The rule needs to be amended to provide for expanded data fields in absentee ballot request reports and changed timing of early voting periods for reporting statistics on early voting activity. These changes are prompted by Ch. 2013-57, Laws of ...

 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Division of Elections

RULE NO.:RULE TITLE:

1S-2.043Electronic File Reporting Relating to Absentee Ballot Request Information, Voting Activity, and Election Results

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: The rule needs to be amended to provide for expanded data fields in absentee ballot request reports and changed timing of early voting periods for reporting statistics on early voting activity. These changes are prompted by Ch. 2013-57, Laws of Florida, which affected some reporting and file upload requirements relating to early voting and absentee ballot request information, and which became effective January 1, 2014. Further, some of the data fields are being removed from this rule and being put into Rule 1S-2.053, F.A.C.

SUMMARY: This rule relates to elections and electronic file reporting by the supervisors of elections.

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT OF ESTIMATED REGULATORY COSTS AND LEGISLATIVE RATIFICATION: The Agency has determined that this will not have an adverse impact on small business or likely increase directly or indirectly regulatory costs in excess of $200,000 in the aggregate within one year after the implementation of the rule. A SERC has not been prepared by the Agency.

The Agency has determined that the proposed rule is not expected to require legislative ratification based on the statement of estimated regulatory costs or if no SERC is required, the information expressly relied upon and described herein: Legislative ratification will not be required pursuant to Section 120.541(3), F.S. Based on a SERC checklist completed by the agency, this rule will not have an adverse effect on businesses or private-sector economic growth, job-creation, employment or investment; nor will it increase regulatory costs in excess of the threshold mandating legislative ratification. No other statute requires legislative ratification for this rule.

Any person who wishes to provide information regarding a statement of estimated regulatory costs, or provide a proposal for a lower cost regulatory alternative must do so in writing within 21 days of this notice.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY: 20.10(3), 97.012(1), 98.0981(5), 101.62(3), 101.657(2) FS.

LAW IMPLEMENTED: 98.0981, 101.62, 101.657, 102.141 FS.

IF REQUESTED WITHIN 21 DAYS OF THE DATE OF THIS NOTICE, A HEARING WILL BE HELD AT THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE SHOWN BELOW (IF NOT REQUESTED, THIS HEARING WILL NOT BE HELD):

DATE AND TIME: August 19, 2015, 11:00 a.m.

PLACE: Room 307, R.A. Gray Building, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399

Pursuant to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this workshop/meeting is asked to advise the agency at least 3 days before the workshop/meeting by contacting: Brandy Hedges, at [phone], or [e-mail]. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service, 1(800)955-8771 (TDD) or 1(800)955-8770 (Voice).

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE IS: Lydia Strom, Assistant General Counsel, at [phone] or [e-mail]

 

THE FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSED RULE IS:

 

1S-2.043 Electronic File Reporting Relating to Absentee Ballot Request Information and Early, Voting Activity, and Election Results.

(1) General applicable provisions. This rule establishes file format specifications, timelines and other content requirements for the electronic compilation, transmission and reporting of absentee ballot request information and, early voting activity, precinct-level election results, official results export data, and voting history activity. The Supervisors of Elections are responsible for ensuring shall ensure that the files required under this rule are created or converted into a tab-delimited text file and that the files are transmitted transmit successfully and timely to the Division of Elections.

(2) Definitions. For purposes of this rule:

(a) “FVRS” refers to the Florida Voter Registration System.

(b) “Supervisor” refers to the county Supervisor of Elections.

(c) “Division” refers to the Division of Elections.

(d) “Election”, except as otherwise expressly stated, means primary and general elections (held in even-numbered years), presidential preference primary elections, and special elections held pursuant to Section 100.101, F.S. This rule does not apply to municipal, local referendum, or special district elections.

(e) “General election” has the meaning ascribed in Section 97.021(15), F.S.

(f) “Primary election” has the meaning ascribed in Section 97.021(28), F.S.

(g) “Standing request” means an absentee ballot an initial request on file from a voter for an absentee ballot that serves as a request to receive an absentee ballot for all elections occurring from the date of the initial request through the end of the calendar year for the second ensuing regularly the next scheduled general election, and for which the supervisor has yet to determine if the voter is eligible to vote by absentee ballot in the election without regard to whether the requester will actually be eligible to vote in any particular election held during that period.

(3) Absentee ballot request information files.

(a) Compilation. For each election as defined in subsection (2)(d) primary and general elections, the Supervisor shall compile daily an electronic file that contains the most current information and absentee ballot request status for each eligible voter in the applicable election related to receiving and processing absentee ballots. The file shall contain all absentee ballot requests, but only one record per voter upcoming primary election or general election, including standing requests. Each day’s file shall be a complete replacement of the previous day’s file as it relates to the absentee ballot status for each voter who has requested an absentee ballot for the applicable election (i.e., the latest status of the voter’s absentee ballot status shall replace an earlier status of the request). The Supervisor shall create a separate file for each election. The file shall be in the format specified in paragraph (c).

(b) File Transmission. The Supervisor shall transmit the absentee ballot request status file to the Division on a continuous daily basis including weekends the electronic file compiled under paragraph (a) no later than 8 a.m., in the time zone of the Supervisor’s office noon Eastern Standard Time of the day after the day being reported. The file shall be sent daily on a continuous basis beginning 60 days before the primary election and ending 15 days after the general election. The file shall be in the format specified in paragraph (c). The daily file shall be transmitted even if there is no new information or activity to report for the applicable election during the required transmission period.

1. For the presidential preference primary election, the first file shall be transmitted 60 days before the election and the last file transmitted on the 15th day after the election.

2. For the primary and general elections, the first file shall be transmitted 60 days before the primary election and the last file transmitted on the 15th day after the general election.

3. For a special election, by operation of Section 100.191, Florida Statutes, the first file shall be transmitted 60 days before the special primary or if the order calling for the special election occurs less than 60 days before the special primary, no later than two days after the Division provides the Supervisor the election identifications for the special primary and special election, and the last file transmitted on the 15th day after the special election.

Effective until January 1, 2011, the daily file shall be sent even if there is no new information to report or update during the required transmission period.

2. Effective on or after January 1, 2011, the daily file shall be sent even if there is no new information to report or update during the required transmission period except as follows: The last transmission of the absentee ballot request information file for the primary election shall be 15 days after the primary election and the last transmission of the absentee ballot request information file for the general election shall be 15 days after the general election.

(c) File specifications. 

1. Each file shall be created or converted into a tab-delimited text file.

2. Quotes shall not be used to enclose alphanumeric data.

3. For each registered voter’s record, the address included shall be the address to which the voter has requested the ballot to be sent.

4. Information However, information protected from public record disclosure shall not be included for any voter who has a valid exemption from public disclosure under Florida law requested in writing an exemption from public disclosure pursuant to Section 119.071(2)(j), (4)(d) or (5)(i), F.S. An * shall be placed in any field within the file where the information is not included due to it being protected from public record disclosure.

54. The information in each record of the file shall be in the following specified format:

 

Table 1 Absentee Ballot Request Information File Layout
Data Element Name	Description	TranRead	Data Format Rules
Record Type	Absentee Ballot Request StatusAbStat	Y	“AbStat”
County Id	County providing summary		Char(3) Use FVRS county codes
FVRS Voter Id Number	FVRS Voter Id Number	Y	Numeric (10)
FVRS Election Number	FVRS Election identifier	Y	Numeric (10)
Election Date	Date of the election	Y	MM/DD/YYYY
Election Name	Name of Election	Y	Char(35)
Last Abs Record Change Date	Date the absentee summary record was last updated	Y	MM/DD/YYYY
Absentee Request Status	Applicable codes for reporting purposes: C: Use when a voter cancels a request for absentee ballot. E: Use when there is any voter-caused error in a returned absentee ballot other than a failure to sign the Voter’s Certificate. N: Use when a voter returns an absentee ballot with no signature on the Voter’s Certificate. P:  Use when the absentee ballot is provided to the voter by any proper means of delivery (mail, fax, etc.). (Only record one ballot provided per voter.) R:  Use when the supervisor has processed an absentee ballot request and determined that the voter is eligible to vote by absentee for that election. S:  Use when a voter has or makes a standing request to receive an absentee ballot for all elections occurring from the date of the request through the end of the calendar year for the second ensuing regularly next scheduled general election.  (Once the supervisor determines that the voter is eligible to vote by absentee in a particular election, the status of the standing request for that election is recorded as “R”.) U: Use when an absentee ballot is returned as undeliverable to the address where it was sent. V: Use when a voted absentee ballot is returned and received in the supervisor’s office and does not otherwise fall into a status code of E, N, or U.   NOTE: The code for each voter shall be updated daily so that each voter has only one code associated with the voter’s record.  For example, a prior report for a voter reflecting an “S” will be changed on a subsequent report to an “R” if the voter is determined eligible to vote in the election.  The reporting code for that voter may then be changed, for example, to “P”, which may then be subsequently changed to a status of “E”, “N”, “U”, or “V”.	Y	Char(1) C: Cancelled by the Voter E: Voter Error N: Unsigned M: Mailed P: Provided R: Requested S: Standing U: Returned Undeliverable V: Voted
Abs Req Date		Y	MM/DD/YYYY
Abs Delivery Date			MM/DD/YYYY
Abs Return Date			MM/DD/YYYY
Abs Req Canceled Date			MM/DD/YYYY
Abs Military			Char (1)  Y, N
Abs Overseas Flag			Char (1) Y, N
Abs Military Dependent			Char (1) Y, N
Precinct			Char (6)
Precinct Split			Char (10)
Congressional District			Numeric (2)
Senate District			Numeric (2)
House District			Numeric (3)
County Commission District			Char (10)
School Board District			Char (10)
Other Districts			Char (25)
Abs Party			Char (3)
Voter Name			Char (99)
Abs Req Mailing Address Line 1			Char (40)
Abs Req Mailing Address Line 2			Char (40)
Abs Req Mailing Address Line 3			Char (40)
Abs Req Mailing Address City			Char (40)
Abs Req Mailing Address State			Char (2)
Abs Req Mailing Address Zip			Char (15)
Abs Req Mailing Address Country			Char (40)
Abs Req E-mail Address AbsReqE-mailingAddress			Char (100)
Abs Req Fax number			Char (20)

 

5. File names shall adhere to the following convention:

a. Three character county identifier followed by underscore.

b. Followed by three character file type identifier followed by an underscore (‘ABL’ = Absentee Request List).

c. Followed by FVRS election ID followed by an underscore.

d. Followed by Date Created (format YYYYMMDD) followed by an underscore.

f. Followed by Time Created (format HHMMSS).

g. Followed by ‘.txt’.

h. Example: LEO_ABL_10217_20140810_001000.txt.

(d) Public access.

1. Persons or entities authorized under Section 101.62, F.S., may access absentee ballot request information from the Supervisor pursuant to his or her established procedures or from the Division as specified in subparagraph 2.

2. Any person or entity authorized under Section 101.62, F.S., may access online daily county files of absentee ballot request information as directly received from the Supervisor and posted on the Division’s website The Division shall post on its website (http://election.dos.state.fl.us). links to the daily county files of absentee ballot request information as directly received from the Supervisor. In order to access this information, a person or entity authorized under Section 101.62, F.S., must first submit an online request application form DS DE #70, entitled “Access Application for Absentee Ballot Request Information” (eff. 2/10). The Division shall then assign a login account a username and password. Authorization for access is only valid through the earlier of the end of the general election year in which authorization was initially granted or until the person or entity is no longer statutorily entitled to the information for one general election cycle. All login accounts for access automatically expire at the end of each general election the calendar year in which issued and if the person or entity remains eligible and wishes to receive the information for future elections, the person or entity must reapply. An access application must be resubmitted annually. In the event, the online application system is nonfunctioning, an applicant may alternatively submit an application to access the information using Form DS DE #70, entitled Access Application for Absentee Ballot Request Information” (eff.____ 02/10). This form is incorporated by reference and is available by contacting the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections, R. A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250, [phone], or by access to the Division website at: http://election.dos.state.fl.us.

3. An individual voter requesting access to his or her personal absentee ballot request information must obtain such information directly from the Supervisor of his or her county of residence.

(4) Early voting history files.

(a) Compilation. For each election as defined in subsection (2), the Supervisor shall compile electronic files that contain early voting activity as follows:

1. Early voting summary file. During each day of the early voting period, the Supervisor shall make available This file shall contain, in accordance with the specifications in paragraph (c), summary information that consists of the total number of voters casting a ballot at each early voting location during the previous day processed up to the close of business for each day. The file shall also include a complete status summary from the point of the file creation to the close of the business for the day being reported.

2. Early voting voters list file. For each election as defined in subsection (2), the Supervisor shall compile and make available an electronic file that contains This file shall contain in accordance with the specifications in paragraph (c), a list of the individual voters who cast a ballot at each early voting location for the election up through the last day being reported.

(b) File transmission. The Supervisor shall transmit to the Division the electronic files in subparagraph (a)2. no later than 12:00 Noon in the time zone of the Supervisor’s office (Eastern Standard Time) of the day after the day being reported. The files shall be sent daily even if there is no new information or activity to report. The first file shall be sent the day after the early voting period begins and the last file shall be sent the day after the  early voting period ends for that respective election in that county.

(c) File specifications for.

1. Early voting summary file:

a. Each file shall be created or converted into a tab-delimited text file.

b. Alphanumeric data shall not be enclosed in quotes. 

c. The file shall contain a record for location and date for which votes were cast early for a given election.

d. The information in each record of the file shall be in the specified format:

Table 2 Early Voting Summary File Layout
Data Element Name		TranRead	Data Format Rules
RecordType	Etots	Y	“Etots”
CountyId	County providing summary		Char(3) Use FVRS county codes
FVRSElectionNumber	FVRS Election identifier	Y	Numeric
ElectionDate	Date of the election	Y	MM/DD/YYYY
ElectionName	Name of Election	Y	Char(35)
Location	Location of early voting	Y	Char(35)
DateOfSummary		Y	MM/DD/YYYY
TotalEarlyVotes		Y	Numeric

 

2. eEarly voting voters list file.:

1a. The file shall be created or converted into in a tab-delimited text file format.

2b. Alphanumeric data shall not be enclosed in quotes.

3. Information protected from public record disclosure shall not be included for any voter who has a valid exemption from public disclosure under Florida law. An * shall be placed in any field within the file where the information is not included due to it being protected from public record disclosure.

4c. Each record in the file must contain the following information in the specified format for each voter who is recorded as having voted early by the time the file is prepared:

Table 23 Early Voting Voters List Summary File Layout
Data Element Name		TranRead	Data Format Rules
Record Type	EVtrs	Y	“EVtrs”
County Id	County providing summary		Char (3) Use FVRS county codes
Fvrs Election Number	Fvrs Election identifier	Y	Numeric
Election Date	Date of the Election	Y	MM/DD/YYYY
Election Name	Name of Election	Y	Char (35)
Fvrs Voter Id Number		Y	Numeric
Voter Name		Y	Char (60)
EV Precinct			Char (6)
Precinct Split			Char (10)
Congressional District			Numeric (2)
Senate District			Numeric (2)
House District			Numeric (3)
County Commission District			Char (10)
School Board District			Char (10)
Other Districts			Char (25)
EV Party			Char (3)
Location	Location of Early Voting	Y	Char (35)
Date of Early Vote	Date voter cast ballot	Y	MM/DD/YYYY

 

5. File names shall adhere to the following convention:

a. Three character county identifier followed by underscore.

b. Followed by three character file type identifier followed by an underscore (‘EVL’ = Early Voting List).

c. Followed by FVRS election ID followed by an underscore.

d. Followed by Date Created (format YYYYMMDD) followed by an underscore.

f. Followed by Time Created (format HHMMSS).

g. Followed by ‘.txt’.

h. Example: LEO_EVL_10217_20140810_001000.txt.

(d) Public access. In addition to these files being made available to the public by the Supervisor pursuant to Section 101.657, F.S., Tthe Division shall post the files as received to its (http://election.dos.state.fl.us) a public website access link (http://election.dos.state.fl.us) on its website to these files as directly received from the Supervisors.

(5) Official results database export files. For each election as defined in subsection (2), the Supervisor shall:

(a) Use the file export function to create a file that includes the official results from the database of the county’s voting system used in the election.

(b) File with the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections’ a copy of the official results export file for the applicable election by transmitting the file at the same time that the official results of the election are certified.

(6) Precinct-level election results reports.

(a) Compilation. After each presidential preference primary election, special election and general election only, the Supervisor shall aggregate and record for each precinct the total number of ballots cast by all voters voting in the election. The Supervisor shall compile separately within those reports the precinct-level election results for the primary or special primary election preceding the general or special election, as applicable.

(b) Transmission. The Supervisor shall submit electronically precinct-level election results, including summary results to the Division no later than noon Eastern Standard Time of the 45th day after the applicable election cycle.

(c) File specifications. The files containing the precinct-level election results shall be created in accordance with the applicable file specifications for either of the following two methodologies:

1. Manual method.

a. The precinct level results file shall be created or converted into a tab-delimited text file.

b. Alphanumeric data shall not be enclosed in quotes.

c. The row immediately before the first data record shall contain the column names of the data elements that make up the data records. There should be one header record followed by multiple data records.

Table 4 Precinct-Level Election Results Header Layout
Data Element Name		Data Format Rules
County Name	County providing summary	Char(3)
Election Number	Election identifier	Numeric
Election Date	Date of the election	MM/DD/YYYY
Election Name	Name of Election	Char(35)
Record header	Column names	Tab-delimited

d. The information in each record of the file shall be in the specified format:

Table 5 Precinct-Level Election Results Data Record Footer Layout
Data Element Name		Data Format Rules
Precinct Code	County precinct identifier	Char (6)
Precinct Location	Precinct location name	Alphanumeric
Contest Name	Contest title	Numeric
Candidate/Retention/Issue Name	Candidate name/retention or issue identifier for approval or rejection	Char (35)
Candidate Party	Major, Minor or No Party Affiliation	Char (3)
Undervote Total	Undervote total	Numeric
Overvote Total	Overvote total	Numeric
Write-in Total	Write-in total	Numeric
Vote Total	Vote total	Numeric

 

2. File export method. In accordance with the specifications for the applicable voting system, the precinct-level election results created by the file export function shall include precinct-level election results from the voting system database used in the election.

(7) Voting history activity reports.

(a) Compilation. After each general election only, each Supervisor shall compile an electronic file that includes voting history activity information on each of the individual voters who were qualified to vote for the primary or the general election, and who cast a ballot in the primary or general election.

(b) Transmission. The Supervisor shall transmit electronically to the Division complete voting history no later than 45 days after the general election. The files shall be transmitted to the specified voting history subdirectory under each county’s existing transfer directory using secure file transfer protocol (SFTP).

(c) File specifications.

1. The file shall contain records for only one county for each election.

2. The file shall contain records for all qualified voters who, regardless of the voter’s county of residence or active or inactive registration status at the time the file is created:

a. Voted a regular ballot at a precinct location.

b. Voted at a precinct location using a provisional ballot that was subsequently counted.

c. Voted a regular ballot during the early voting period.

d. Voted during the early voting period using a provisional ballot that was subsequently counted.

e. Voted by absentee ballot.

f. Attempted to vote by absentee ballot but the ballot was not counted.

g. Attempted to vote by provisional ballot but the ballot was not counted in that election.

3. Each file shall be created or converted into a tab-delimited format.

4. File names shall adhere to the following convention:

a. Three character county identifier followed by underscore.

b. Followed by four character file type identifier of ‘VH03’ followed by an underscore.

c. Followed by FVRS election ID followed by an underscore.

d. Followed by Date Created followed by an underscore.

e. Date format is MMDDYYYY.

f. Followed by Time Created – HHMMSS.

g. Followed by ‘.txt’.

5. Numeric data and date information shall be provided as specified in subparagraph 9.

6. Alphanumeric data shall not be enclosed in quotes.

7. The file shall contain a header record as the first row in the file as follows:

8. The file shall contain a footer record as the last row in the file as follows:

Table 6 Voting History Header Record Layout
Field Position	Field	Type	Length	Required	Format	Comment
1	OperatorID	varchar2		N		May be blank
2	CountyID	varchar2	3	Y		Source of FTP File. Valid County ID, or FVRS or HSMV
3	TargetedCountyID	varchar2	3	Y		Intended Recipient. Valid County ID, or FVRS or HSMV
4	File Creation_TimeStamp	datetime		Y	MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MM:SS	Originating System TimeStamp
5	Source_Address	varchar2		Y
6	FVRS County Interface Version	varchar2		Y		For supporting roll out of new system versions
7	County_Message_Identifier	varchar2	10	Y		10 character field that may be used by the county system to identify a specific FTP File.
8	Test_File	varchar2	1	Y		Y Indicates that the FTP file is a test file and should not update primary database.

 

Table 7 Voting History Footer Record Layout
Field Position	Field	Type	Length	Required	Format	Comment
1	TrailerId	varchar2	5		“TRALR”	Fixed string
2	Number of ResponseRows	integer	8		Non zero integer	Number excludes header and trailer
3	MessageDigest	varchar2			128 or 160 bits	Length to be determined
4	End of Message Marker	varchar2	7		\\ETX\\

9. The information in each record of the file shall be in the specified format for each voter who qualified to vote in the presidential preference primary, the primary election or the general election:

Table 8 Voter’s Voting History Record
	Field Name	Max Length	Valid Codes/ Format	Description
1	Record Identifier	4	‘VH03’
2	FVRS Voter ID Number	10	Numeric
3	FVRS Election ID Number	10	Numeric
4	Vote Date		MM/DD/YYYY	Date vote was cast
5	Vote History Code	1	Y = Voted at the Polls A = Absentee Voted E = Voted Early B = Absentee Ballot Not Counted P = Provisional Ballot Not Counted F = Provisional Ballot counted as voted at an early voting site Z = Provisional Ballot counted as voted at the polls
6	Precinct	6	text
7	Congressional District	3	999
8	House District	3	999
9	Senate District	3	999
10	County Commission District	40	text
11	School Board District	40	text

(d) Access. The Division shall post within 60 days a public access link to the legislative report on the Division’s website at: http://election.dos.state.fl.us that also includes the file layout and codes. Such report shall also be made available upon request.

Rulemaking Authority 20.10(3), 97.012(1), 98.0981(5), 101.62(3), 101.657(2), 102.141(10) FS. Law Implemented 98.0981, 101.62, 101.657, 102.141 FS. History–New 2-4-10, Amended 10-27-10, __________.

 

NAME OF PERSON ORIGINATING PROPOSED RULE: Lydia Strom

NAME OF AGENCY HEAD WHO APPROVED THE PROPOSED RULE: Kenneth Detzner

DATE PROPOSED RULE APPROVED BY AGENCY HEAD: July 21, 2015

DATE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED IN FAR: May 14, 2015