Survey Questions Guide
Summary of Survey Questions available upon login at texasvan.com
What are Survey Questions (SQs)? 1
What are Activist Codes (ACs)? 1
What are Master Survey Questions (MSQs)? 2
Detailed Sheet w/ XCmty SQs/Local, Private SQs/MSQs & their Survey Responses - “SRs” 2
Cross Committee Survey Questions - “XCmty SQs” 2
Local, Private Survey Questions - “Local, Private SQs” 3
Master Survey Questions shared with all Committees - “MSQs” 4
Survey Question / Activist Code Changes 4
Why can’t I create SQs & ACs anymore? 4
Can I get a survey question/activist code for attending an event(s)? Volunteer activities? 5
Additional Survey Question Info 6
How do I use the voter self-identification survey questions? 6
How do I use the VDR survey questions? 6
Definitions
What are Survey Questions (SQs)?
Survey Questions store data about voters. Each Survey Question may have multiple responses, although only one response can be applied per record per question per day (e.g., a voter could respond to 5SQs on 1 day, but only give a single response to a specific question). Survey Questions offer the most flexibility in tracking detailed information about voters.
What are Activist Codes (ACs)?
Activist Codes are tags that can be applied to individual Voters. They are less flexible in their application than SQs, and more difficult to aggregate. Therefore, whenever possible, TDP encourages use of SQs over ACs.
What are Master Survey Questions (MSQs)?
Master Survey Questions aggregate and map survey questions (e.g., private, public, and XCmty) and responses into one place, allowing us to inform our targets in this election or in a future election (e.g., removing people that anyone IDed as R and making sure we keep talking to anyone who is IDed as D in a general election)
MSQs can be private or public
Public MSQ - Results are shared across committees in real-time, but others can’t see which committee did the canvass
For example: If someone tells a County Party that they are voting a straight Dem ticket via "Survey Question: 2018: Party: XCmty Straight Tic", this response will flow to the Master Survey Questions (MSQ)
All organizations, County Parties, and candidates with VAN access will know that someone IDed this voter. However, they will not see which campaign / county party did the ID
Private MSQ - Results are not shared across committees in real-time, but are available for TDP to incorporate into analytics in future cycle
For example: If a campaign identifies someone as wanting a mail ballot we would want to mail to them in the future
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 row in create a new list.
Survey Question Sets
Detailed Sheet w/ XCmty SQs/Local, Private SQs/MSQs & their Survey Responses - “SRs”
Cross Committee Survey Questions - “XCmty SQs”
Goals:
Made for and shared to all committees
Mostly for county parties pre-primary & runoff
For partisan nominees & County Parties post-primary & runoff
Not something you want to use for private candidate committees unless:
Candidate committees that are working with county parties for general Democratic purposes pre-nomination/primary/primary runoff
Made by TDP
ID SQs
XCmty Party ID (Party Identification)
XCmty Dem Slate (vote for all Dems (since Straight Ticket is gone, vote for all))
Volunteer SQs
XCmty Wants to Vol (Generic Volunteer Ask)
XCmty Vol Dep Reg (“Do you want to become deputized to register voters?”)
XCmty VDR County? (‘19-’20 VDRs and in which county deputized)
Vote by Mail SQs (for 65+ & Disabled)
XCmty Want VBMApp (Do you want a vote by mail application sent to you by TDP?)
Other SQs
XCmty 2024IssuesPref (Issue Priority Ask)
XCmty Language Pref (Voter's preferred communication language [IF RELEVANT])
XCmtyGenderPnounPref (Preferred gender pronouns [IF RELEVANT])
XCmty Self-ID Ethn (What is the voter's self-identified ethnicity? [DO NOT ASK AT EVERY DOOR, ONLY BASED ON GUIDANCE])
Xcmty Lives away (Does the voter permanently live away from the home - e.g., College student)
One goal for this question is to get them vote by mail applications to make sure they cast their vote in your district
Local, Private Survey Questions - “Local, Private SQs”
Goals
Unique for each candidate committee (not county parties)
Made by TDP when a candidate committee is activated/reactivated
Notes: the ? next to a survey question below means that question has responses that will automatically copy into My Campaign tab. In other words, if a voter gives a certain response to that question, that voter will get automatically copied to the MyCampaign tab.
Examples below are using
Barbara Jordan - “BJ” Initials
March 2020 Primary & May Primary Runoff - “2003” (March) & “RO2005” (May) **Non-Partisan or Special Elections for other months will have appropriate YYMM & ROYYMM code**
ID SQs
IDBJ - Primary or Non-Partisan ID on 1 - 5 Scale
IDROBJ - (duplicate made for potential runoff)
Voting SQs
EV2003BJ - Early Vote
EVRO2005BJ (duplicate made for potential runoff)
ED2003BJ - Election Day
EDRO2005BJ (duplicate made for potential runoff)
Volunteer
VolunteerBJ ?
If a voter picks any of the following responses, then they will automatically get copied to the MyCampaign tab: Yes - Non Partisan, Maybe.
Other SQs
YSBJ - Campaign Yard Sign ?
If a voter picks any of the following responses, then they will automatically get copied to the MyCampaign tab: Requested YS, Delivered YS, Existing YS, Special Req See Note, 2nd Requested YS.
PetitionBJ - Petition Signee
Master Survey Questions shared with all Committees - “MSQs”
Goals
Made for and shared to all committees
An aggregate of multiple SQs mapped into MSQ survey responses of a very similar nature
Cannot see from what campaign the IDs originate from, masked
Made by TDP
2018 ID MSQs
2018MSQ: CandidNomin - Partisan Democrats Aggregated IDs for the Primary, Primary Runoff, & General
2018MSQ: D Ticket ID - Partisan Democratic Straight Ticket and Party Aggregated IDs
2020 ID MSQs
2020MSQ: D Ticket ID - Partisan Democratic Straight Ticket and Party Aggregated IDs
2020MSQ: D Nominee ID - Partisan Democratic Nominee Aggregated IDs
2020 Volunteer
2020MSQ: PublicVol - Democratic Volunteers for All County Party and Campaigns to view
2022 Issue
2022Issue: Issue Pref - Preferred Issue Ask
Survey Question / Activist Code Changes
Why can’t I create SQs & ACs?
This is part of a policy designed to avoid extra ACs and SQs that reduce performance statewide.
We are creating the survey questions for you in order to provide better training/support at scale, cataloging, and sharing efforts
Cross Committee SQs can be used for the County Party Committee and some for a Candidate Campaign
We create local, private SQs for candidate committees.
Where are SQs & ACs now?
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:
Scripts so you can add them to the scripts you create to use in Virtual Phone Banks and MiniVAN
Create a New List under the Survey Question or the Activist Code Row
Reporting tools such as Counts and Crosstabs and various Report Manager functions (Default Report Templates’ Survey Response Templates, Canvass Results’ Survey Question Summary)
But I still need a survey question/activist codes for reason X or alter an existing survey question/activist codes, can you make it for me?
We can have a conversation about it in a Help Ticket at txdem.co/VAN-Help if you give us the specific thing you wanted to create with the SQ, SQ response, or AC. Tickets must include the following:
Proposed SQ/AC name
Proposed SQ/AC Response(s)
Purpose of the SQ/AC
Can I get a survey question/activist code for attending an Event(s)? Volunteer activities?
Best practice is to use the event scheduler to set up an event in MyCampaign; You can then schedule people directly into that event using a VPB. In order to do that you can do the following:
Go to the MyCampaign (MyC) side and create the event
If you are doing a virtual phone bank on either the MyC or MyV side, you can schedule the person (using the event scheduler) and mark what is the role of the person (like phone banking or attendee), what shift they are taking if there are shifts, and what participant code for that contact (participant codes: Invited Left Msg Scheduled Tentative Declined Confirmed Conf Twice Canceled Completed Walk In No Show Paid Wait List)
Administrators with enough privileges in MyCampaign can also go to the “Volunteers • Events • Titles” section under the administrative menu and add/edit/adjust
Volunteer Activities
Event Roles
Event Types
Locations
Titles
Once you have created the event you can add it to your VPB script (in MyV or MyC) under the events tab by checking “Include Event Scheduler”
In the majority of cases, using this system will take care of instances of requests for Activist Codes or Survey Questions for specific or generic volunteer activities or events. Put in a ticket at txdem.co/VAN-Help if you believe there is a special case.
If you are a…
County Party/Democratic Org there is a generic volunteer survey question
Campaign Committee have access to local, private generic volunteer survey questions, but also have access to Cross Committee Survey Questions