Introduction

The FDDC Email System (FES) allows users to create email campaigns and send them to a large number of recipients. The system is functionally similar to commercially available products such as MailChimp and Constant Contact, but is available to qualified users at a fraction of the cost. 

Administration

Troy Shimkus is the lead administrator and developer of the system.

Text or email Troy with questions and for technical support:  t.shimkus@nwdemocrates.com; 407-443-6844.

Segment (List) Content

The FES email data was amassed from several trusted data sources. The segments (the lists of voters to email) are grouped by county and every contact contains demographic data on party affiliation, precinct, sub-precinct, political district and, wherever possible, VBM request date. This allows senders to create targeted segments for a specific purpose, such as supporting a race for a city council seat or reaching Dems whose VBM request has expired. 

NOTE: Some elections may encompass more than one county. Emails are sponsored by the county DEC with the reply-to email address referencing someone at the county party level. Therefore, if an election includes multiple counties, a separate email needs to be drafted for each county for each campaign. Additionally, references to the supervisor of elections and links are customized for each county.

Segment Quality

A key factor in maintaining the usefulness of the system is strict vetting of email segments. If a list containing bad email addresses is added to the database it will result in a large number of bounces, which harms our reputation as a sender. Internet service providers will block most or all of our emails, and getting our reputation restored is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, any email lists which you wish to add to our system must be vetted. Acceptable lists are those provided by an SOE or lists which have already been used and had the invalid emails removed.

Functional Overview

General Instructions

First, request credentials from the System Administrator. You will be given access either as an administrator, a member of a group, or an individual. If you plan to work with others on a particular campaign, then notify the FES Admin that a group account needs to be setup or you want to be added to an existing group.

To launch the app go to: https://fes.flddc.org/s/login

FES-specific Instructions

Organization of Segments

Voters are grouped into segments or lists by county. You will have access to the county or counties that fall under your area of responsibility.  Segment names are standardized using the format “<XXX> voters” where XXX is the official three-letter code for that county. The code definitions can be found on page 4 of the Voter Extract File Spec. 

You can also create segments for your own testing purposes. For example, you might create a segment that includes three or four of your teammates. You can send them draft email campaigns for review before sending to your full audience. 

Selecting your recipients

Each county segment contains voters from ALL PARTIES. You almost NEVER want to send an email campaign to all contacts in a segment, since you would be including Republicans, Democrats, and NPAs. Create a segment to narrow down the list of recipients. Creating a segment is equivalent to creating a list in VAN. 

Reply-to Address

The FROM address for email campaigns must always be emailadmin@fes.flddc.org in order to pass through the spam filters. However, the REPLY-TO address should be a mailbox which is actively monitored by a live person. This is the address where emails will be sent when a recipient hits REPLY. People will often reply to your email blast asking for additional help, to be unsubscribed, or just to say thank you. Having a real person respond to their queries is invaluable for public relations.

Disclaimer

Any political message must identify your organization or candidate as the sender of the email. The default language can be something like PAID FOR BY THE XXX DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE or XXX DEMS.

FES 2.0 Operational Guide

This guide walks new users through the FES 2.0 email platform, focusing on segment creation and email building workflows. It includes background, key definitions and step-by-step instructions.

First Login Overview

• Upon logging in, your dashboard will appear mostly empty.
• This is normal: most content is tied to contact segments and campaigns.
• You won’t see any contacts directly. Instead, you’ll work with segments, which let you group and target contacts based on filters or imported segments from VAN.

About Segments

Segments are defined groups of contacts that share a common trait (e.g., all Democrats in a county, or all male voters in a district).

There are three ways segments are created:

• Filter-based segments: Built within FES 2.0 using field filters.
• Static segments based on VAN List exports (manual process).
• Cloned segments: Used with a filtered segment to modify the original criteria of the filter.

You will also see a built-in segment called “Placeholder”:

• This segment is empty and used for safe testing.
• It cannot be edited.

Creating a Filter-Based Segment

1. Go to Segments > New.
2. Fill out the form:
   • Name: Choose something descriptive
   • Public Name: Leave blank (not used currently).
   • Alias: Auto-generated, but editable. Used in searches.
   • Visible to other users: Leave unchecked. Only check this if the segment should be visible system-wide.
   • Active: Toggle on only when the segment is ready for use.
   • Description: Document of who this is for and how it will be used.
3. Click the Filters tab: Always start with a county filter to stay within your scope. In FES 2.0, County is stored as the “Company Name” field.
   • Use three-character abbreviations.
   • Use other filters like Party or Gender
   • You can use AND/OR nesting to build complex criteria.
4. Click Save & Close.

⚠️ Filter-based segments are dynamic and will automatically update every ~10 minutes as contacts qualify/disqualify. Allow up to an hour for a full build. You can refresh the segment page to monitor the population.

Creating a Segment-Based Segment (from VAN)

1. Run a VoteBuilder (VAN) search and export the segment/list.
2. The segment/list must include:
   • State File Voter ID for matching
   • Ideally a full voter record to create any missing contacts
3. Submit the file to the team for processing.

⚠️ Segment-based segments are static. They will not update over time. You must re-export/re-import to refresh them.

Create a Segment for Testing Emails

• You can build a test segment using a known email or voter ID.
• The contact must already exist in FES 2.0.

If it doesn’t populate, notify support or request test addresses be added

Cloning a Filter-Based Segment

1. Go to Segments > Select a previously built segment.
2. Click the three dots on left side of the row > select “Clone”. New Segment will appear.
3. Fill in Name, Public Name, Description is optional, use exiting Category or create a new one.
4. Save
5. Click Filters tab. Current filters will appear.
6. Add, delete or modify individual filters.

Add: Click “Choose one…” > select criteria from the segment > click logical operator then select either “and” or “or” operator > click math operator (currently “equals”) > select from segment > enter parameter into the blank field to the right. > Save and Close

Delete: Note small red trash can to the far right of each filter. Click it to delete a specific filter criteria.  > Save and Close

Modify: Same process as adding or deleting. > Save and Close

Creating an Email

1. Go to Channels > Emails > New
2. Choose Segment Email (not Triggered Email).
3. Fill out the right column:
   • Subject: This is what recipients will see.
   • Internal Name: For your reference only.
   • Preheader: Optional short preview text.
   • Segment: Choose your target segment.
4. Click the Advanced tab:
   • From Name: Your club name.
   • Reply-To: Where replies will go.
   • From Address: Leave blank to use FDDC’s default. Contact support if you’d like to use a custom address.

5. Click Save.
6. Click Builder > See Builder section below.
7. Click Save and Close
8. Click check mark (top right) > click “x” to exit Builder

Cloning an Email

1. Go to Channels > Emails
2. Click three dots on left side of the email to be cloned > select “Clone”. New Email will appear.
3. Click Select Segment Email (not Triggered Email).
4. Fill out the right column:
   • Subject: This is what recipients will see.
   • Internal Name: For your reference only.
   • Preheader: Optional short preview text.
   • Contact Segment: Choose your target segment or Test segment
   • Category: Select an exiting Category or an existing one.
5. Save
6. Click the Advanced tab:
   • From Name: Your club name.
   • Reply-To: Where replies will go.
   • From Address: Leave blank to use FDDC’s default. Contact support if you’d like to use a custom address.
   • Click Save.
7. Click Builder (next to Save Button)
8. See Builder section below.
9. Save and Close

Choose a Theme as a Template

1. On the Themes tab:
   • Browse and preview themes.
   • Note the Campaign-Specific Themes created for VBM Registration, VBM Chase, Early Voting, Early Voting Chase and Election Day.
   • Click Select on the one you want.
2. Click the Builder link to open the visual editor.

Create/Edit Email Content Using Builder

1. Click Builder (Top Center)
2. Note that this is a WSIWIG (what you see is what you get) editor that is block oriented. Blocks are selected and dragged from the right panel to the left content area. The primary content elements are: Text blocks, Image blocks, a URL link and tokens.
   • Once a Text block is added then text can be added to it and formatted using the tools at the top like most editors (bold, italics, font size/type, color, etc.).
   • Highlight the text first then apply the desired format.
   • Images are added by clicking and dragging the Image icon on the right to the desired location then it will display available images previously loaded into the system. Click “Upload Image” to upload from your computer to the FES system. > Click the desired image.
   • Links to websites: On the far right of the Formatting Bar is a paperclip icon. Position your cursor and highlight the text that describes the link description > Click the Link icon > a dialog box with appear > enter the url (https://location name.ext), click icon to use new browser tab > Accept
   • Tokens: Sometimes referred to as tags. This provides a means to personalize the email with the recipient’s specific information e.g. first or last name. Position the cursor in the text block at the desired location. > Click “Insert token” (top left) > scroll down segment then select desired token. > The properly formatted placeholder will be inserted.
3. Click Save at very bottom of the editing area.
4. To return to editing the text block, double click anywhere within the text block.

Create a Segment in VoteBuilder (VAN)

1. Sign into your county’s or the FDDC instance of VAN.
2. My Voters > “Create a New List”
   For clarity, think of a “segment” as the criteria for making a list.
3. The list depends on the criteria the apply for the intended purpose. See Appendix 1 for instructions on selecting segment criteria
4. Save List As > Save My List > Assign a Folder and Name > Export
5. Extract zip file to xls file > Open in Excel (Do not modify the file despite having extra fields) > save as a CSV UTF-8 file type on your computer
6. Sign into FES Import Tool (http://fes.flddc.org:5000)
   Below is the page you will see:

1. Fill in State VoterID, Segment name (that will appear in FES)
2. In FES > Channels > Emails > Select desired email from list > Edit  >  “Contact segment” > Select segment from drop-down list > Save and Close
3. Check with FES Admin to ensure there are enough credits to cover the segment size.