The Voter Details Screen

About the Voter Details Screen Voting History grid ID and Geo-political fields Name fields Address fields Birthdate field Mailing Address fields Phone Number fields Other fields Custom fields Custom Date fields Platform Trackers Instant Groups Short List button Open Extra fields panel button Open Group Notes button

About the Voter Details Screen Click on some part of the picture above to start finding out about the many things you can do (and learn) from this screen.   Top: The Voter Details Screen   Voting History grid This is the area where the State data as to a voter's 'history of participation' is viewed. The Voting History grid shows graphically how many times the voter has voted in each of the last ten years separate elections. The columns represent years, with the most current year in your data on the left. The rows represent types of elections like, 'Municipal' 'General', 'Presidential'. Holding your cursor over one of the 'lights' on the grid causes a pop out to appear with the election's type and year, like 'General 1996'. It is very easy to see, in just a second, the patterns in a voter's history.   At the bottom of the Voting History grid is a summary of vote count, election participation percent, and year participation percent for the voter. Clicking on that summary causes the Instant Access feature to toggle through searching by one of those statistics.   MrDistrict includes several ways to use the information. One example, is when sending a mailing. If the user has created a group definition and decides to send a postal mailing to the members of that group, then the statistics of the Voting History data could easily be used to filter up the members of that group who have voted in at least X% of either the elections or years that they were eligible to vote in. This can 'whittle' a large group down while increasing the chance that the recipient will be someone who will actually be voting in the next election.   A second example, is in the creation of complex groups, as in, a group composed of        voters newly registered in the last two years    +  voters who voted in the last Presidential Election    +  voters who have voted in at least 60% of the elections they were eligible to vote in    +  the members of another group, previously created, and named My Known Supporters     -  voters in my Don't Call list.   As you can see, voting history has been used to partly define the group above. To learn more about creating complex Groups click here. To learn more about creating Groups, in general, click here.   There are others ways to utilize the Voting History data, such as, on walking lists, during analysis, or in Form Letters.   Voting History data is very interesting and with MrDistrict you can actually use it to increase your effectiveness.     Top: The Voter Details Screen   ID and Geo-political fields The ID fields are numbers that MrDistrict uses to identify records. One is the Voter ID number. The Voter ID number in combination with the County number uniquely identifies every voter in a certain State. The MrDistrict ID is a number which MrDistrict uses internally to identify each record in a data file.   The Registration Date is the date when first a person registered to vote. Holding your cursor over the registration date causes a pop out to appear saying something like, 'Registered 12 years'.   The Geo-political fields included are Congressional, Senatorial, and Legislative districts, County, Township, and Ward. Holding your cursor over the County code causes the County's name to appear in a pop out.   The Status is A for Active voter, I for Inactive voter, U for Un-registered and N for Not Registered. Inactive voters are voters who, depending on rules set by your State, may no longer actually be voters in a county because they have moved or for some other reason. If you have any question, speak to your local County Clerk or a representative of your Secretary of States office for further clarification. Un-registered is a special status that means the last time State data was used to update this district the current voter was no longer in the list but that the user chose to mark former voters Un-registered instead of deleting them when the update was performed. Click here for more information. The 'Not Registered' status means that the record refers to someone who is not a registered voter (created from State data) but was added by a user (either manually or by importing from other data).   The Precinct number is also available. Internally, MrDistrict uses the Precinct code in calculating election and yearly voter participation statistics.   Clicking any of these fields' labels sets the Instant Access feature to filter on that field when next used. To learn more about using Instant Access click here.   Holding down the Alt key and clicking on a fields data will filter up the currently loaded records whose value for that field matches. In other words, if John Smith's Legislative code was LE0123 then holding down the Alt key and clicking on LE0123 will bring up everyone else with a Legislative code of LE0123 .   Clicking on the words Registraion Date causes the Instant Access feature's label to read 'Registration Date like'.   Now that the Instant Access feature is set to filter on Registration Dates, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the Enter key will filter up all records with 'nothing' entered in the Registration Date field. Conversely, holding down the Alt key and pressing Enter will filter up all records with 'something' entered in the Registration Date field.     Top: The Voter Details Screen   Name fields These fields hold the voter's name from the State Voter Registration data..   Clicking any of these fields' labels sets the Instant Access feature to filter on that field when next used. To learn more about using Instant Access click here.   Holding down the Alt key and clicking on a fields' data will filter up the currently loaded records whose value for that field matches. In other words, if on John Smith's record then holding down the Alt key and clicking on Smith will bring up everyone else whose last name is Smith in the currently loaded records.   Clicking on the words 'Last Name' (the field's label) will cause the Instant Access feature's label to read 'Last Name like'. The rules for some of the fields that can be used with the Instant Access feature are naturally different from others. Therefore, we have added a pop out to the criteria box. Holding your cursor over the criteria box of the Instant Access feature will give you a hint as to how to enter the criteria. For instance, if searching Birthdates with Instant Access the pop out will remind the user they can preface the date they enter with a greater than or less than symbol. If searching by Last Name the pop out explains that a comma can be used to add First/Middle Name to the filter. So typing wood,jo into the criteria box and pressing Enter will filter up all records whose Last Name starts with 'Wood' and whose First or Middle Name starts with 'Jo'. If you know the name of the person you are looking for (or even just part of it) then this method can bring up their record in just seconds.   MrDistrict has the ability to create records for organizations, as well as, people outside of your district. When creating a record for an organization, set the First Name to 'Entity' and the Last Name to the name of the organization. It is very easy to do, just click 'Add New' to create a new record. Then double-click where you type the first name and the value will toggle through "Entity", "Unknown", and a blank field. Once entered as an 'Entity' ,MrDistrict will then treat that record differently; address labels will be created a little differently, organizations will be left out when creating sets of people to Poll, lastly, all the organizations in your data file will be brought up by searching for 'First Name = Entity'.   MrDistrict's data entry fields are intelligent. Many fields automatically capitalize values correctly. Other fields toggle through values when double clicked. Other fields will guess what you are typing (based on data you have previously entered into that field) and finish typing it for you. The upshot is that entering data by hand into MrDistrict is faster than, say Outlook© or other database programs.       Top: The Voter Details Screen   Address fields (Home and Mailing) The Address fields contains the voter's home and mailing address from the State Voter Registration data.   Clicking any of these fields' labels sets the Instant Access feature to filter on that field when next used. To learn more about using Instant Access click here.   Holding down the Alt key and clicking on a fields data will filter up the currently loaded records whose value for that field matches. In other words, if John Smith lives on Oak St then holding down the Alt key and clicking on Oak will bring up everyone else with a street name of Oak in the currently loaded records.   Clicking on the words Apt Number causes the Instant Access feature's label to read 'Apt Number like'.   Now that the Instant Access feature is set to filter on Apt Number, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the Enter key will filter up all records with 'nothing' entered in the Apt Number field. Conversely, holding down the Alt key and pressing Enter will filter up all records with 'something' entered in the Apt Number field.     MrDistrict's data entry fields are intelligent. Many fields automatically capitalize values correctly. Other fields toggle through values when double clicked. Entering a Zip Code value and moving to another field causes the interface to pre-fill in various fields like: City, State, Mailing City, Mailing State, Mailing Zip, Phone Number Prefixes (clicking the small button between the State and Zip Code fields also performs the pre-fill). In the case of cities with multiple Zip Codes, double clicking the Zip Code fields value will toggle through all the zip codes that MrDistrict knows for that city. Alternatively, the program can automatically find and enter zip codes; entering a City and State and then double clicking the Zip Code field will cause MrDistrict to fill it in with the zip code. Other fields will guess what you are typing (based on data you have previously entered into that field in other records) and finish typing it for you. Some of those fields are Political Party, Salutation, Marital Status, City and others. The upshot is that entering data by hand into MrDistrict is faster than, say Outlook© or other database programs.     Top: The Voter Details Screen   Birthdate field The Birthdate field contains the voter's birthdate from the State Voter Registration data.   Clicking this field's label sets the Instant Access feature to filter on that field when next used. To learn more about using Instant Access click here.   Holding down the Alt key and clicking on the field's data will filter up the currently loaded records whose value for that field matches. In other words, if John Smith's Birthdate is 11/17/1963 then holding down the Alt key and clicking on 11/17/1963 will bring up everyone else with a Birthdate of 11/17/1963 .   Clicking on the words Birthdate causes the Instant Access feature's label to read 'Birthdate like'.   Now that the Instant Access feature is set to filter on Birthdates, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the Enter key will filter up all records with 'nothing' entered in the Birthdate field. Conversely, holding down the Alt key and pressing Enter will filter up all records with 'something' entered in the Birthdate field.       Top: The Voter Details Screen   Phone Number fields The Phone Number fields contain information for contacting by phone. There are fields for Home, Work, Cell, Pager, and Fax numbers.   When entering phone numbers just type the numbers and MrDistrict will automatically format them. To quickly pre-fill the prefixes, just click the small button between the State and Zip Code fields. Phone numbers can be pasted into the field and they will also automatically format correctly.   To automatically dial a phone number click on it in the Voter Summary panel (towards the top of the screen), or double click the phone number in the Phone Number fields section and the digital phone will appear with the number entered. Pressing enter will then dial the number. Depending on how your modem is set-up, you then either just start talking or pick up your actual phone handset and begin talking.     Top: The Voter Details Screen   Other Fields Other fields include a Salutation field which can be used to store something like Mr, Mrs, or Dr or it could be used to store a familiar name like, Nick for Nicholas.   Political Party can store whether a person is a Democrat, Republican, or Independent but could also be used to track 'bent'. As in, Rep Cons, Dem Lib for Conservative Republican, Liberal Democrat.   Marital Status and Spouse Name are found here. They can be used for creating form letters or as quick reminders when speaking to that person over the phone.   Email Address and Web Link fields are also found here   Top: The Voter Details Screen   Open Group Notes If a Group is currently loaded then this icon will be visible. MrDistrict can store up to 36 Group Notes attached to a Group definition. These can be used for writing down things you have done with the Group like, sending them all a form letter or an email or the Group Notes could be used for any other information that relates to the Group. Clicking the icon causes MrD.Write (MrDistrict's internal word processor) to open on the Group's Note(s)     Top: The Voter Details Screen   Instant Groups Although unlimited grouping, both formulaic and arbitrary, is available in MrDistrict© ,we felt that it would be nice to have certain groups and membership in those groups instantly available. The Instant Group lights are just that. Eight buttons stacked center right of the Voter Details screen that instantly show if a constituent is a member of any of the following groups: Supporter  When a person makes a donation they are automatically added to this group Acquaintance  You have met this person before Volunteer  Your team of people willing to donate their time Display Sign  The people who have your sign in their yard Needs Ride  People who could benefit from having a ride to the Polls Possible Donor  people that you think may become contributors Don't Call  These people have indicated a desire to not be called by phone Call  A visual cue to the user to call this person   When the database is in 'Unlocked' Mode clicking on one of these buttons toggles it from off (dark) to on (highlighted). When the database is in 'Locked' Mode clicking one of these buttons filters the currently loaded records on all records where the value is true. In other words, if you have done an Advanced Find on a certain town then clicking the 'Volunteer' button will bring up all the volunteers in that town. If you currently have 'All Records' loaded, then clicking the 'Volunteer' button will bring up all the volunteers in the entire database.   Top: The Voter Details Screen   Platform Trackers To the right of the ‘Instant Group’ buttons are four square ‘lights’. These ‘lights’ allow a user to create up to four Platform Trackers. Basically, they are three way toggles: true, false, and unknown. Suppose that, as a politician, you are always interested if your constituent believes in 'Right to Life'. The first thing you do is right-click on an unassigned Platform Tracker ‘light’. A dialog will pop up, walking you through the process of setting up your custom field. Once this is done, using the example above, holding the mouse over the light will cause a pop up to appear which says something like, 'Believes in Right to Life is true' with a green light or if the voter does not believe in Right to Life then the pop up will say 'Believes in Right to Life is false' with a red light. Once the custom field is set up, as per the example, then all grey lights will say 'Believes in Right to Life is unknown'. When the database is in 'Unlocked' Mode clicking toggles the 'light' from gray to green to red. When the database is in 'Locked' Mode clicking brings up all records where the value matches the current value. In other words, clicking on a red light will bring up all records that also have a red light in that field. As with the Instant Access and Instant Group features, pressing the Escape key on your keyboard removes the filter and returns to all currently loaded records.   Top: The Voter Details Screen   The Short List The Short List button basically works just like the Instant Group buttons allowing you to create one more Instant Group. The idea of a Short List is a group of people who you are (will be) working with over the next few days/weeks used to bring that group up quickly. Tagging records with the Short List light allows you to return directly to those people's records at the click of the mouse. Like many of the features of MrDistrict©, it is flexible enough that you could use it for your own purpose. If the concept of a Short List is familiar to you and it's something you can use then here it is.   Top: The Voter Details Screen   Custom Fields At the lower left, above the Editing buttons are four fields which are labeled (if they have never been customized); Custom String 1 Custom String 2 Custom Date 1 and Custom Date 2. These are custom fields that you can re-name and which allow you to enter custom data. To change one of these fields name's right click on it and a dialog will appear which will walk you through the process. The two fields on the left are for string data which means that you can pretty much enter anything you want in those fields. The two on the right are date-type fields and can be used to store dates in a standard format like 3/13/2003. Dates stored in this way can be searched using the Instant Access feature with 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols. For example, if you have one of the Custom Date Fields named 'Last Met On' and you are storing the last date that you were face to face with a person in this field then you could click on the words 'Last Met On' (causing the Instant Access feature to search in the 'Last Met On' field) and then type <1/1/04 and press ENTER on your keyboard. This would bring up dates before January 1, 2004. Changing the criteria to >1/1/2004 would bring up dates after the first of 2004.   Top: The Voter Details Screen   Extra fields panel   The Extra fields panel has nine customizable fields on it and the button with a hand holding a datasheet in the Voter Details screen toggles it's visibility on and off.   The first four fields can be given custom names and assigned a data type of 'string' or 'date'. A 'string' means any kind of data can be put in the field but a 'date' type means only Dates can be stored in the field. The reason why you would want to assign a fields data type to 'date' is so that the fields contents can be searched as Dates.   The fifth field can be given a custom name. It can stores any data you'd like up to about 600 characters.   The last four fields can be given custom names and store links to files. When the database is in 'Unlocked' Mode , you can drop a file onto one of these fields and a link will automatically be created. You can also double click the field name to open a dialog box where you can locate a file to link to.   When the database is in 'Locked' Mode, double clicking these fields opens the file that the link points to.     Top: The Voter Details Screen