Question:  Do I register my students?

No.  You simply register your teachers.  When student vote, they choose their book, district, school and TEACHER'S name.   Schools can use the "Who Has Voted" link to see if all their students have voted ... or if any of the students have voted twice or created any other errors.

Some error like duplicate votes will automatically be deleted before the end of the voting.  But you can report any errors you see to Bob Harmon bharmon@irvingisd.net and he can clean up your data.

Question:  When does the voting end?

I will not close the voting site.  Anyone can continue accessing the site on into February and use the ballot.  How does this work?

YOU set your deadline.  Tell your students the deadline they have to cast their online vote.  Then on that day, use the Results link (to get the table of votes for your campus) and report these to TLA.  Any of YOUR students who come to this site AFTER your deadline can still access the ballot, but their vote will not count since you will not report it to TLA.

Question:  How can I see what the voting process is like for my students?

Want to try a test vote to see what the process is like?

Then vote as an adult (since adult votes are not reported to TLA) ... or vote as a student with the first and last name of "Test" ... then I will know to delete this sample vote when the REAL voting starts.

Question:  Why do you say ADULTS can vote?  This is for students!

I added the ability for adults to vote to get teachers/parents to try the voting process and see what it looks like.  This way they are better prepared to walk their students through it when they vote. 

YES, adult votes are marked as the grade "adult" and you will notice that when you get the RESULTS you can ask for a "students only" report.  This is the one that gives you the results to report to TLA.  Yes, I included a "students and adult" report also, just for those that were curious how the adult voting went.

Question:  Are my students votes reported to TLA from here?

NO.  This is only an online ballot system to eliminate paper ballots.  We do NOT report your votes to TLA for you.  You must get your results (before the TLA deadline), look at those votes to be sure they are accurate, and then go to the TLA website to submit your totals.

Question:  How do I know my totals are accurate?

You can use the Who Has Voted link to check each of your classrooms.  You will be able to see the names of students in each class that voted.  If you know students who have not yet voted, you can ask them to vote.  If you see duplicate votes or other errors, you can report them to Bob Harmon . 

The common type of error you will have to report is the student who votes twice but uses a different name (i.e., the student votes as Cathy Smith then votes again as Catherine Smith.)

Question:  How can I eliminate duplicate votes?

Yes, students will hit the SUBMIT button more than once ... but starting one week before the TLA deadline, our webmaster will run a report every night that removes duplicate votes from the system.  This is why we ask for an ID number.

If we see the following in the voting table:

Name	ID	Campus	Teacher
John Smith	2916	Central Elementary	Ms. Johnson
John Smith	2916	Central Elementary	Ms. Johnson

Then we will know that John Smith voted twice and the computer will automatically eliminate this duplicate vote.

If we see the following in the voting table:

Name	ID	Campus	Teacher
John Smith	2916	Central Elementary	Ms. Johnson
John Smith	3455	Central Elementary	Ms. Johnson

Then we will know that Ms. Johnson has TWO students with the name John Smith.

Question:  Do we have to use student ID numbers?

You have to put SOMETHING in the ID field.  As you can see in the question above it is VERY important if you have two students with the same name.

But NO, it doesn't HAVE to be the ID number.  If you know that you have no students with the same name in your class, you could simply tell your students to all use the same number (say, your teacher ID "8201" or your room number "0112".)

But in IRVING ISD, we like to use their student ID numbers since we are trying to get them to remember them.

Question:  I don't want my students names showing on the web!!!

ALL reports shown online by this system will ONLY display the first letter of the student's last name and the student ID number will NEVER be displayed, so the site is secure.

If you wish, you can have your students vote using ONLY initials.  But if you do, be SURE to have them use different ID numbers since their votes might look like duplicate votes and be lost.

Send other questions to:
Bob Harmon
Irving ISD Webmaster