The Pinellas Votes by Mail campaign includes all Pinellas voters NOT signed up for a mail ballot as of March 2024. This training will show you how to use the Pinellas Votes by Mail campaign to identify Pinellas voters in your phone contacts who are not signed up for a mail ballot. Once you’ve identified those voters, you can add them to your network and help them sign up.
When you access Pinellas Votes by Mail, you’ll land on the home screen.
To identify people you know who are not signed up for a mail ballot, click on the “My Reach” icon at the bottom of your screen.
The first time you access this screen, you’ll see an option to Import from Contacts. Select that option.
The import function will match info from your phone contacts to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections publicly available file of voters who are not signed up for a mail ballot.
The import function just identifies possible matches. None of your contacts will be added to our Voter Action Pinellas Reach data unless you choose to add them.
After selecting "Import from Contacts" the first time, a slideshow tutorial will appear. You'll see that you may skip the tutorial if you wish. Here's a summary of the import process and some key information from the tutorial:
- At the start of the process you'll get a list of all your phone contacts. You can select which contacts to match against the voter file.
- The system then will identify which of your selected contacts are Pinellas voters who are not signed up for a mail ballot.
- Then you can choose which of those "matched" voters you'd like to contact about mail ballot voting. You can add those voters to your voter network.
- The contact information of those you add to your Reach Voter network will not be shared without your permission (see how to give permission in the following steps).
- There will be a toggle switch at the bottom of the screen asking you if I want to share voter private contact info with the Pinellas Votes by Mail campaign (which is maintained by Voter Action Pinellas). The info will only be visible to Voter Action Pinellas if you switch the toggle switch on.
- That means that if you choose to add a contact to your network, Voter Action Pinellas will only see the information that is already in that person’s publicly available voter file, unless you choose to share contact information. If you choose to share contact information, then Voter Action Pinellas and its authorized users can view it, and Voter Action Pinellas may share this information with like-minded candidates and voter outreach groups.
To get started, Reach needs access to your contacts. Clicking "allow" will allow Reach to generate a list of contacts. It doesn't mean that all of your contacts will be added to your Reach network. At this stage you're just generating a list of your contacts.
After selecting "allow," a list of your contacts will appear. There may be blue check marks beside each one. That means that all of your contacts are selected.
If there are not blue check marks next to your contacts, it means that they aren't yet selected. You can select them all by clicking the "Select" button.
Once the "Select" boxes are checked, you can search your phone contacts for Pinellas voters who are not signed up for a mail ballot. Select the "Search for Matching Voters" box at the bottom of your screen. This will not add all of your contacts to the Reach network; it merely starts the search for matches.
If you wish, you can remove some voters by unclicking their names. Or you can start with a clean slate by selecting the "Clear Selection" option at the top-right of your screen. This will enable you to choose the contacts you want to include in your search. Once you're done, select the "Search for Matching Voters" option located at the bottom of your screen.
Reach will sort all of your phone contacts into “Match” categories. At the top you will see “Great Matches.”
If a person is listed as a “Great Match," that means that the name and phone number that you have in your phone contacts for that person match information in the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections file. This person is very likely to be a Pinellas voter who was not signed up to vote by mail as of March 2024. This doesn’t mean that the voter is a great match for your mail ballot outreach. Only choose voters who are politically like-minded and who may be interested in getting information about signing up to vote by mail. And you can skip people who have moved out of Pinellas County (voters stay on the voter rolls for years after they move away).
After the Great Matches you’ll see matches that are sorted based on the number of Pinellas voters with the same name or a similar name. You’ll find more common names have multiple matches. At the bottom will be No Matches. If a person has a "No Matches" tag, that means that their name doesn’t match a name of a voter on the list (i.e. a voter who is not signed up for a mail ballot). There is no need for you to select that name.
At the top right of your screen you’ll see two numbers. The larger number is not the number of matches you have; it’s the total number of contacts in your phone. The smaller number to the left of that is the number of voters you have either added to your network or reviewed and decided to skip. You won’t have to sort through all the contacts on your phone. As we’ve seen, many of the contacts are not matches.
You can filter your list of matches by clicking the options on the scroll bar at the top. And you can search for voters by name or location using the search function.
You don’t have to go through the entire list of matches! Start by scrolling through the list to identify up to five like-minded voters who may be interested in getting information about voting by mail. If you see a Great Match who you know has voted by mail in the past, that person is a great prospect; they may have been dropped from the mail ballot rolls. You should select that name to get more info.
If you have an address for a voter or other information you have noted in your phone about the voter, that will show on the list. Any personal information you have about a voter won’t be added to the Pinellas Votes by Mail campaign on Reach unless you add it manually.
Once you’ve identified the name of a voter who may be interested in mail ballot information, select that voter's name.
You’ll see the number of possible matches in the Pinellas County voter file, with the most likely match at the top.
Before you select a name, look for the mail ballot tags. If you see “VBM” that means that the voter has signed up to vote by mail since March 2024. That person is all set; you don’t need to select that name.
If you see “Not VBM” that means that the voter has not signed up to vote by mail. This voter is a great canddiate for mail ballot outreach. If you think the voter may be interested in hearing from you about voting, then you should add that voter to your network.
Your highest priority is a voter who has a “Dropped” tag. This person voted by mail in 2022 but is not signed up now, and they may not know it. This person is very likely to welcome mail ballot sign-up information.
Once you’ve identified a voter whom you want to help sign up to vote by mail, click on the name so that the blue border appears. When you do, the Add to My Network box at the bottom will become blue.
You'll also see a toggle switch at the bottom of your screen, giving you the option of sharing the contact information with the campaign (the Pinellas Votes by Mail campaign, which maintained by Voter Action Pinellas). You don't have to share the information; turn the switch off if you don't wish to share. If you choose to share contact information, then Voter Action Pinellas and its authorized users can view it, and Voter Action Pinellas may share this information with like-minded candidates and voter outreach groups.
Select the "Add to My Network" box at the bottom to add a voter to your network.
Once you’ve added a voter to your network, you can return to the list of matches by clicking the “X” at the upper left corner.
To get out of the list of matches and see a list of people you’ve added to your network, click the “X” at the top left of your screen. You can leave this list at any time and come back to it later.
When you exit the screen that shows matches, you’ll arrive back at the My Reach screen. There you’ll see a list of all the voters you’ve added to your network.
To get more information about one of your voters, click the voter’s name.
You’ll land on the voter screen with information about your voter. You’ll see that everyone added to your network is identified as a friend by default. If you wish, you can change the designation of the relationship. To do that, click on the “Friend” button.
You’ll land on a screen that gives you the option of either removing the voter from your network or changing the relationship type. Select the option for the action you’d like to take.
You’ll arrive at a screen with multiple ways of identifying your voter. Select the option that applies. You’ll be able to sort your voter list by type of relationship.
You can resume reviewing your import matches at any time by selecting the “Import” button at the bottom left of the My Reach screen.
Once you’ve created your network of voters for mail ballot outreach, you are ready to help them sign up to vote by mail. Here’s how: Help your voters sign up for a mail ballot