Create an Election in the Database

An election record is an entity in your Voter Focus database that holds information about an election, the election type (primary or general), and dates when early voting is held. Voter Focus assigns each election a unique 3-digit number. The election is also assigned a longer number by FVRS, but it is the 3-digit election number that you will see on dialogs and reports.

For the purpose of creating an election, there are two kinds of elections in Voter Focus: statewide and local.

  • Statewide elections include all state and federal elections and U.S. House of Representative races involving precincts in multiple counties. Statewide elections must be set up on FVRS by the Division of Elections. Once the statewide election record has been created on FVRS, you can then create a record for it on your county system. Voter Focus will copy the state's election data—such as the election, book closing, and party freeze dates—to your local record so your county will be in sync with other Floridacounties as well as the state system. Should any dates change, the Division of Elections will notify Supervisors, and you should then follow these instructions to change the dates.

  • Local elections, including city elections are defined entirely by your county. FVRS assigns your local election an FVRS system number, but you set the pertinent dates and other parameters.

  1. Go to ELECTIONS > Maintain Election Settings > New. The Create New Election dialog opens.
  2. In FVRS Election Number, select the election from the drop-down list. If the election does not appear and you believe it should, contact VR Systems.
  3. When you select an FVRS election, the fields under Election Details from FVRS are filled with the state's information. Click OK to open the Election Maintenance dialog and fill in the fields using the dialog's help as your guide.
  1. Go to ELECTIONS > Maintain Election Settings > New.
  2. On the Create New Elections dialog, click New Local Election.
  3. On the Election Maintenance dialog, fill in the fields according to the instructions in the dialog's help (Click Help on the dialog). Note that the Set Districts button is disabled for now.
  4. Click Save. A message confirms the election was created. Click OK. The new election is automatically selected as the focused election on the Maintain Election Settings dialog.
  5. Click Election Maintenance. On the Election Maintenance dialog, click Set Districts.
  6. On the Election District Selection dialog:
    1. In the Type field, select the district type. If you are creating a city election, select the district type code for city districts; typically, this is CTY.
    2. In the District field, select the district or city.
    3. Click Add Districts to add the district or city to the Selected Districts list.
    4. Repeat steps a-c to add other districts as appropriate for this election.
    5. Click Save and Close, and then click Yes in response to the warning that ballot style assignments will be lost. This is not important because you have not assigned ballot styles yet.
  7. Click Close on the Election Maintenance dialog.
  8. With the new election in focus, go to Place Maintenance and assign the precincts that normally vote at each polling place.