Our First VoteSource Newsletter

We are very pleased to be starting a monthly newsletter therefore allowing us to clearly communicate with our user base all the work being undertaken by our Team.

You have received this email because of your level of access to the system and the abilities you therefore possess to set up and run campaigns. We feel you would most benefit from the information and advice provided.

Our aim is to provide you with relevant information to increase your knowledge and understanding of VoteSource. We hope this will improve the overall effectiveness of your campaigns run using VoteSource.

Merging

The newest feature, as announced in the News section in April, is that we are now able to safely merge non-elector records back to their constituent records. Be they for membership, donations or user accounts. This has been a long requested feature due to the many benefits it will provide.

To begin with this ability will only be carried out by the Helpdesk. This will be reviewed in the coming months with the intention of local users being able to carry out this work.

In the meantime, the Helpdesk will be happy to merge records together. We expect this will be particularly relevant for membership records. If a membership is no longer attached to a constituent record, simply provide us with the name and address for both records and we will be able to merge them. Please be aware that if both records have current membership, we will need to resign one to successfully merge. An individual cannot have two current memberships to the same association.

When sending your lists of records requiring merging, we would request that you send an excel spreadsheet with as many records that need to be matched at one time, rather than individual emails. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, please remember to password protect the spreadsheet in line with GDPR!

Please send your lists to: helpdesk@conservatives.com

Upcoming Features

Our monthly newsletter will allow us to provide you with a roadmap of upcoming features for VoteSource as well as long term projects. This will offer greater clarity as to what work has been authorised by CCHQ or what new features requested by users are being put together.

We cannot always provide a timescale for deployment, but if we can, we will!

The ability for users to edit addresses will be returning in an improved format.

All addresses on VoteSource are created using the Royal Mail PAF address data. By using the addresses the Royal Mail use, we are ensuring that all posted materials reach their correct destination. VoteSource is very much set up to ensure that, where possible, PAF addresses are used.

There will, however, be examples where a PAF address cannot be used. For example, whilst a hotel will have a PAF address, a specific room number may not. Or an individual may have a particular vanity address they insist be used to contact them. Whilst this is not the address of the property according to the Royal Mail, you will have the ability to amend the address if you deem it absolutely necessary.

On the subject of PAF address formatting – addresses exported to excel will now correctly include number on the thoroughfare line of the address. This was affecting addresses like this: 303 – 307 Blogs Street. Because of the hyphen the system was leaving the numbers as part of the first line of the address rather than correctly adding it to the thoroughfare line.

VoteSource Fixes

We are pleased to announce the following reported issues have been resolved:

• Last Known Voting Intention (LKVI) Date not appearing on canvass cards correctly – Despite constituents having Voting Intention data, this was not displaying correctly on canvass cards. The column LKVI appeared blank. The team have resolved this issue.
• An issue effecting a small number of records, where an error message appeared when attempting to mark them as moved, has also been resolved by the team. Users should not encounter this issue anymore.

Advice On User Accounts

Now is an ideal opportunity for users with senior access to be checking who has access to VoteSource in your assigned areas.

If you go to Users, click on Existing Users, you will find lists of accounts recorded by the first letter of their last name. If you find a user account that is no longer required, simply click on their name and click the Details option. This is found above User Security. The page that loads will contain a Delete Account option.

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 the Helpdesk and we will be happy to investigate.

This will also be an ideal opportunity to check if your users can access VoteSource correctly:

• If there is a Green U next to their name, this means the account is Unlocked and can be accessed.
• If there is a Red L next to their name, this means the account has become Locked because the wrong password has been entered.
• If there is a Blue F next to their name, this means the account has become Frozen due to inactivity.

Only the Helpdesk, campaign managers and campaign staff can Unlock or Unfreeze accounts. If you have such access, you will find the Unlock and Unfreeze options in the same area as the Delete Account option.

Don’t forget to check the New Users list. It is the responsibility of associations and campaign managers to be approving legitimate requests for access. The Helpdesk can only approve a new user if we have an email with authorisation from the association or relevant campaign staff.