Manually Override Election Data

Owned by Chris Mintz (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 14, 2022 by Jonathan Schmale
5 min read

When Elector is configured to allow manual data input, you can update election results data manually, including riding votes, polls reporting, and party standings during your election broadcast.

Update Riding Votes

Note: The system is designed to be fully automated and will be configured for automated data updates by default. You can choose to manually override the party standings data in this mode; however, your changes are temporary and will be overwritten as updated automated data is received.

  1. From the Home page, select 

    or click Manual Updates > Candidate Votes.

  2. Select a Riding from a list.

    1. top list orders by riding name alphabetically

    2. bottom list orders by Data Feed ID

  3. Modify the Votes values as needed.

  4. Declare a candidate elected, if desired, or select the no candidate declared option.

  5. Modify the Polls Reporting value if needed.

  6. Optional - Uncheck the "Keep party seats in synch with votes" option if you do not want to have the app review and update the party leading values based on current vote values.

  7. Click Update Now.

Recent Riding Changes

Flow tracks all riding changes in the system in the Recent Riding Changes list. Access any changed interface using the Go To icon.

Use Manual Riding Data Only

If you need to enable manual riding data and you want to disable the automated feed from updating a riding you need to:

  • System Preferences: set Enable Riding Data Source Control to true

  • Login as an Election Admin or System Admin

  • Look for the Data Source column in the Riding Management module.

Update Party Standings

Party standings tracks and combines all seats where the party is leading or elected, where:

  • elected means a candidate has been declared elected for a riding and shows an

    (yellow E symbol) beside their name in the system

  • leading means a candidate is leading their riding, but has not yet been declared elected for that riding

For example, if a party is elected in three (3) ridings and leading in four (4) more, then the seat value would be seven (7). 

Note: The system is designed to be fully automated and will be configured for automated data updates by default. In this configuration, Flow expects an election data parser agent to be running and providing data updates.

When you manually override the party standings data in this mode your changes are temporary. As soon as new data is available via the agent, the automated data will overwrite your manual overrides. On Election Day, when the goal is to be as real-time as possible, manually overriding an automated data feed offers you the flexibility of interjecting with breaking results ahead of the agent.

It is strongly recommended that you keep the system configured for AUTOMATED data updates.

You can configure the system for MANUAL updates by clicking on the manual icon option. However, if you do, you are solely responsible for managing the data and ensuring that all result data is updated correctly throughout the system.

  1. From the Home page, select Manual Updates > Party Seats.

  2. Update party standings data as needed.

  3. Click Update Party Seats.

Note: Use caution when manually overriding party standings data. Elector is tracking automated incoming results as well as the candidates that are declared elected, the candidates leading their ridings, and any manual data overrides entered into the system. If you introduce party seat value overrides, those override may be at odds with the system's tracking and calculations.

For example, a party's seat count is calculated as: number of elected candidates for each party (elected) + number of leading but not elected candidates (leading).

An Example Walk-through

Early Election Results

Early in the election results, a party may be leading in 15 ridings but elected in 0, so the number of party seats is 15 so far. (Seats = 15; Leading = 15; Elected = 0).

At this early point if you were to manually decrease the party seat count to 14 you would see: Seats = 14; Leading = 14; Elected = 0.

As Candidates are Declared Elected

Once enough votes are in, those leads convert to confirmed wins and the candidates are declared/marked elected in the system. When a candidate is marked elected, they are still leading in that riding, so being elected does not change the seat count in the system.

You may have 6 ridings where the party is leading but not declared elected, and another 9 where they are leading and declared elected for a total of 15 seats for the party’s total. Seats = 15; Leading = 6; Elected = 9

If you were to then manually decrease the party seat count to 14 you would see: Seats = 14; Leading = 5; Elected = 9.

Late Election Results

Late in the election results, all 15 leading ridings have been confirmed as wins for the party, and all candidates are marked elected. The party seat count is still unchanged at 15. All 15 are now official elected and 0 are leading but not declared. Seats = 15; Leading = 0; Elected = 15

At this point, if you want to manually decrease the party seat count to 14, you need to unmark/undeclare a candidate as elected by removing that election status. Why? Because there are still 15 candidates declared/marked elected for that party and the system will prevent you from changing the seat count if it does not match the elected count. (i.e., Seats = 14; Leading = 0; Elected = 15 is not valid in the system)