Last Updated: 12/12/2023

Election Maintenance

To access: ELECTIONS > Maintain Election Settings > New

or ELECTIONS > Maintain Election Settings > Election Maintenance

Fields and Controls on this Dialog

Three-digit election number	A display-only field indicating the three-digit Voter Focus number assigned to the election.
Election Name	The name of the election as it will appear on dialogs and reports. For statewide elections, a name is assigned by the state, but your county can change the name to conform to your own naming conventions. We suggest you use titles that clearly include the year of the election as well as a description. For example: 2025 General Election or 2025 Presidential Preference Primary.
State Election Number	For General and statewide elections, enter the state-assigned election number. If assigned by the state for the election, this number is required.
Election Date	The date when the election takes place. Important: An accurate date in the Election Date field is critically important because it is compared against each voter's EDR to determine which voters are included in book closing totals and precinct registers. The EDR respects the 30 days prior to election day deadline because it is calculated as 30 days from the Registration Date. If this date changes after book closing or precinct register generation, you must regenerate book closing totals and precinct registers.
Election Type	Indicates whether the election is a primary or general election. General Election—Allows only one ballot style per precinct. This ballot style is used by all parties. Primary Election—Allows ballot styles for the two major parties (Democratic and Republican).
Date Register Closed	This date is used for the generation of book closing reports. It is not used to determine the voters who are included in book closing totals and precinct registers. The Election Date is used for that purpose.
Lines per Register Page	Printed registers have, by default, 18 lines of voters per page. The 12 line option is set automatically if your county uses the Spanish/English Dual Language setting in VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Options. Selecting Spanish/English Dual Language prints the Spanish oath alongside the English oath at the top of precinct register pages, hence the need for fewer lines per page. For a large countywide election, 18 lines to the page might be the way to go, while for a small city election, 12 lines to the page gives poll workers a slightly larger print size and the voter more space to sign their name.
Ballot By Mail Options	Select Ballot By Mail Requests if mail ballots will be provided in this election.
Election Districts	A display-only field that shows the districts voting in the election. The voting districts are maintained on the Election District Selection dialog.
Set Districts	Opens the Election District Selection dialog where you can select the districts that will be participating in this election. (This button is disabled when you are creating an election; once you save the new election and return to the Election Maintenance dialog, the button is then enabled.)
Election Date Polling Type	Marks an election as a Vote Center election, which allows voters to vote at any open polling place rather than their normal precinct polling place. Note: Enabling this option disables the ability to combine precincts during ballot style assignment, as all precincts are combined in one register for vote center elections. Polling place information is also hidden during ballot style assignment. Specific polling place assignments are inapplicable to vote center elections.
Election Status Code	See Election's Status for an explanation of this feature. We recommend that, when you need to change an election's status, that you do so when on a quiet system. If you change an election's status when users are on the system, they will need to exit and restart the Voter Focus program in which they are working to see the parameters related to the election's new status.
Change Status/Default	Opens the Election Status dialog where you can change the election's status and make the election the default election throughout the Voter Focus system. See Election's Status for more information.
Early Voting Start/End	The early voting dates entered here control the availability of early voting features in Voter Focus for this election. Be sure that the dates you enter are accurate so that Voter Focus will be ready to record early voting activity on the correct dates. The early voting poll times are entered in the Start Time/End Time.
Primary Party	Available when the election type is set to Primary Election. Select the party for the election from the list. You can then create the ballot style for the selected party.
Group	This field allows the users to group elections so that a validation between elections (for example, voted in one election and thus cannot vote in another election in the same group) can be completed. To group the election: Enter the number of the election to be grouped. Click Save. The name of the election is then added to the Grouped Elections box. We strongly recommend you group together the county's primary and primary runoff elections as well as any elections for which party-specific ballots will be issued. This ensures that voters can only vote in one party’s election. During the Ballot By Mail Request process, the system validates for each election listed: Is the election grouped? If grouped, has the voter already requested a ballot for an election in the group? If both validation checks are true, you cannot add a request for that voter and election combination. In this case, you must reject the request and select Other as the reason. In addition, you cannot record register history for a voter who has already voted in an election that is grouped with the election that is in focus.

There are a number of system options that affect the behavior and management of elections. See VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Code Options > Prec Reg/Elctns.