Dear VAN Admins and users,  


As the June 22 primaries approach, please read this message carefully for some important updates and guidelines. 


Table of Contents


Quick Updates & Guides

  • Sign up here for the upcoming 2021 Train the Trainer (T3) v2 Webinar Training Program
  • Reach out to support@nydems.org for VAN support
  • Remember to Commit your MiniVAN Data
  • Quick Access VAN and MiniVAN manuals
  • Phone Appends to VAN
  • Logging in and ActionID Guide


Early Voting and Election Day Poll Sites

  • NYC Early Voting sites will be updated in VAN next week. 
  • You will find a voter’s Early Voting site directly on their profile.


  

  • You will be able to display Early Voting sites and Polling locations for GOTV efforts in your Virtual Phone Banks (VPB) and OpenVirtual Phone Banks (OpenVPB) under “Contact & Location Information” in the Display Settings of your VPB. You can also include these on your PDF Report Formats. (Must be logged in with ActionID to view the link!)

  

  • You cannot export Early Voting nor Election Day sites.
  • Early Voting and Election Day sites are not available in Counts and Crosstabs.


Absentee and Early Voting Data Update

  • NYC races, please note that data on absentee ballots requested, mailed, returned, and daily updates on Early Voters will not be updated in VAN’s Early Voting tab in Create A List on a consistent basis due to availability.
  • NYC and NYS Counties, if you acquire lists of Absentee or Early Voting data, please send these to support@nydems.org immediately to be uploaded in the correct place -- VAN’s Early Voting Tab (see below).

 

  • VAN will flag and/or reject mass applications of Absentee/Early voting data to an Activist Code.
  • You will risk losing the ability to link to an Activist Code as well as potentially losing your access.
  • To save you and your team precious time, we strongly advise against Bulk Uploading and linking this data to an Activist Code. Instead, we strongly advise sending your list to support@nydems.org or uploading as a saved list instead.

  • If you do not know how to do this, please submit a support request to support@nydems.org. 


Exports

  • All users must comply with our Terms of Service and Export Guidelines, no exceptions.
  • Please review our Export Guidelines here.
    • Please remember that exports for call or walk sheets via an Excel file will not be approved as this is not a safe or best practice.
    • You must state the vendor in writing in the description or use VAN’s native VPB tool and Turf Cutter and always re-enter your data (log in with ActionID to view the link)!
    • Always provide a clear description of usage and include any non-integrating vendors (there may be an integration). You will be asked for clarification.
  • After the election, please remember to re-upload any outstanding data and destroy/delete any hard copies of walk or call packets per the State Party and VAN Terms of Service. We can help this! 


Support Requests

  • Please use VAN’s internal ticketing system or support@nydems.org to send VAN or Data support requests.
  • Other inboxes will be checked less frequently for VAN or Data support requests and ticket queues will be checked first.
  • View our General Guidelines for Seeking VAN Support here.


Voter File Update

  • There is a Statewide Voter File currently processing.
  • Please remember that we do not carry out ad-hoc voter file updates, no exceptions.
  • If there is a serious issue, you must submit a support request to support@nydems.org and provide as much detail as possible along with any supporting files.
  • There will be no statewide voter file updates two weeks prior to any election.


Voter History Updates

  • Please keep in mind that voter history will not be immediately available in the 1st post-election Voter File update. This may take several weeks.


Trainings

Requests for training will no longer be accepted from June 1st  through the June 22nd primary election. Please submit a support request to support@nydems.org for any urgent questions or issues you have regarding VAN and Data.

 

Purchasing VAN

  • Please note, that VAN Access processing times currently take 3 to 7 business days.
  • We will not accept new VAN access requests starting June 12th through the Election.