Election Maintenance

A display-only field indicating the three-digit Voter Focus number assigned to the election.

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.

The date when the election takes place. For statewide elections, this field cannot be changed except by going to ELECTIONS > Maintain Election Settings > Election Maintenance > Utility > Update Dates from FVRS after the Division of Elections has changed the date on FVRS.

Indicates whether the election is a primary or general election. If the election is a statewide contest, either General Election or Primary Election is automatically selected, to match the election classification provided by FVRS. (See Election Classification, below.)

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) and for no party affiliation (Npa) voters.

The date of book closing for the election. For statewide elections, this field cannot be changed except by clicking Update Dates from FVRS after the Division of Elections has changed the date on FVRS.

The election classification is an FVRS setting and is displayed here for informational purposes only. This setting might be needed if corresponding with the Department of State on matters relating to an election. If the election is not statewide, the value Local, City, Special is automatically selected.

This option sets the number of voters listed per page on precinct registers: 12 or 18.

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.

Select Vote-By-Mail Requests if mail ballots will be provided in this election.

Select For Mail Ballot elections only if the election is a mail ballot election. An all mail ballot election lets you prepare mail ballots for all voters without undergoing the Vote-By-Mail request process or affecting the Vote-By-Mail status of voters. Selecting For Mail Ballot elections only disables the Vote-By-Mail Requests and Advance Ballots options.

A display-only field that shows the districts voting in the election. The voting districts are maintained on the Election District Selection dialog.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Appears when the election is set to primary and one or two minor parties have more than one qualified candidate. Select the name of the party from the drop-down list in Party 1 or Party 2. This lets you create ballot styles for the parties. Up to two minor parties can be supported in an election.