2023-2024 Cycle Survey Questions (SQ) documentation
Details and documentation about XCmty (cross-committee) and local Survey Questions (SQs) in Texas VAN.
View all Survey Questions here: https://txdem.co/SQ-List
What are Survey Questions (SQs)? 1
What are Activist Codes (ACs)? 2
What are Master Survey Questions (MSQs)? 2
What types of data should I collect with SQs vs ACs? 2
Why can’t I create SQs & ACs? 3
Where can I find SQs and ACs? 3
I need a specific SQ / AC or I need to edit an existing SQ / AC -- can you make it? 3
Definitions
What are Survey Questions (SQs)?
Survey Questions (SQs) store information collected about voters. SQs are multiple choice, meaning that only one response per SQ can be applied to each voter each day. In practice, this means that you can mark a voter as “3 - Undecided” on one day, and then contact them in the future and mark them as “1 - Strong Support” and you’ll still be able to see that they responded as Undecided in the past.
Types of SQs
Private, local SQs: these are SQs private to your VAN committee (i.e. just your campaign/county party/club/PAC) and is not shared with other VAN committees unless requested by the candidate, county chair, or VAN committee administrator (if different than the candidate or county chair).
In the 2020 cycle, we saw a lot of candidates sharing SQs with their county party or with other candidates within their district to collect and share data, as well as include other candidates SQs in scripts.
Cross-committee (XCmty) SQs: these SQs are shared with every VAN committee in the state and responses are NOT private to your committee.
SQs are the best form of data collection in VAN, since they can be aggregated with Master Survey Questions (MSQs) -- more on this below!
What are Activist Codes (ACs)?
Activist Codes (ACs) store static information about voters. ACs are a single checkbox, but are less flexible in their application than SQs, and very difficult to aggregate. The TDP encourages use of SQs over ACs for this reason.
What are Master Survey Questions (MSQs)?
Master Survey Questions (MSQs) aggregate survey questions and responses in one place, allowing us to inform our targets in this election (and future elections). Every individual SQ is mapped to a MSQ -- this allows campaigns to have individual ID, issue, or language SQs but still share the responses across the state, as appropriate.
Types of MSQs
Public MSQ: results are shared across committees in real-time, but other committees cannot see which committee collected the data
Public MSQs are typically used with SQs for Party ID, language preference, and issue preference.
Private MSQ: results are NOT shared across committees in real-time, but TDP uses results to aggregate and inform targets / voter modeling
Private MSQs are typically used with SQs for individual candidate support, individual candidate / county party volunteer interest, and anything unique to campaign or county party building (i.e. yard sign signups, vote tripling asks, etc.)
MSQs are for aggregation purposes -- they are NOT survey questions. MSQs will not appear in scripts. Only public MSQs will appear in the “survey question” category when creating a list.
What types of data should I collect with SQs vs ACs?
Survey Questions are ideal for collecting information that may change in the future, is unique to this election cycle, or should be aggregated and shared across the state such as:
Candidate / Party support
An undecided voter may be a Republican or Democrat in the future
A Republican or Democratic voter may be undecided or switch parties in the future
Vote plan
Vote plans change both for individual elections and over the course of the cycle for primaries and the general
Volunteer interest
Supporters may be a “vol later” in May and a “vol yes” in September
Issues
The issue that is most important to a voter in January may be different than what is most important to them in August
Language preference
While the language that a voter prefers likely won’t change, it is information that should be aggregated and shared
Context on SQ / AC policies
Why can’t I create SQs & ACs?
TDP VAN Support Staff creates SQs & ACs for all VAN committees to ensure better cataloging, sharing, and support/training at scale
XCmty (cross-committee) SQs should be used by County Party and Club VAN Committees and by candidate committees
Private, local SQs are created for candidate committees for marking information like candidate support, vote plan, and volunteer interest
Where can I find SQs and ACs?
Since the XCmty Survey Questions as well as the Local, Private Survey Questions are created by TDP, you will not be able to see “Survey Questions” in the Administrative Menu as before (pre-2019).
You will be able to access the survey questions in the following places:
External documentation:
Scripts: you can add SQs/ACs to the scripts you create to use in Virtual Phone Banks and MiniVAN
Create a List: under the Survey Question or the Activist Code categories
Reporting tools: such as Counts and Crosstabs and various Report Manager functions (Default Report Templates’ Survey Response Templates, Canvass Results’ Survey Question Summary)
I need a specific SQ / AC or I need to edit an existing SQ / AC -- can you make it?
Our team is happy to create new SQs/ACs and update private SQs -- just submit a help ticket at txdem.co/van-help. To expedite your request, please include the following in the ticket:
Proposed SQ / AC name
Proposed SQ / AC response(s)
Purpose of SQ / AC