Revision history for BuildingResearchSheets
Additions:
No research sheet is built off of the work of only one person. It takes multiple people to help ensure that all of the research available is collected and is accurate. Google Sheets are used so that it's possible for a number of people to work on a sheet at the same time.
Step 1: Before beginning your research and filling up the Google Sheet it is important to make sure that certain boxes on the sheet are formatted correctly:
- In Row 1, columns A-F should be left blank.
- In Row 2, column A should be left blank, while columns B-F should be listed in order with: State, Candidate ID, Last Name, First Name, and Office.
Step 2: Now that the sheet has been formatted to indicate where certain information goes, you are able to start adding in candidate information. This information will be unique to each candidate and it is important to ensure that this information is accurate. This information will be started in Row 3, below the information added from step 1.
- Column A should be labeled Determination. This row is where you will be listing the determination for the candidate’s position on each individual question - this will be on every 5th row, with row numbers ending in 3 and 8.
- Column C should have the Candidate ID listed. This Candidate ID is individual to each candidate and it is incredibly important that the number is correct and attached to the correct candidate.
- Column G and onward will have included the determinations made for each of the respective questions for that column listed in row 1 (Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Yes, No, Unknown Position).
Step 1: Before beginning your research and filling up the Google Sheet it is important to make sure that certain boxes on the sheet are formatted correctly:
- In Row 1, columns A-F should be left blank.
- In Row 2, column A should be left blank, while columns B-F should be listed in order with: State, Candidate ID, Last Name, First Name, and Office.
Step 2: Now that the sheet has been formatted to indicate where certain information goes, you are able to start adding in candidate information. This information will be unique to each candidate and it is important to ensure that this information is accurate. This information will be started in Row 3, below the information added from step 1.
- Column A should be labeled Determination. This row is where you will be listing the determination for the candidate’s position on each individual question - this will be on every 5th row, with row numbers ending in 3 and 8.
- Column C should have the Candidate ID listed. This Candidate ID is individual to each candidate and it is incredibly important that the number is correct and attached to the correct candidate.
- Column G and onward will have included the determinations made for each of the respective questions for that column listed in row 1 (Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Yes, No, Unknown Position).
Deletions:
**Step 1:** Before beginning your research and filling up the Google Sheet it is important to make sure that certain boxes on the sheet are formatted correctly:
- In Row 1, columns A-F should be left blank.
- In Row 2, column A should be left blank, while columns B-F should be listed in order with: State, Candidate ID, Last Name, First Name, and Office.
**Step 2:** Now that the sheet has been formatted to indicate where certain information goes, you are able to start adding in candidate information. This information will be unique to each candidate and it is important to ensure that this information is accurate. This information will be started in Row 3, below the information added from step 1.
- Column A should be labeled Determination. This row is where you will be listing how a candidate determination on each individual question - this will be on every 5th row, with row numbers ending in 3 and 8.
- Column C should have the Candidate ID listed. This Candidate ID is individual to each candidate and it is incredibly important that the number is correct and attached to the correct candidate.
- Column G and onward will have included the determinations made for each of the respective question for that column listed in row 1 (Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Yes, No, Unknown Position).
Additions:
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Additions:
A final sheet would have a structure that would look similar to this:
||Determination||IA||98765||Example||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Determination||IA||87654||Example 2||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Determination||IA||76543||Example 3||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Determination||IA||98765||Example||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Determination||IA||87654||Example 2||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Determination||IA||76543||Example 3||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
Additions:
- **=countifs(G3:final candidate row, “Answer text”)**
Deletions:
Additions:
//SELECT x.state_id, x.candidate_id, x.lastname, x.firstname, x.office
WHERE e.electionyear = **2020** AND ec.state_id IN **('IA')** AND ee.electionstage_id = **'G'** AND ec.office_id IN (5,6) AND electioncandidatestatus_id = 8
Order BY ec.districtname_id, c.lastname) x//
WHERE e.electionyear = **2020** AND ec.state_id IN **('IA')** AND ee.electionstage_id = **'G'** AND ec.office_id IN (5,6) AND electioncandidatestatus_id = 8
Order BY ec.districtname_id, c.lastname) x//
Deletions:
WHERE e.electionyear = 2020 AND ec.state_id IN ('IA') AND ee.electionstage_id = 'G' AND ec.office_id IN (5,6) AND electioncandidatestatus_id = 8
Order BY ec.districtname_id, c.lastname) x**
Additions:
Google Sheets also make it possible for remote interns and supervisors to work on the same project. Since Vote Smart interns are not always in the same building, or even in the same state, it is important to have a way that supervisors can study the work of their interns in real time while also being able to highlight things that need to be addressed.
Deletions:
Additions:
- If done correctly, it should look like this:
||||||||||||||Question 1||Question 2||Question 3||
||||State||Candidate ID||Last Name||First Name||Office||Q1||Q2||Q3||
- If done correctly, it should look like this:
||||||||||||||Question 1||Question 2||Question 3||
||||State||Candidate ID||Last Name||First Name||Office||Q1||Q2||Q3||
||Determination||IA||54321||Example||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||Question 1||Question 2||Question 3||
||||State||Candidate ID||Last Name||First Name||Office||Q1||Q2||Q3||
- If done correctly, it should look like this:
||||||||||||||Question 1||Question 2||Question 3||
||||State||Candidate ID||Last Name||First Name||Office||Q1||Q2||Q3||
||Determination||IA||54321||Example||Candidate||President||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||Unknown Position||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
||Citation||||||||||||||||||
Additions:
||Determination Rate||50%||
Deletions:
Additions:
**Step 3:** Now that a research sheet has been built it is best to begin a query in order to help keep track of your determination rate. The determination rate represents the number of possible determinations that are labeled as either “Yes”, “No”, “Pro-Life”, or “Pro-Choice.” - The higher our determination rate is the less “Unknown Positions” we have. This can be a useful reference through research to focus research efforts to improve this determination rate across research sheets. To set-up this up, follow the below steps:
- Below the final candidate in the spreadsheet, insert a formula that counts each of the possible determinations give in each row for each answer (Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Yes, and No, and Unknown Position) - each formula would use the following structure:
- **=countifs(G3:final candidate row, “Potential Answer”)**
- This will create 5 separate formulas, and look like below:
||Pro-Life||2||
||Pro-Choice||2||
||Yes||30||
||No||16||
||Unknown Position||50||
- Once this table has been created, use the following formula to calculate the determination rate, based on the results above. To do this, use the following formula:
- **=(Pro-Life+Pro-Choice+Yes+No)/(Pro-Life+Pro-Choice+Yes+No+Unknown Position)*100**
- The final table should look like below:
||Pro-Life||2||
||Pro-Choice||2||
||Yes||30||
||No||16||
||Unknown Position||50||
||Determination Rate||50||
- Below the final candidate in the spreadsheet, insert a formula that counts each of the possible determinations give in each row for each answer (Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Yes, and No, and Unknown Position) - each formula would use the following structure:
- **=countifs(G3:final candidate row, “Potential Answer”)**
- This will create 5 separate formulas, and look like below:
||Pro-Life||2||
||Pro-Choice||2||
||Yes||30||
||No||16||
||Unknown Position||50||
- Once this table has been created, use the following formula to calculate the determination rate, based on the results above. To do this, use the following formula:
- **=(Pro-Life+Pro-Choice+Yes+No)/(Pro-Life+Pro-Choice+Yes+No+Unknown Position)*100**
- The final table should look like below:
||Pro-Life||2||
||Pro-Choice||2||
||Yes||30||
||No||16||
||Unknown Position||50||
||Determination Rate||50||
