Choice Voting Documentation

Importing Voters

Adding voters to your election

IMPORTING VOTERS

Import CSV Template Details.

The quickest and easiest way to get started with importing voters into an online election is to download the voter import template by clicking here: https://app.choicevoting.co.uk/demo/voters_sample_.csv. This template file is in the CSV (Comma Separated Values) format which can be opened by all popular spreadsheet applications (Excel, Numbers, Google Spreadsheets, etc.). Starting from or using the template file is not required, but Choice Voting will only accept valid CSV files with the first row containing the following columns:

 

  • voter_name

  • voter_email

  • voter_restricted

  • voter_allowed

  • weight

 

Column Info / Fields

 

Field

Column

Description

Name

voter_name

The name field allows you to associate a name with a Voter Identifier. This is for your records and will only be seen by the voter if you choose to add an email address for the voter. This field is required.

Email

voter_email

The Email field will be used as a way to notify your voter when the election launches. If provided, the voter will receive an email with voting instructions as soon as your election starts. This field is not required and to be used must be enabled in the election’s settings. (settings > Email Notifications > Enable email)

Restricted

voter_restricted

It is possible to restrict your voters from certain positions in your election, you may specify as a comma separated string the positions you wish to restrict the voter from.

Allowed

voter_allowed

An alternative to restricting, is to simply specify the positions the voter is allowed to vote in, and the system will restrict all others for you.

Vote Weight

vote_weight

The Vote Weight field allows you to assign a weight to the voter’s ballot. If you do not have weighted voting enabled for your election, you can leave this column empty. By default, the voter’s vote weight is 1

How to Import your CSV

 

 

 

Additional Notes for uploading voters.

 

  1. Importing a list of voters will append the list to the existing list of voters in the election, unless you select the “Cleanup existing voters” checkbox. For example, importing the same list of voters twice will result in each voter being duplicated. Selecting “Cleanup existing voters” will replace the existing voters with the new uploaded voter csv.

  2. The import file must be a valid CSV (comma separated values) or XLS file.