• Bracknell Forest Borough Council
• Braintree District Council
• Breckland District Council
• Brentwood Borough Council
• Bridgend County Borough Council
• Brighton and Hove City Council
• Bristol City Council
• Bromsgrove District Council
• Broxbourne District Council
• Broxtowe Borough Council
• Burnley Borough Council
• Bury Metropolitan Borough Council
• Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council
• Cannock Chase District Council
• Canterbury City Council
• Cardiff Council
• Carmarthenshire County Council
• Castle Point Borough Council
• Central Bedfordshire Council
• Central Scotland Valuation Joint Board
• Ceredigion County Council
• Charnwood Borough Council
• Chelmsford Borough Council
• Cheltenham Borough Council
• Cherwell District Council
• Cheshire East Borough Council
• Cheshire West and Chester Council
• Chesterfield Borough Council
• Chichester District Council
• Chorley Borough Council
• City and County of Swansea
• City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
• City of Lincoln Council
• City of London
• City of Westminster Council
• City of York Council
• Colchester Borough Council
• Conwy County Borough Council
• Cotswold District Council
• Council of the Isles Of Scilly
• Coventry City Council
• Crawley Borough Council
• Cumberland Council
• Dacorum Borough Council
• Darlington Borough Council
• Dartford Borough Council
• Denbighshire County Council
• Derby City Council
• Derbyshire Dales District Council
• Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council
• Dorset Council
• Dover District Council
• Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Dundee City Council
• Durham County Council
• East Cambridgeshire District Council
• East Devon District Council
• East Hampshire District Council
• East Hertfordshire District Council
• East Lindsey District Council
• East Riding of Yorkshire Council
• East Staffordshire Borough Council
• Eastbourne Borough Council
• Eastleigh Borough Council
• Electoral Office of Northern Ireland
• Elmbridge Borough Council
• Epping Forest District Council
• Epsom and Ewell Borough Council
• Erewash Borough Council
• Fareham Borough Council
• Fife Council
• Flintshire County Council
• Forest of Dean District Council
• Fylde Borough Council
• Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council
• Gedling Borough Council
• Glasgow City Council
• Gloucester City Council
• Gosport Borough Council
• Gravesham Borough Council
• Great Yarmouth Borough Council
• Halton Borough Council
• Harborough District Council
• Harlow District Council
• Hart District Council
• Hartlepool Borough Council
• Hastings Borough Council
• Havant Borough Council
• Herefordshire Council
• Hertsmere Borough Council
• High Peak Borough Council
• Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council
• Horsham District Council
• Huntingdonshire District Council
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Ipswich Borough Council
• Isle of Anglesey County Council
• King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council
• Kingston-upon-Hull City Council
• Kirklees Council
• Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board
• Lancaster City Council
• Leeds City Council
• Leicester City Council
• Lewes District Council
• Lichfield District Council
• Liverpool City Council
• London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
• London Borough of Barnet
• London Borough of Bexley
• London Borough of Brent
• London Borough of Bromley
• London Borough of Camden
• London Borough of Croydon
• London Borough of Ealing
• London Borough of Enfield
• London Borough of Hackney
• London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
• London Borough of Havering
• London Borough of Hounslow
• London Borough of Islington
• London Borough of Lambeth
• London Borough of Lewisham
• London Borough of Merton
• London Borough of Newham
• London Borough of Redbridge
• London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
• London Borough of Sutton
• London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• London Borough of Waltham Forest
• London Borough of Wandsworth
• Luton Borough Council
• Maidstone Borough Council
• Maldon District Council
• Malvern Hills District Council
• Manchester City Council
• Mansfield District Council
• Medway Council
• Melton Borough Council
• Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
• Mid Devon District Council
• Mid Suffolk District Council
• Mid Sussex District Council
• Middlesbrough Council
• Milton Keynes Council
• Mole Valley District Council
• Monmouthshire County Council
• Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
• New Forest District Council
• Newark and Sherwood District Council
• Newcastle upon Tyne City Council
• Newport City Council
• North Devon District Council
• North East Derbyshire District Council
• North East Lincolnshire Council
• North Hertfordshire District Council
• North Kesteven District Council
• North Lincolnshire Council
• North Norfolk District Council
• North Northamptonshire Council
• North Somerset Council
• North Tyneside Metropolitan Council
• North Warwickshire Borough Council
• North West Leicestershire District Council
• Northumberland County Council
• Norwich City Borough Council
• Nottingham City Council
• Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council
• Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Orkney and Shetland Valuation Joint Board
• Oxford City Council
• Pembrokeshire County Council
• Pendle Borough Council
• Perth and Kinross Tayside
• Peterborough City Council
• Portsmouth City Council
• Powys County Council
• Preston City Council
• Reading Borough Council
• Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
• Redditch Borough Council
• Reigate and Banstead Borough Council
• Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board
• Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council
• Ribble Valley Borough Council
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
• Rochford District Council
• Rossendale Borough Council
• Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
• Royal Borough of Greenwich
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
• Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
• Rugby Borough Council
• Runnymede Borough Council
• Rushcliffe Borough Council
• Rushmoor Borough Council
• Rutland County Council
• Salford City Council
• Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
• Scottish Borders Council
• Sefton Council
• Sevenoaks District Council
• Sheffield City Council
• Shepway District Council
• Slough Borough Council
• Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
• Somerset Council
• South Cambridgeshire District Council
• South Derbyshire District Council
• South Gloucestershire Council
• South Hams District Council
• South Holland District Council
• South Kesteven District Council
• South Oxfordshire District Council
• South Ribble Borough Council
• South Staffordshire Council
• South Tyneside Council
• Southampton City Council
• Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
• Spelthorne Borough Council
• St Albans District Council
• St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council
• Stafford Borough Council
• Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
• Stevenage Borough Council
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
• Stockton on Tees Borough Council
• Stoke on Trent City Council
• Stratford on Avon District Council
• Stroud District Council
• Sunderland City Council
• Surrey Heath Borough Council
• Swindon Borough Council
• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
• Tamworth Borough Council
• Tandridge District Council
• Teignbridge District Council
• Telford and Wrekin Council
• Tendring District Council
• Test Valley Borough Council
• Tewkesbury Borough Council
• Thanet District Council
• Three Rivers District Council
• Thurrock Council
• Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council
• Torbay Council
• Torfaen County Borough Council
• Torridge District Council
• Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
• Uttlesford District Council
• Vale of White Horse District Council
• Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
• Warrington Borough Council
• Warwick District Council
• Watford Borough Council
• Waverley Borough Council
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
• West Berkshire Council
• West Devon Borough Council
• West Lancashire Borough Council
• West Lindsey District Council
• West Northamptonshire Council
• West Oxfordshire District Council
• Westmorland and Furness Council
• Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
• Wiltshire Council
• Winchester City Council
• Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
• Woking Borough Council
• Wokingham Borough Council
• Worcester City Council
• Worthing Borough Council
• Wrexham County Borough Council
• Wychavon District Council
• Wyre Borough Council
• Wyre Forest District Council

Once your Annual Register has been loaded into VoteSource:

• Please check your register and report any concerns to the Support team, providing examples.

• Improve the matching of records by using the manual match process in the Drop Off section and the merge ability.

Every effort is made to ensure that all records are matched together successfully via our automated process, however, inevitably there will be some the process cannot automatically match.

This could be because the individuals have moved address, provided data to the local authority which does not match what is stored on VoteSource, like a date of birth. In some cases, it can even be where parents share the same first name as their children. With examples like these we need your local knowledge to merge these records back together.

We strongly recommend that when you come to match your records together you go to the Drop Off section of VoteSource, found by clicking on the Register tile, select your publishing authority and the criteria you wish to search for, I.E. Voting Intention of Conservative and then export the responses to a spreadsheet and download the spreadsheet to excel. You will then have a hard copy to work on merging records after the first monthly update of 2024.

You can then look up each record via Constituent search and merge the record if they are still at the same address using the Merge ability.

The advantage of using this method is that you can merge records at any time – there is no time constraint like with Drop Offs. Also by using the Merge ability it greatly reduces the chance of records splitting in the future.

Instructions on how to merge records can be found in the Help Centre:

“How to merge a constituent record that’s not matched to an electoral record to a constituent record” https://votesource.uk/support/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/331

“Drop off – How to extract a list of Drop Offs to merge post annual rollover” https://votesource.uk/support/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/337

If you would rather use the Drop Off section – which will provide you with possible matches for the dropped off record, please follow the instructions below. Please be aware that the drop off procedure is time sensitive, once your first monthly update on the new year has been applied you should no longer continue matching drop off records. You can of course then start using the merge ability at that time.

To find the drop off section from the VoteSource homepage click on the Register tile and then Drop Off.

You can then select the Publishing Authority and the Published Register you wish to match to.

You will be able to select constituents who have “dropped off the register” based on a number of criteria – e.g. Membership, has a specific Voting Intention etc.

The system will allow you to manually match these records to potential records in the system.

The following user guide can be found in the Help Centre on VoteSource to assist with Drop Offs:

“Drop Off – Annual Roll Over” https://votesource.uk/support/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/336

Once your first monthly update has been applied post your annual rollover you can no longer use drop off for the previous year.

Once the first monthly update has been applied, you should only use the drop off section to match records that have split during the monthly update.

You will only be able to use drop offs for each monthly update until next year’s annual rollover. However, you can continue to merge records at any time regardless of monthly update files or annual rollover.

If you have any questions, please contact the Support team on 020 7984 8000 or votesourcesupport@conservatives.com

VoteSource Support team Christmas holiday timetable

The VoteSource Support team will be on Christmas holidays from 2pm 22nd of December until 9am Tuesday 2nd of January.

During this time, any phone calls will go straight to answerphone. The team will be checking voicemails and emails over the holiday period but will only deal with emergency issues.

We would recommend emailing us if your problem is urgent.

Normal service will resume from the 2nd of January.

If you are reporting a possible data breach, or wish to submit a Rights Request under the Data Protection Act 2018, please forward your message to dataprotection@conservatives.com

The data protection team will be checking their inbox throughout the holiday period.

VoteSource Support contact details are as follows if you are not already aware:

020 7984 8000

votesourcesupport@conservatives.com

VoteSource Best Practice

As we come to the end of the year, it is worthwhile setting some time aside to go through the following checklist. The more preparation that goes into VoteSource now the less you will need to do as we get closer to the May elections.

1. Have you gone through your user list and checked only current association officers and volunteers have access?

These checks should be carried out regularly throughout the year and are very important.

The following user guide found in the VoteSource Help Centre can help you identify who has a VoteSource account and lives in electoral areas you have access to:

VS10 - Users - Roles https://votesource.uk/support/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/372

Using this guide and the system you will be able to find lists of accounts either by user role or by an electoral area.

Remember:

• A Green U means the account is accessible.
• A Red L means the accounts is locked due to too many incorrect password attempts
• A Blue F means the account is frozen due to inactivity. This means the account hasn’t been accessed for more than six months.

The following user guide will go through how to Unlock, Unfreeze or Delete an account:

VS10 – How to Unfreeze, Unlock and Delete VoteSource Accounts https://votesource.uk/support/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/371

Please note: You may find a user that you do not recognise, this does not mean they necessarily have access to your data. Remember to check carefully their Electoral Area Permission. It could be that they are a registered elector in your area but have access to another area legitimately. If in doubt, contact VoteSource Support and we will be happy to investigate.

2. Have you checked if your annual rollover register has been applied?

If it has, have you checked the Drop Off section and started matching records to save their data?

If you need guidance on the above, please read the Annual Rollover article in this Newsletter.

3. Have you archived target audiences & delivery rounds you no longer require

Remember, target audiences & delivery rounds are snapshots of the electoral register when they are created – they do not update with monthly or annual rollover files. If you have created target audiences in 2023 expecting to use them in 2024 you will not be campaigning effectively with up-to-date electors and roll numbers.

To archive a target audience, go to Campaigns and then click on the Target Audiences tile. You will then be able to search through all available target audiences in the area(s) you have access to. Simply click on the target audience you wish to archive and when it has loaded, select the red tile labelled Finish and Archive.

You can also search for target audiences using the Created by me tile and the Quick search filter.

An important note is that if you subsequently realise you needed a target audience that you have archived, they can be re-activated via the Archived Target tile.

Please do ensure you take some time to tidy up your target audiences. Removing unrequired ones will help organise this section of VoteSource ahead of the important campaign work next year.

Hint: any target audiences you created with the title “test” can probably be archived!