Campaign workers will have emailed documents with lists of petition page numbers and the names of the signators.  The instructions for this first step are at http://VettVoter.com/instructions/ValidationTutorial1.html

You will need to organize these transcript documents and convert then to simple plain text documents for processing into Batch Validation Reports.

We suggest creating a file folder for these email attachments and backing it up regularly to a thumb drive or other removable storage.  One trick is to make three folders:

1. Raw unprocessed documents as received from Campaign workers.
2. Documents in plain text but for which no Batch Validation Report has been generated.
3. Plain text documents for which a Batch Validation Report has been generated and printed.

This step involves a bit of technology.  It's easy to learn from your local computer guru but a bit difficult to explain in print because there are so many possibilities.

The technical baffle-gab is that the document must be "UTF-8 ANSI ASCII (Latin) plain text."  What that boils down to is that each character must be represented by a number between 1 and 128 and that every line must end with the numbers 13 and 10 representing a carriage return and line feed.  It is the most common and ordinary format for Latin character languages that dates back to the first Teletypes® and personal computers.

Every word processor has the ability to save a document as a plain text document.  It is usually a "Save As" option such as .TXT, .DOS or .ASC .

As a rule the individual campaign worker knows their particular word processor well enough to save the transcript document in a plain text option that uses a carriage return & line feed (CR/LF) at the end of a line and renders the characters in "ANSI ASCII".

Never-the-less you should check to make sure each worker is giving you a useable document.

If you have Windows, dig out Microsoft's NotePad (Start/All Apps/Windows Accessories/NotePad — do not use WordPad) and open the file.  If the file makes sense and has one signator name per line you can be pretty sure the document is OK.

If you have a MAC try the same thing using ASCII/edit.

You can also just try to submit the document in the next step.  If you get an error or no Batch Validation Report you can bet the document format is wrong.

In this step you use your Internet browser to pick a transcript document stored on your computer (download our sample), send it to the server, and display a Batch Validation Report in your browser:

1. Go to Create a Batch Validation Report at the bottom of your control panel.
2. Use the Browse button or enter the path and transcript document name to pick the transcript document to upload.
3. Click on Validate File to have the server start building the Batch Validation Report
4. Naturally the specifics will vary but the report should look something like this:
   
   

   Transcript File is SampleBatch.txt (35 lines) Total Checked: 30    Total Verified: 13    Total Manually Verified: GMT date and time Thu Sep 1 17:05:43 2016 Processing 23    (StateOfBliss01.txt)      Found PACE, MICHELLE, 2650 (PACE, MICHELLE L , 2650 BRYANT ST NE) Line 23.2 is unintelligable HILL, DAVID (3) possible voters are: Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select P 4721 SAVANNAH PL SE 20016 3 F 461 EAST CAPITOL ST SE 20017 5 L 527 PRINCETON PL NW 20001 5 D 1545 ALBEMARLE ST NW 20003 6 611 WISCONSIN AVE NW 20012 4 E 5111 ONTARIO RD NW 20011 4 C JR 4600 14TH ST NE 20007 3 U 1321 ALABAMA AVE SE 20010 1 M 628 17TH ST SE 20007 2 35 A ST SE 20007 3 L 3636 GALLATIN ST NW 20019 7 4313 52ND ST NW 20019 7 L 3500 GOOD HOPE RD SE 20008 3 None of the above       Found HOBAN, MAMIE (HOBAN, MAMIE D , 1356 14TH ST NW) LIU, BARBARA, 807 (6) is not in the voter database. LOMAX, any, at house number 1301 (7) possible voters are: First Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select LESLIE M 1301 M ST NE 20002 6 TRACY A 1301 CHANNING ST NW 20003 6 BARRINGTON P 1301 32ND ST NW 20010 1 None of the above       Found LOFTY-PEARSON, TREND (LOFTY-PEARSON, TREND A , 2611 PRIMROSE RD NW) HILL, VICORIA, 2601 (9) is not in the voter database. WHIPLASH, SNIDLEY, % (10) is not in the voter database. 023 Statistics:  Checked: 9      Verified: 3    Manually Verified: Prepared for Demonstration Thu Sep 1 17:05:28 2016 Processing 24    (StateOfBliss01.txt) BOSTON, BELUGA, % (1) is not in the voter database.      Found WELLMAN, MADOUA (WELLMAN, MADOUA Y , 1726 14TH ST NW) JACKSON, DANIEL (3) possible voters are: Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select A 1328 W ST SE 20032 8 A 4939 STEPHENSON PL NW 20011 4 A 65 MASSACHUSETTS AVE NW 20011 4 2124 G ST SW 20009 1 M 3424 LONGFELLOW ST NW 20002 6 L 2201 9TH ST NW 20020 8 B 422 7TH ST SW 20019 7 V 96 ORCHID ST NW 20008 3 J 5719 51ST ST NE 20016 3 L 142 TAYLOR ST NE 20012 4 None of the above  JACKSON, any, at house number 1356 (4) possible voters are: First Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select SARA P 1356 K ST SE 20011 4 JIMMY 1356 3RD ST NE 20016 3 None of the above       Found YATES, JAMES (YATES, JAMES B , 3109 NEWTON ST NW)      Found ZWARTJES, (ZWARTJES, ELAN I , 1018 38TH ST NW)      Found QUINLAN, 507 (QUINLAN, STACEY , 507 K ST NW) BUCHANON, ANNALEE, 1430 (8) is not in the voter database. any, MARY, at house number 1627 (9) possible voters are: Last Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select COONEY C II 1627 PINEY BRANCH RD NW 20015 3 TODHUNTER J 1627 O ST NW 20036 2 MOSBY M 1627 UTAH AVE NW 20002 5 CHAKRABORTY 1627 GRESHAM PL NW 20007 3 None of the above       Found ROSE, 2020 (ROSE, TAKAYUKI A , 2020 RIDGE RD SE) 024 Statistics:  Checked: 10      Verified: 5    Manually Verified: Prepared for Demonstration Thu Sep 1 17:05:28 2016 Processing 25    (StateOfBliss01.txt) any, AARON, at house number 3806 (1) possible voters are: Last Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select COLLINS L 3806 21ST ST NW 20004 2 FLEISCHMAN G 3806 RIDGE ST NW 20009 1 None of the above       Found MONK, LISA (MONK, LISA S , 7004 20TH ST NE) CRUZ, JAMES, 1935 (3) is not in the voter database.      Found SIMMS, LOTTA (SIMMS, LOTTA R , 5901 11TH ST SE)      Found HIPPLE, 324 (HIPPLE, MELISSA V , 324 14TH ST NW)      Found , TAMEIKA, 732 (FEGLEY, TAMEIKA , 732 SHEPHERD ST NW) JACKSON, any, at house number 1356 (7) possible voters are: First Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select SARA P 1356 K ST SE 20011 4 JIMMY 1356 3RD ST NE 20016 3 None of the above  Line 25.8 is unintelligable GAZER, MARY, % (9) is not in the voter database.      Found CALLARD, AMBER (CALLARD, AMBER , 2840 ILLINOIS AVE NW) any, DANIEL, at house number 1358 (11) possible voters are: Last Middle Suffix Address Ward    Select COLON L SR 1358 NASH ST NE 20020 8 EVANS M 1358 CONNECTICUT AVE NW 20020 8 FEW A 1358 24TH ST SE 20011 4 HARDY W 1358 QUINCY ST NW 20001 2 None of the above  025 Statistics:  Checked: 11      Verified: 5    Manually Verified: Prepared for Demonstration Thu Sep 1 17:05:28 2016

   
   Note that the report is divided into sections "Processing 2345", "Processing 3456" and "Processing 4567".  Each section represents the names transcribed from a particular fictitious petition page.
   
   

At this point it becomes pretty easy to validate signators on each petition page:

• "Found" names are perfect matches where only one such person in on the registered voter roll.
• "...is not found in the voter database" is a name or partial name for which no match could be found in the registered voter roll.
• "...has too many alternatives for Batch validation. Try Locate a Voter." simply says that Batch Validation is not efficient if it has to thumb through too many options.  Try the optimized search tool that uses only first name, last name, and house number.
• The most useful and interesting situation is when more than one individual with the same name is found in the roll of registered voters.  In that case you get a table of possible matches.  In this example three persons named "Marcus Thomas  were found.  It's now a pretty simple task to look at petition page 3456 to decide which one actually signed the petition.