September VoteSource Newsletter

Welcome to the September edition of the VoteSource Newsletter

Missed last months edition? Catch up by clicking here.

Or click here to browse all previous editions.

New features coming soon

New Voting Intentions Page

The voting intentions section of a constituents record has been redesigned to properly showcase the timeline of events.

There will now be a timeline directly down the middle of the page with voting information to the right of the line and voting intentions to the left. Every time these pieces of information are added to the record, the date will also be recorded.

We’re also changing the way the voting attendance record system works.

There are currently a number of ways to record whether someone has voted. Like the Marked Register entry, survey, connect calling, or GTV.

Following this update the only way to enter voting attendance records will be through Marked Register entry.

This removes the risk of a voter misremembering or misrepresenting their voting history and ensures all of our data is 100% accurate.

Walk Routes

Following overwhelming feedback from users, the VoteSource team are in the final stages of testing a new ability to display a “walk route in construction” on to the mapping section in Walk Routes.

Users will now be able to dynamically map streets to their routes and check against the map in Walk Routes – ensuring each route is perfect. Each walk route will also be colour coded to aid in setting up the routes.

The actual creation of a walk route remains the same as before, you name your new route and then assign streets to it. The new features allow the properties in the streets to appear on the map and as you assign them to your walk route the properties will be marked in a colour indicating this. As you create new walk routes and assign streets to them, they will also be marked in different colours.

The walk routes map for each polling district will also now allow you to view all your created walk routes on one map at once, without having to run a target audience or delivery round and export a map. This will help users plan their campaigning straight from VoteSource, rather than exporting information.

What’s coming soon?

Over the next few months the VoteSource team will be working hard towards upgrading the hardware that runs VoteSource. It’ll mean the system will run quicker and reduce the risk of it slowing down at election time. We want to warn users now that towards the end of the year it will be necessary to take VoteSource offline for a few days to help with these upgrades. No data will be lost in this process. We currently estimate that the system will be offline for 4 days.

We’re still confirming the exact date – but we’ll be sure to let you know in these emails and on the news section when a date is locked in.

We’d like to thank users for their ongoing patience as we look to make VoteSource a more complete tool for everyone in the Party.

Internet Browsers

We’d like to remind everyone that VoteSource is optimised to work best with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. So if you plan to use the system, please try to use one of these browsers where possible.

And when you spot that the new update is live, remember to clear your browser’s cache. That will mean you can properly view all the new changes. Instructions on how to do this can be found here https://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/ and we always make this link available in our news articles following updates.

This is not to say VoteSource will not work correctly on other browsers, many users of the system do indeed use different browsers. However other browsers will not have received as much testing and compatibility work as Chrome and Edge, so there is the possibility that users may encounter issues with these browsers.

VoteSource Best Practice

How to change what the Party can do with an email

To edit a constituent’s email constraints, you will first need to find the constituent’s record, either via constituent search or membership search.

When on the constituent’s record click into the contacts section and then scroll to the Email’s subheading. Once there, select the more option, next to their email, and then select the constraints option.

Here you have the options of selecting if the constituent wants to receive All emails, No emails or Specific ONLY emails for Local and National issues. Once the required selections have been made select the save option and the constituent’s preferences will now be saved.

If a person requests that their email be removed from the system entirely, a withdraw consent option can also be found alongside the constraints option. This will completely remove the email address and any previously recorded consent.

Alternatively, at the bottom of the contacts page under the subheading ‘Contact restrictions’, there are options to restrict how the constituent can be contacted. Here, restrictions can be changed from No to Yes and vice versa for Generally can contact, Can Knock Addresses, Can Mail Addresses, Can Email and Can Phone.

If you have any questions about the above, do please get in touch with the VoteSource support team.