Generic GIS Interface—Details

The district type codes in the GIS system must match those used in Voter Focus. Any adjustments to codes should be made on the GIS side. The district type codes in Voter Focus include the following standard codes—which must not be changed—and any other district type codes created by the county up to a maximum of 34, which is the limit for Voter Focus. All district codes must be completely capitalized in both Voter Focus and the GIS system.

For municipal boundaries, we recommend the district code CTY. The district numbers in CTY on the GIS side should match the City district codes defined in Voter Focus. If city wards are defined in the GIS system, the district code for these entities should be WRD.

Districts created on the GIS system should be numbered in accordance with Voter Focus requirements. (For example, Florida House seat 12 is identified as 12 under the district type HSE.) Any districts created in the GIS system that do not already exist in Voter Focus are copied to Voter Focus during the import.

All precincts used by the GIS system must exist in Voter Focus prior to the import. If all precinct IDs are not identical, or a precinct in the GIS system does not have a matching precinct in Voter Focus, the import will fail. To determine if any precincts are missing in Voter Focus, we suggest you run the import, then review the error report to see what precincts must be added.

The expanded city names in the GIS system (e.g., Flagler Beach) must be spelled exactly like the USPS city names defined on the Mailing Cities dialog in Voter Focus. The mailing city codes themselves need not align; you can have more or fewer mailing cities defined in Voter Focus than you do in the GIS system.

If one or more zip codes cross mailing city boundaries, it is important that the file exported from the GIS system include the mailing city for every street segment using a zip code that crosses mailing city boundaries. Without a mailing city for the street segment, the import process in Voter Focus will select the first mailing city matching the street segment’s zip code, which might not be the correct one.

The street types (e.g., RD, ST CT) should match on both systems. The import process reports an error if the GIS system has a street type that isn’t present in Voter Focus.

Precinct splits are created by the GIS system. The IDs for precinct splits in Voter Focus need not match those in the GIS system nor must they exist in Voter Focus prior to the import.

For existing precinct splits, any new district assignments from the GIS system overwrite the existing district assignments in the voter registration database.

Any precinct splits in Voter Focus that are not defined in the GIS system are deleted by the import process (that is, a full-replacement import).

If a precinct is deleted on the GIS system, the import process does not remove the precinct from the voter registration database. However, those deleted precincts will no longer have voters, so you can delete them manually from the voter registration database as part of cleanup after the import and reassignment of voters to their new precincts.

Bear in mind that a precinct can be deleted only when the total number of voters for the precinct is zero.

In Voter Focus, polling places are simply physical locations, which may or may not have one or more precincts assigned to vote there. The import from the GIS system does not affect any polling place/precinct associations in the voter registration database.

Name changes made to streets in the GIS system can be processed by the import program to update voter records in Voter Focus with the updated street name. During your county’s redistricting effort, street name changes should not be imported, as this can complicate the troubleshooting of redistricting issues. The import process has an option to omit street name changes.