FAQ's

About 5-6 weeks after election day we hope to have data back on everyone that voted in the recent election from most counties in the state. The counties have 30 days to complete their official canvas and certify the election results. Unfortunately the official canvas, or statement of votes, and the actual vote history data are different things. The statement of votes, or official canvas of votes, is basically just a counting of ballots that were cast and accepted, while the vote history is based on returned vote by mail ballot envelopes, signed polling place rosters and provisional ballot forms, which have to be scanned and entered manually. Most counties actually begin to scan in vote by mail data before election, which is part of the process they do to produce the Returned Ballot data we received before election day, but the work of scanning polling place rosters and provisional ballot forms cannot begin until after election day and some counties don’t start to scan all of their rosters until after they have completed their official canvas of votes and certified the election results.

We have ordered files from all 58 counties in the state and may receive vote history data from a few smaller counties in less than 30 days. In some larger counties it has taken them as long as 6-9 weeks to finish compiling all of the vote history data. Please contact us five weeks after election day about the status of vote history for your county or district.

Login using your regular PDI user-name and password. The system will prompt you to validate accounts that match your email address associated with this account. You can also click the Facebook or Google buttons to login using those sites. You do not need to validate all your accounts right away, just click your name in the top right on the page to validate your accounts at any time. Click here for a full tutorial.

PDI does not lease mobile devices.

Accounts are turned into pay as you go accounts post election. You will be able to regain access to the account once the data has been posted for post data analysis.

You could be locked out for two reasons. The first would be that you are entering the wrong password. For security reasons we lock you out after several failed login attempts. The solution would be to click the forgot password button after a couple of failed attempts. You will be emailed a request to change password.

The second reason would be that your account has expired. If you believe you have been locked out by mistake contact your account administrator or your PDI rep.

When your first PDI Log in is created you will receive an email from PDI. Your username is your email address and you will be asked to create your own password. If you currently have a PDI account or have had one in the past, you will use the same login for your new account. If you have multiple accounts you can toggle between accounts by clicking on your name in the home page. You will be able to see every active account associated with your email address.

Accounts that are either set up as 'Pay Per Output' or 'Field Use' will incur a cost when generating certain types of data.

Vote by Mail return data will get loaded into your account periodically. This allows you to have the most current and accurate data in terms of who has already turned in their mail ballot. Every County and City election is different so some will get loaded more often than others. Please email support at support@politicaldata.com to inquire about your election VBM return data.

PDI will load your polling places three to four weeks prior to election day. Please check the Election Voting Updates section on the right side of the home page. You will see a column titled "Polling". Once there is a new date in that column, the polling places have been loaded.

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You have received this message because your account was not payed off before the expiration date. If you believe that this is a mistake, please contact your PDI rep for more information.

The 'File Pickup Password' is not your log-in password. The default pickup password is 'pickup'. 'File Pickup Passwords' can be viewed and changed by going to Account Configuration > File Pickup. Please refer to our Getting Started Guide for more information.

Yes, PDI has helped create a program for compliance, fundraising, and accounting. This program has a separate cost and login, but link directly to your PDI account. This program can be accessed by clicking here.

Precincts are geographic locations that PDI uses to divide voters in areas that share the same elections. Election Precincts are geographic locations which contain voters that are all assigned to the same polling location.

Everyone is able to send emails, just click on the Email Module and get started!

The Member page is used by large organizations that have membership needs that cannot be solved by using the regular Contact section. This section only houses data provided by the organization.

ID Flags are answer keys, which are used in surveys. ID Flags can also be used to help narrow or expand the scope of your created universes. Click here for more information on ID Flags.

PDI allows you to use an account to manage multiple candidate or issues. Candidates and issues are added on the 'Account Configuration' in the 'Candide Issue' section. This page can be accessed on the PDI home page, by clicking the 'Account Configuration' button in the 'Administrative Pages' section. A single flag can be associated to multiple candidates. Flags are associated with candidates during the 'Survey Question' creation process. The flags used in one question can then be reused and then put toward another candidate or issue. Click here for more information on Candidates/Issues, Flags and Survey Questions.

PDI allows users to export their voters flag data, and carry it on over to another platform, or keep a copy for their own reference. To export flags click the 'Export Flag Data' button in the 'Administrative Pages' section on the PDI home page. This will create a CSV file with all of the flags you compiled, and can be downloaded in the 'File Pickup' section. Click here for more information on exporting flags.

Yes, flags are available in both the voter and contact database. You can query for flags in either database when needed.

When creating an ID Flag, you must also select and "Associate With" category. If you select any sort of support level, those collected flags will compile towards your accounts total support, which can be viewed on the homepage in the "Support and Mail Statistics" section, and in the count reports.

PDI has multiple predefined universes, which are based off the registration and vote history. The specifics about each predefined universe can be found here.

Yes, multiple universes can be nested together to create a new universe. Saved Universes can be added from the 'Vote History' tab in the 'Create Universes' module. Click here for more information on creating universes.

Saved Universes are ever changing and can expand or decrease based off of the changes of the individuals in the universe.

Saved Person List are static list, which will stay the same even if the individuals in the list no longer qualify for that particular list.

Creating two mutually exclusive universes based off VBM and poll voters are done in the 'Create Universe' module in the 'Mail Ballot' category.

To create a VBM universe, first select the base universe you would like to use for your universe. Once you have your universe selected, go to the 'Mail Ballot' category, and check the box in the 'Include Voters' category for 'Issued Mail Ballot.'

To create an Election Day universe, first select the base universe you would like to use for your universe. Once you have your universe selected, go to the 'Mail Ballot' category, and check the box in the 'Exclude Voters' category for 'Issued Mail Ballot.'

Click here for more information on creating universes.

Some houses are not geo-coded in the Mapping Module, which can result in lower counts then what is reflected in the total universe. However, this does not occur often, and the loss of voters should not be dramatic.

The PDI system does not allow users to delete universes, however it does allow you to deactivate a universe. Universe deactivation hides the universe from within the program, and universes can always be reactivated again at a later time. Click here for information on deactivating universes.

Because of their inefficiency, Response Code Sets have been removed from the PDI System. We request that our users now use Survey Questions in replace of Response Code Sets. Click here for more information on Survey Questions.

Survey questions are the building blocks of paper and electronic surveys. Surveys questions use ID Flags to create responses for their questions. Click here for a for more information on Survey Questions.

Printed Surveys are used for paper phone list and walk lists.

Electronic surveys are used in the online phonebank and the PDI mobile app. Electronic surveys use a logic based system, which allows for branching question paths based on the answers of the respondent.

Electronic surveys allows your canvassers to ask different questions based off the responses and demographics of your target voters. PDI uses these two different types of surveys to allow those using electronic surveys to take advantage of technology to create better surveys, while keeping printed surveys manageable for your canvassers. Click here for more information on creating surveys.

1. Make sure you have selected one of the "Survey Question" options in the "Select a File Layout" section.

2. Check if you have a printed survey in your Account Configuration. Click here for instructions on creating a survey.

You may be missing surveys for 1 of 2 reason. Make sure you are using a "File Layout" that uses Survey Questions and not Response codes. The other issue is you may not have created your printed survey. Please view the Printed Survey page for more information.

1. Check you have entered your list ID.

2. Check that you have clicked start scanning.

3. Check that your scanner is plugged in, and lights up.

If you are still having scanning issues, the problem may be the print quality of your page. It is best practice to do a test print on a page, before you print an entire walk/phone list.

Reverse Barcode Scanning is best used when many of the same responses appear consistently through the data entry process. This method requires that you first select the response that you want to input, then you select the respondents that correlate to the response. This method allows for less scans than Standard Barcode Scanning, but can result in multiple passes on a page. Click here for more information.

1. If you want to use ID Flags that are not in the default PDI system, you will need to create your own custom ID Flags. Click here for instruction on creating ID Flags.

2. Create at least one Survey Question. Click here for instruction on creating a Survey Question.

3. Create a Paper Survey. Click here for instruction on creating Paper Surveys.

4. Create a Universe. Click here for instruction on creating a Universe.

5. Create your list. Click here for instruction on creating a list.

We value the privacy and security of voters and our account holders. To ensure that access is only granted to those that have been permitted, files containing sensitive voter information are sent to the File Pick Up page, where they are password protected.

A quick list is a way to save a list or file type, a survey, and a file layout. This is a faster way to create your standard output. You will also need to create a quick list to use the mapping module.

Door Hangers are left on voters doors during GOTV, and contain their polling location, and the date of the election.

VTS counts are the number of times that prospective voter had voted in the previous five statewide elections. If the prospective voter has not voted in any of the previous five elections, this number will be zero.

In order to protect our data, PDI does not allow a full export of our data file. If your campaign/organization needs an export of data, please contact your PDI representative.

Files previews can be viewed in the "Viewable Options" section of the "Account Settings" tab. Click here for more information.

Use the Mapping Module to assign areas or precincts to canvassers. Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to download the app on your phone. Our mobile canvassing app supports the last two versions of iOS and Android operating systems.

1. Create a 'Survey Question.' Click here for more information on creating Survey Questions.
2. Create an 'Electronic Survey.' Click here for more information on Creating Electronic Surveys.
3. Create a 'Universe'. Click here for more information on Creating a Universe.
4. Create 'Mobile Canvassers.' Click here for more information on creating Mobile Canvassers.
5. Make precincts selectable. Click here for more information about precincts in the mapping module. PDI also allows for carved areas to be used instead of precincts. Click here for more information on Carving.
6. Create a canvassing project. Click here for more information on creating a Canvassing Project.
7. Assign mobile canvassers to precincts / carved areas. Click here for more information on assigning mobile canvassers.

Please contact your PDI representative about setting up the predictive dialer.

We do differentiate between landlines and wireless phones in our system, but just like any other provider of this data, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy with this list.

Additional user accounts can be created by going to the 'Add/Edit User Accounts' on your PDI home screen, followed by clicking the 'Add New User' button. For more information on creating user accounts, click here.

There are many cases when members of your campaign / organization may not need access to all of the modules and services that PDI provides. To protect sensitive information, you can assign profiles to users that will limit their access to the program. These profiles can be assigned while creating new users, and can also be edited anytime after accounts have been created.

To edit a previously created user account or to create a new user, click the 'Add / Edit User Accounts' button in the 'Administrative Pages' section on the PDI homepage. To add a new user click the 'Add New User' button, followed by selecting the appropriate profile in the 'Account Permission Profiles' box. To edit an existing user, click the users name you would like to edit, followed by selecting the appropriate profile in the 'Account Permission Profiles' box and deselecting the profiles you no longer want to use.

For more information about limiting or extending a users access to the PDI module click here.

If you would like to create a Sub-Account, please contact Support@politicaldata.com.

PDI allows for the importation of two types of data, flag data and precinct data. To import either types of data, the file must be stored in a text or excel document. To import flag data, click on the 'Import Flag Data' button in the 'Administrative Pages' section on the PDI homepage. Click here for information on importing flag data. To import precinct data, click on the 'Import Precinct Data' button in the 'Administrative Pages' section on the PDI homepage. Click here for more information on importing precinct data.

To track flags exclusively for a runoff election you must change the election cycle for a candidate. Click here for a tutorial on the process.

Soft Reporting is a quick way to get top-line results from a canvass as soon as the canvass is completed. This section will only allow aggregate numbers, there is no way to mark individuals. Each canvasser will add up what ever criteria you are looking for (doors knocked, not homes, canvassed, number of 'Yes' responses, etc...) and you can data enter that into the system immediately. Once your hard data is entered in the system you can use this to double check what you think you should be seeing.

Voters are just that, registered voters. These are the people that you will want to contact during the campaign to see if they will support your candidate or issue. You will only have access to voters within your campaigns geography.

Contacts are folks that may be voters but do not have to be. These are folks that you add to your proprietary Contact Database. These can be voters, Donors, Volunteers, Endorsers, or any other type of contact that may live in our out of your geography.

Volunteers can only be scheduled once you have created an event and have added shift to the event.

1. Create an 'Event'. Click here for more information on creating an event.
2. Add 'Shifts' to an event. Click here for more information on adding shifts to an event.
3. Assign Volunteers to shift. Click here for more information on assigning shifts to volunteers.

Donations can be tracked in the "Manage Transactions" page which is located in the "Web Forms" section of the Navigation Menu.