Prior to adding your voter list, your voter information must be properly formatted. Proper formatting allows Notices to arrive without issue. A spreadsheet is a great place to start when formatting and organizing your voter information for ElectionBuddy.
Hidden Characters Can Cause Errors
- Remove all non-printable characters, which are hidden characters. Non-printable characters are commonly applied in word-processing programs, often without your knowledge, and are used for formatting.
- Excel has a specific function to remove non-printable characters: the =CLEAN() function. For more on how to use this function, please see Microsoft's help article on the CLEAN function.
- Alternatively, to remove non-printable characters, you can try copying from your spreadsheet and pasting into Windows Notepad, and then copying from Windows Notepad and pasting into ElectionBuddy.
Email Address Formatting Tips
A few things to note regarding the proper formatting of your voters' email addresses:
- Only one email per cell. If you have a situation where your voter has multiple email addresses, pick the best one.
- Email addresses must include only one "@" and at least one "." after the "@"
Phone Number Formatting Tips
When you select "SMS Notices", you pick the country where the majority of the text messages are being sent (default country).
Below are some tips:
- One phone number per cell.
- Avoid extensions and spaces or extra characters. Text messages cannot go to extensions
- The phone number needs to be linked to a mobile/cell phone as this number will be receiving text messages.
- Format the phone numbers in the same format that you would use in your own country. For example, in the United States and Canada, use a 10 digit phone number.
- For every number outside of your default country, use the full E.164 number. Ex. start your phone number with a "+", the country code, and the phone number. E.164 numbers are a maximum of 15 digits. For help with country codes, please see this list.
Mailing Address Formatting Tips
A few things to note:
- "Name" is required and can be up to 50 characters.
- "Address Line 1" is required and can be up to 200 characters.
- "Address Line 2" is optional and can be up to 200 characters.
- "City" is required and can be up to 200 characters.
- "State" is required and must be a two-letter state short-name code for the states in the United States; otherwise, it can be up to 200 characters.
- "Postal code" is required and must follow the ZIP formation of 12345 or Zip+4 format of 12345-1234 if in the United States; otherwise, the total postal code can be up to 40 characters.
- "Country" is required and must be a two-letter short-name code. For example: "US" for the United States"CA" for Canada"GB" for the United Kingdom"AU" for Australia"NZ" for New Zealand" RU" for Russia"DE" for Germany. For more country codes, please visit this website.
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Jul 19, 2024