Configure Election Outreach

In this topic, you will learn how to configure the Election Outreach solution to meet specific needs in your organization.

Manage election data

You will assume the role of a mapping technician responsible for maintaining an inventory of electoral districts, voting locations, and voting precincts. The Election Data Management ArcGIS Pro project includes a series of tasks to help guide you through these workflows.

Get started

To get started with Election Data Management, complete the following steps.

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Data Management Desktop Application Template.
2. Open the item page and click Download.
3. Unzip and open the Election Data Management ArcGIS Pro project.
4. On the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog Pane.
5. In the Catalog pane, expand the Tasks folder, and double-click the Election Data Management task item.
6. In the Tasks pane, click the Getting Started task group to expand the collection of tasks.

Election Data Management is used to load, create, and edit foundational election data used in Election solutions such as My Elected Representative, Election Polling Places, and Election Manager. The solution uses three foundational datasets:

• Voting Locations
• Voting Precincts
• Electoral Districts

Voting Locations contains facilities where voters can cast ballots and is defined by a point layer. They can be either polling places or voting centers, depending on your community's needs. Voting centers can be modified to allow early voting.

Voting Precincts contains areas that define your community's precincts and is defined by a polygon layer. They are related to voting locations by a unique ID and define the unique polling place where voters in a precinct should cast ballots.

Electoral Districts contains geographies that define an elected office's area of representation and is defined by a polygon layer. For example, a mayor's Electoral District is the municipal boundary. Key attributes are used in My Elected Representative solution.

Before proceeding to subsequent tasks, follow the instructions in the Add election geography layer task to add the ElectionGeogrophy feature layer deployed with the solution.

Load existing election data

Your election agency may have existing polling place, voting center, voting precinct, or electoral district data, which can be loaded into the ElectionGeography feature layer.

Voting Locations are designated as either Polling Places or Voting Centers using the Voting Facility Type field. Both Voting Centers and Polling Places use a standard for operational days and hours in the Voting Centers and Election Polling Places apps included with the Election Outreach solution. To load existing voting location data, designate the type, and format the operation days and hours, follow the instructions in the Polling places and Voting centers tasks.

The polling precinct’s relationship with a polling place is defined by populating the Polling Place ID field with the GlobalID from the corresponding polling place. Establishing this relationship allows the Election Polling Places app and the Election Outreach solution to display the appropriate polling place when a user searches by address or defines a location on the map. Follow the instructions in the Polling precincts task to load existing data and establish the relationship.

Follow the instructions in the Load electoral district to load existing data.

Create new election data

You may need to create new election data if existing data is not available. Follow the instructions in the Create new election data task group to create new voting locations, voting precincts, or electoral districts.

Note:

Map layers must be visible to create new data.

Prepare for next election

Election data changes over time as new voting locations are established, precincts are modified, and election cycles are completed. You must update key fields such as the next election date to maintain election data accuracy and ensure that public facing apps included with the Election Outreach solution display the correct information. Use the Next election date and Early voting data tasks to update key data fields as election cycles are completed. Use the Modify voting locations, Modify precincts, and Modify electoral districts tasks to edit your election data.

Modify elected offices

My Elected Representative allows the general public to determine who represents them in local, state, and federal elected offices. My Elected Representative includes several elected office layers, such as Mayor, County Clerk, Governor, and United State Senate. You can modify the elected offices available in the app to fit your needs. For example, a city can configure My Elected Representative to display only locally elected offices.

Update domain values

Review the ElectionGeography feature layer elected offices and identify an elected office your organization you may want to add to My Elected Representative.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the ElectionGeography feature layer.
2. Open the item page and click the Data tab.
3. Click Fields.
4. Click the Layer drop-down menu and choose Electoral Districts.
5. In the list of fields, click the Elected Office display name.
6. In the List of Values (Domain) section, review the existing categories and identify ones that are not applicable and ones that are missing.
7. Click Edit next to List of Values (Domain).
8. Optionally, click the Delete button to remove a category from the list, and click Save.
9. Click Add.
10. Type the new elected office name into the Displayed Value and Stored Value text boxes.
11. Repeat steps 9–10 to add the remaining elected offices.
12. Optionally, drag the elected office to a new location in the list to reorder them.
13. Click Save.

Update map

Next you will configure the My Elected Representative map to display the elected offices you want to display in the My Elected Representative app.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the My Elected Representative map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer Classic.
3. Click Details and click the Contents button.

   The map Content pane displays a list of several preconfigured elected office map layers ranging from Mayor to President of the United States. Each layer is filtered using the Elected Office field on the Electoral Districts feature layer.

4. To remove an unneeded elected office layer, click More Options, and click Remove.
5. To copy a layer, click More Options and click Copy.

   A new layer appears at the top of the Contents pane.

6. To update the new layer’s name, click More Options, click Rename, type the elected office name in the text box, and click OK.
7. Click Filter on the new layer.
8. Click the Edit tab.

   An existing filter query displays Elected Office is Value. You will modify the query to display the elected office. The Value drop-down menu displays the values you configured in a previous task.

9. Choose the appropriate elected office domain value from the drop-down menu and click Apply Filter.
10. Optionally, drag the layer to a new location in the Contents pane.

    Tip:

    You can also configure existing layers using the above steps. Modify the name and filter of an existing layer to match your configuration needs.

11. Click Save.

Update app

You will now configure the My Elected Representative app to use the elected offices configured in the My Elected Representative map.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the My Elected Representative app.
2. Open the item page and click Edit Application.
3. Click the Widget tab.
4. Click Set the widgets in this controller.
5. Hover over the lower right corner of the Find My Elected Representative widget and click Configure this widget.
6. Click the Search Settings tab.
7. Click Set next to Select search layer(s) to configure the layers searched in the app.
8. Use the Select search layer(s) window to configure the layers searched in the app.

   Check the check box next to each of the layers available.

9. Click OK.
10. Click Save.

Share wait times

When paired with the Election Management solution, Election Polling Places and Voting Centers can display election wait times on the map so that voters can make an informed decision about when to vote.

Share polling place wait times

The Election Polling Places map includes a Polling Place Wait Times layer that displays the current wait time. To share wait times in the Election Polling Places app, you’ll make use of the included Polling Place Wait Times map layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Polling Places map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer Classic.
3. Click Details and click the Content button.
4. Uncheck the Polling Places layer (do not remove).
5. Check the Polling Place Wait Times layer.

   The map now displays the most recently reported wait time symbolized by the length of the wait reported. When an election is completed, and you want to remove the wait times symbol, turn on the Polling Places layer, and turn off the Polling Place Wait Times layer.

6. Click Save.

Share voting center wait times

When paired with the Election Management solution, Voting Centers can display election wait times so that voters can make an informed decision about when to vote. The Voting Centers map includes a Voting Center Wait Times layer that displays the current wait time. To share wait times in the Voting Centers app, you’ll make use of the included Voting Center Wait Times map layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Voting Centers map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer Classic.
3. Click Details and click the Content button.
4. Uncheck the Voting Centers layer (do not remove).
   1. Click Change Style.
   2. Click Location (Single Symbol) style and click Options.
   3. Move the transparency slider to set the transparency level to 100 percent.
   4. Click OK.
   5. Click Done.
5. Check the Voting Center Wait Times layer.

   The map now displays the most recently reported wait time symbolized by the length of the wait reported. When an election is completed and you want to remove the wait times symbols, turn on the Voting Centers layer and set its transparency to 0 percent, and turn off the Voting Center Wait Times layer.

6. Click Save.

Hide wait times

When paired with the Election Management solution, Election Polling Places and Voting Centers will display election wait times in the information panel. In some cases, your organization may track election wait times for internal use without sharing those wait times in the public facing app.

Hide polling place wait times

On Election Day, the Election Polling Places app automatically displays wait times tracked using the Election Management solution. Follow the below steps to remove wait times from the Election Polling Places app.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Polling Places map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer Classic.
3. Click Details and click the Content button.
4. On the Polling Places layer, click More Options and click Configure Pop-up.
5. Click the Configure button.

   Tip:

   Click the View HTML Source button in the editor. Copy and save all the HTML syntax into the editor. This allows you to restore wait times or discard changes. From the editor, you can copy and paste the original HTML syntax into the Custom Attribute Display window after clicking the View HTML Source button.

6. Delete {expression/expr0} from the pop-up. Backspace so the entire line is removed.

   The result should look like this:

   

7. Click OK to close the Custom Attribute Display window.
8. Click OK to finish configuring the pop-up.
9. Click Save.

   On Election Day, the pop-up does not display wait times but continues to display current information such as the Today is Election Day message and operational status.

Hide voting center wait times

A vote center can be open on Election Day as well as for a period prior to Election Day. When a vote center is open and active, the Voting Centers app automatically displays wait times tracked using the Election Management solution. Follow the below steps to remove wait times from the Voting Centers app.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Voting Centers map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer Classic.
3. Click Details and click the Content button.
4. On the Voting Centers layer, click More Options and click Configure Pop-up.
5. Click the Configure button.

   Because voting centers can be configured to be open on Election Day only or over a period of time, you will remove wait times from two places in the pop-up configuration.

   Tip:

   Click the View HTML Source button. Copy and save all the HTML syntax into the editor. This allows you to restore wait times or discard changes. From the editor, you can copy and paste the original HTML syntax into the Custom Attribute Display window after clicking the View HTML Source button.

6. Delete {expression/expr0} from the pop-up. Backspace so the entire line is removed.

   The result should look like this:

   

7. Scroll until {expression/expr8} is visible.
8. Delete {expression/expr8} from the pop-up. Backspace so the entire line is removed.

   The result should look like this:

   

9. Click OK to close the Custom Attribute Display window.
10. Click OK to finish configuring the pop-up.
11. Click Save.

    When a voting center is open and active, the pop-up does not display wait times but continues to display current information such as the This voting center is open message and operational status.

Sharing solution items

Several layer views, maps and apps included in the Election Outreach solution must be shared with everyone so they can be accessed by the public on the Promoting Transparent Elections site. To share your election outreach items with everyone, use the guide below and complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Outreach folder.
2. Check the check box next to each of the items below:

   Item	Name
   Feature Layer (hosted, view)	VotingLocations_currentwait
   Feature Layer (hosted, view)	ElectionGeography_public
   Feature Layer (hosted, view)	PollWorkerApplications_public
   Web Map	My Elected Representative
   Web Map	Voting Centers
   Web Map	Election Polling Places
   Web Mapping Application	My Elected Representative
   Web Mapping Application	Voting Centers
   Web Mapping Application	Election Polling Places
   Form	Poll Worker Application
   Site Application	Promoting Transparent Elections

3. Click Share.
4. In the Share window, click Everyone (public) and click Save.

   The Warning: Sharing editable layers publicly message appears notifying you that you are sharing editable layers publicly.

5. Click Update.