Configure Election Results

In this topic, you’ll learn how to configure the Election Results solution to meet specific needs in your organization.

Load data

The Election Results solution includes the ElectionResults feature layer used to store your tabulated election results data. The ElectionResults feature layer has two sublayers, Voting Jurisdictions and the Election Results table. Voting Jurisdictions stores the geographic jurisdiction you’re using to visualize election results on a map (for example, County, Municipality, or Precinct). The Election Results table stores the results of ballot measures where each record represents the results of a ballot measure by contest, candidate, and jurisdiction. Each record in the Election Results table is also categorized as an Elected Office or Proposal using the Contest Category field.

In the example below, two candidates ran for mayor in a community with three precincts.

Tip:

Consider including the number of winners in the name of the contest and the party designation in the name of candidate. This information will provide more context for the contest and candidate in the Election Results app.

Contest	Contest Category	Jurisdiction Name	Candidate	Party	Number of Votes
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 1	John Doe (D)	Democratic	306
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 2	John Doe (D)	Democratic	147
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 3	John Doe (D)	Democratic	350
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 1	Jane Smith (R)	Republican	245
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 2	Jane Smith (R)	Republican	153
Mayor (Vote for 1)	Elected Office	Precinct 3	Jane Smith (R)	Republican	294

In the previous example, the candidates are symbolized by their traditional party color. The Party field domain also includes 10 nonpartisan options. These options can be used for any contest, including nonpartisan and primary contests, in which a candidate needs to have a unique color from other candidates in the same contest but the color is not tied to their political party. The following example shows a nonpartisan contest:

Contest	Contest Category	Jurisdiction Name	Candidate	Party	Number of Votes
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 1	John Doe	Nonpartisan 1	306
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 2	John Doe	Nonpartisan 1	147
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 3	John Doe	Nonpartisan 1	350
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 1	Jane Smith	Nonpartisan 2	245
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 2	Jane Smith	Nonpartisan 2	153
School Board (Vote for 2)	Elected Office	Precinct 3	Jane Smith	Nonpartisan 2	294

You can also use the Election Results table to store the results of ballot measure proposals. Yes and No are populated in the Candidate field, the Contest Category is Proposal, and the Party field is left blank. In the following example, Proposal 1 was voted on in a community with three precincts:

Contest	Contest Category	Jurisdiction Name	Candidate	Party	Number of Votes
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 1	Yes		306
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 2	Yes		147
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 3	Yes		350
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 1	No		245
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 2	No		153
Proposal 1	Proposal	Precinct 3	No		294

Caution:

You can add new fields to the ElectionResults feature layer, but do not delete any fields from the Voting Jurisdictions layer or Election Results table. Deleting fields will break the ElectionResults_join view and the Election Results app.

Load election results

You can load election results data from a spreadsheet sourced from your tabulation system. The Election Results solution includes a .csv file that you can use to load data into the ElectionResults feature layer. Populate the ElectionResults.csv fields with your election results data, and complete the following steps to load your election results data:

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the ElectionResults.csv item.
2. Open the item page and click Download.
3. Edit the .csv file and provide your election results data.
4. In your ArcGIS organization, browse to the ElectionResults feature layer.
5. Open the item page and click Update Data > Append Data to Layer.
6. Click Choose File, browse to your .csv file, and click OK.
7. Click Upload and Continue.
8. Click the Choose the layer that you wish to append data into drop-down arrow and choose Election Results.
9. Uncheck Update existing features.
10. Click Show field matching to map the fields.
11. Click Apply Updates.

Load voting jurisdictions

Voting jurisdictions define the geographic jurisdiction you’re using to visualize election results on a map (for example, County, Municipality, or Precinct) and also store voter turnout and method metrics. Voting jurisdictions can be loaded from a shapefile by completing the following steps:

1. Create a .zip file of a shapefile of your voting jurisdictions.
2. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the ElectionResults feature layer.
3. Open the item page and click Update Data > Append Data to Layer.
4. Click Choose File and browse to a .zip file containing the shapefile with your voting jurisdictions, and click Open.
5. Click Upload and Continue.
6. Click the Choose the layer that you wish to append data into drop-down arrow and choose Voting Jurisdictions.
7. Uncheck Update existing features.
8. Click Show field matching to map the fields.

   Note:

   The only required field is the Jurisdiction Name (jurisdictionname) field. This is a text field that defines the unique name of the jurisdiction used in the relationship with the election results.

9. Click Apply Updates.

   Tip:

   To make additional updates to a hosted feature layer, see Append data to layers.

Modify political parties

The Elected Office map symbolizes the jurisdiction using the party of the candidate who received the most votes for the jurisdiction. Each candidate is also displayed in the chart using the color associated with their party. The Party field in the ElectionResults feature layer has been configured with a domain containing some of the most common political parties in the United States and 10 nonpartisan party options that can be used to uniquely identify candidates in the same contest. You may need to modify the political parties to match the candidates in your jurisdiction.

Complete the steps below to modify the political parties available in the Election Results app:

Update the field domain

To update the field domain, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the ElectionResults feature layer.
2. On the item page, click the Data tab.
3. Select Election Results from the Layer drop-down menu.
4. Click Fields.
5. Click the Party field.
6. Click Edit next to List of Values (Domain).
7. Optionally, click Add.
8. Type the party in the Displayed Value and Stored Value text boxes.
9. Optionally, click Delete to remove a party.
10. Optionally, drag the party to a new location in the list to reorder the list.
11. Click Save.

Update the map symbology

To update the map symbology, complete the following steps:

1. Confirm that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Results - Elected Office web map.
2. On the item page, click Open in Map Viewer.
3. Select the Elected Office Results layer.
4. Click Edit layer style on the right side panel.
5. Click Style options under Types (unique symbols).
6. Click the up arrow next to each of your new political parties to add them to the layer symbology.
7. Optionally, drag down any political parties you want to remove.
8. Click the symbol next to each new party to give it a custom color.
9. Click Done.
10. Click Save.

Update the dashboard chart

To update the dashboard chart, complete the following steps:

1. Confirm that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Results Desktop Dashboard.
2. Open the item page and click Edit Dashboard.
3. Hover over the upper left corner of the Elected Office Results chart and choose Configure .
4. Click the Series tab.
5. Click the + series button.
6. Type the name of a new party and click Add.
7. Click the symbol next to the new party to give it the same color you configured in the map.
8. Repeat steps 5 through 7 for each new party.
9. Optionally, click Delete next to each party you want to remove.
10. Click Done.
11. Click Save.
12. Repeat steps 1 through 11 for the Election Results Mobile Dashboard.

Remove the jurisdiction type filter

You can use Election Results to display results for different jurisdiction types, such as county, municipality, or precinct, in the same application. In many cases, you may only need to display results for a single jurisdiction type. In this case, the jurisdiction type filter is unnecessary and can be removed.

Complete the steps below to remove the jurisdiction type filter:

1. Confirm that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Results Desktop Dashboard.
2. Open the item page and click Edit Dashboard.
3. Hover over the upper right corner of the Jurisdiction Type filter and choose Delete .
4. Click Save.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the Election Results Mobile Dashboard.

Modify voting method metrics

By default, three voting method metrics are included in the Election Results app, Mail-in, Early In Person, and Election Day. Communities may define these methods differently, for example, Absentee rather than Mail-in, or may not offer all of these methods. In these cases, you may want to update the voting methods that are reported in the Election Results app.

To modify the voting method metrics available in the Election Results app, complete the following steps:

Update the map pop-up

To update the map pop-up, complete the following steps:

1. Confirm that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Results - Voter Turnout web map.
2. On the item page, click Open in Map Viewer.
3. Select the Voter Turnout layer.
4. Click Configure pop-ups on the right side panel.
5. Click the Arcade - Voting Turnout element and click Edit expression.

   The expression returns a table with a header row and three content rows for Mail-in, Early In Person, and Election Day. Each content row is surrounded with some HTML comments, for example, <!-- Begin Mail-in Row --> and <!-- End Mail-in Row -->. If you want to remove one of these rows because the voting method doesn't apply, delete everything between these two comment lines.

6. Make the changes to the voting method name in the table and click OK.
7. Click Save.

Update the dashboard indicators

To update the dashboard indicators, complete the following steps:

1. Confirm that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Election Results Desktop Dashboard.
2. Open the item page and click Edit Dashboard.
3. Click the Voter Turnout tab.
4. To remove one of the voting method indicators, hover over the upper left corner of the indicators and choose Delete .
5. Optionally, hover over the upper left corner of the voting method indicators and choose Configure .
6. Click the General tab.
7. Click Edit next to the title and update the text you want to display in the indicator.
8. Click Done.
9. Click Save.
10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 for the Election Results Mobile Dashboard.

    Note:

    The tab in the mobile dashboard is named Voting Method.

Share historical results

You can deploy and configure the Election Results solution multiple times to share results for different elections. You can then share each of the Election Results apps with a single Portfolio app and embed them on your website.

To create a historical Election Results app using the Portfolio ArcGIS Instant Apps template, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization.
2. Click the Apps button in the header of the site and click Instant Apps.
3. Click Browse All and search for Portfolio.
4. Click Choose on the Portfolio template.
5. Specify a title and tags and click Create App.
6. Click Step 1. Portfolio.
7. Click Add new section.
8. Click Browse for content, search for one of your Election Results apps, and click Select section.
9. Optionally, modify the Section name value to be specific to the election, for example, 2020 General Election.
10. Click Done.
11. Repeat steps 7 through 10 for each Election Results app you want to share.
12. Optionally, change the App layout setting.
13. Click Publish and click Confirm.
14. Click Change sharing settings and share the app with Everyone (public).
15. Embed the Historical Election Results app on your election website.