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Signing into the PDI Mobile App
Using Surveys and Data Entry Features
Sharing Data with Other Canvassers
Introduction
The PDI Canvassing app can be downloaded for Apple iOS and Android. Please note that the mobile app will look different depending on if you're using an Apple or Android device.
Minimum requirements for Android devices:
*1 GB Ram
*Android 4.4 (Kitkat) or higher
Minimum requirements for iOS devices:
*iPhone 7 or higher
This app will connects walk lists created in the Assign Turf page and stores them on the mobile device for canvassing in the field. The Canvassing app uses a shared canvasser system, which ensures that canvassers do not duplicate work in the same assignment. This can also be helpful to canvass managers in keeping track of progress within canvassed areas, however, we recommend using the various reports located in the Approve Mobile Data page.
Signing into the PDI Mobile App
Signing into the PDI Mobile App requires you to enter your email address and mobile canvassing password. It is important to note that the Mobile Canvassing passwords are different from the user account passwords that you use to log into the online PDI system. Mobile passwords can be viewed in the Volunteer tab of the Person Details page of the canvassers record.
After a successful log in, the app will display a message “Please wait while your data is loading. This may take a couple minutes”. This normally lasts only a few seconds, but if you have multiple or unusually large assignments, it can take a couple of minutes to transfer data from the PDI system to your mobile device. Each time you log in to the mobile canvassing app, the data will be updated. This step is crucial in making sure your data is always current, and that you receive information for other canvassers in your assignment area. When complete, you will be directed to the My Assignments Page.
Selecting an Assignment
After successful sign in, the PDI mobile application opens to the My Assignments page. From this page, you can view details about each assignment such as the Area Name, Voter and Household counts, and Due Date.
The Voters and Houses counts may initially show a zero as the first number followed by forward slash and the total count of voters and houses in your assignment. Once you start canvassing and contacting voters, the zero will be replaced by the number of voters or houses that have been contacted in the assignment.
The Due By date tells you when the assignment will be removed from your device. The Assignment will no longer be accessible to you after the Due Date, unless your project administrator extends the Due Date of the assignment. Clicking on the Get Directions button provides a map on your device directing you from your current location to the first house in the assigned geographic area. Make sure GPS function is enabled before attempting to use this feature. Assignments are opened by clicking on the white portion of the assignment. This will take you directly to the assignment Street View page.
Canvass On-The-Go Projects
Canvass On-The-Go allows you to generate your own canvassing assignments. These assignments are determined by your current location at the time of the assignment request, and the parameters set by the campaign. To use this feature tap on the Canvass On-The-Go button located at the bottom of the screen. If the campaign has multiple projects allowing the use of this feature you will be met with a pop-up requesting you to select the Project your would like to use to generate the assignment. You will receive a "There's no projects available" pop-up if the campaign does not have any active Canvass On-The-Go projects.
If you have completed a Canvass On-The-Go assignment, or if you would like to create a new one, click on the Gear icon located in the in the top right corner of the Canvass On-The-Go assignment. This will generate a pop-up requesting you to select the Project your would like to use to generate the assignment. Note: You will need to have GPS active in order to use this feature.
Canvassing Views
The PDI Mobile App displays voter lists voters in three different Views: Street View, Map View, and People View. All three views provide paths that lead to the same Voters in Households screen for surveying voters.
Throughout the App you will notice the use of a simple color coding theme to help you identify which voters and households in your assignments have already been surveyed and which households you still need to visit. The color coding is as follows:
- Green – Voters or households with green vertical bars or map icons have not been contacted. When you first view your assignment, everything will be in green.
- Red – Voters or households with red vertical bars or map icons have already been contacted and do not need to be revisited.
- Yellow – Households with yellow vertical bars or map icons means at least one person in the household was contacted or flagged as Not Home, while at least one other person at the same house remains uncontacted. Individual voters can only be coded yellow if they are not home. It is up to your organization’s canvassing protocol in determining whether a canvasser should return to yellow houses.
To navigate backwards in the mobile app at any time, you can click on the icon located in the upper left portion of the screen.
The Street View resembles the sorting and grouping used in most paper canvassing lists. You start with a list of all streets in your assignment area and then select the street you wish to view.
The Households on Streets screen displays the Address, Voter Names, Age, Gender Code, Permanent VBM Status (PAV), and Party Code for each member in the household. The households are color coded to identify their contact status.
As you touch the household info section you will open the Voter in Household View view.
The Map View lets canvassers view a map showing the location of each house they need to visit in their assignment area. The map point icons display houses or buildings for multi-unit locations (Apartments).
If you open a street in the Street View and then toggle to the Map View, the houses in your selected street will show as a bold color, while the other street will be lightly shaded.
When you touch a single point icon, the address will appear along with a count of people at that address. If you touch the address info you will open the Voter in Household View view.
The People View provides a simple list of all voters in your assignment by last name, first name alphabetical sort. Touching a voter name will take you directly to the survey page.
Using Surveys and Data Entry Features
When you reach the voter or house in any of the Street/Map/People View pages you will be moved to the Voters in Household View. This screen includes the voter name, age, gender, permanent vote by mail status, and color coded party (Blue = Dem, Red=Republican, Gray=Other).
There are three buttons for entering data related to the specific individual listed above the buttons. They include the following:
- Not Home - This will mark all individuals in the household as Not Home.
- Other Options - Clicking on the Other Options button will give you a list of Non-Contact Dispositions that you can apply to every voter in the household. These include Not Home, Moved, Refused, Gated and Deceased.
- + Info – The Add Info button allows you to flag the voter with a non-contact disposition, enter home phone, mobile phone, email address, or comments directly into your device. Comment history can also be viewed by tapping the View Full History button.
- Survey – The survey button opens a survey with a preconfigured script, questions, and answers. The Mobile App uses the electronic surveys which have branch logic to navigate the order of questions based on voter answers.
Navigating through Surveys
Once you get to the survey, everything should be easy to follow. You follow the script displayed on your screen and ask the appropriate questions. You then enter the response from the voter and touch the Next button.
Depending on how your survey was designed, you may be required to answer each question or have the ability to reach the Next button without entering a response. Once you get past your first answer, the app will display a Previous button for moving backwards through the survey.
At the end of the survey, the app will list all of your answers for your review. If there is an incorrect answer, touch the Previous button and go back to make your correction. If the answers are correct, touch the Save button to close the survey. Once the survey has been completed, if there are additional voters in the household, you will given the option to either canvass the remaining members of the household, or mark the remaining voters as Not Home. When returning back to the Voters in Household View you will see a vertical red bar along the left margin indicating to you and other canvassers in your assignment that the voter has been successfully contacted.
The Syncing Process
The PDI Mobile App will send data (sync) back to the PDI system after each house has been canvassed with survey data or a non-contact disposition. You will see a quick message about “Posting Completed Houses”.
If you are canvassing in Airplane Mode or without internet access, the data collected offline will be sent to the PDI system once an internet connection has been reestablished and you touch the Sync List option. This option can be found by tapping the 3 dot icon in the right corner in the My Assignments page.
Sharing Data with Other Canvassers
Data acquired by canvassers working in the same project within the same assignment (precinct / turf) will be shared and viewable in each canvasser’s device. The data you enter in the app will be viewable on the other canvassers’ device with updated voter and household color codes. The exact flags collected are not shared between device. Data is shared once a household has been fully completed and the data has been received by the system. The other canvassers in the same assignment will then see the new color codes once they either manually sync their device, or canvass a new household. All users must be connected to their cellular network, or Wi-Fi to take advantage of this feature.
Canvassing List Options
As a canvasser, you can change several list settings by clicking on your canvassing assignment and then clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the screen. A menu will appear with the following options:
- Addresses – The canvasser can change what side of the street is viewable by switching between Even, Odd, or All.
- Stats – This page will show you the counts from the whole assignment and your current day. It will show the counts for the whole assignment including shared data. We will send an update soon to show individual and shared data.
- Full Survey – This toggle switch will change the survey from the logic based segmented survey, and into a list of questions with their answers.
- Call Campaign - This tool will let a canvasser call the campaign in case or trouble or questions. The number called will be the one in ‘Organization Info’ within the main PDI account.
- Mail - This tool should not be used as a general way to send data back to the PDI. This is an emergency button in case data is every not syncing on its own. It will open your device’s email system and load all the data from that assignment into an attached file. The file will be sent to support@politicaldata.com so we can load the data on the back end.
- Log Out – This lets you Log Out of the PDI Mobile Application.
Recommended Assignment Sizes
The limitations of the app is dependent on both the specs of the devices and the operating system. If you find that your app is running slowly you may want to reduce either the number of assignments on the device, or the number of voters in the assignments. For the best functionality on most modern devices, we recommend no more than 5 assignment per device, with no more than 500 voters per assignment.