Voting Using Voters Comment Spreadsheet

1. Start the process by locating the ballot under My Assignments in the upper right corner of the home dashboard, and click View Ballot next to the ballot you wish to vote on.

2. After viewing the ballot, click the VOTE button at the bottom of the page, which will bring you back to your home dashboard.

3. Now that you have viewed the ballot, your action under My Assignments will now say Vote. Locate and click on Vote on Ballot - [ballot name] under the My Assignments tile, which will take you to the voting screen.

4. To cast your vote or “answer,” click the field next to Answer in the form, and a dropdown will appear in a popup window. Select your answer, then scroll down and select Upload Comments. This will again bring you once again back to the home dashboard.

5. Locate and download the Voters Comment Spreadsheet, found under the Voters Comment Template tile.

6. Once in the template folder, click the spreadsheet file name.

7. Click Download, and a copy of the file will be saved to your device.

8. Once downloaded, confirm the file has the correct name, Voters Comment Spreadsheet, removing any extra spaces or characters. If you have downloaded the file multiple times, please remove the version number in parentheses, i.e. (5).

9. Fill out the Voters Comments Spreadsheet with your comments. There are 4 fields that must be filled out precisely:

• Group, Project, Ballot, and Type of Comment. ProTip: It is recommended that you navigate back to the View Ballot window and copy and paste the information to avoid error. Group and Project will come from the fields of that exact name. For Ballot, please use Ballot Title (not Ballot Title Long).
• For Type of Comment please indicate one of three options, “GE” for general comments, “TE” for technical comments, and “ED” for editorial comments. Multiple lines of comments will each need a type of comment indication.
• The additional fields can be used to best suit your comments, and do not need to be populated for your comments to successfully upload. If you would like to include a figure or image, add it to the Proposed Change column.

10. Return to the View Ballot screen. Upload your comments spreadsheet under the Attachments tab on the left-hand side by clicking the paperclip icon, or by dragging and dropping it into the Drag and drop files here area. Once added, the document should appear in the Attachments column.

11. There are two ways to check and see if your comments have uploaded:

1. Reload the page, see if the document has disappeared from the Attachments column (this may take a few minutes).
2. Go back into the Vote page for the ballot and see if your comments have populated.

Important How To’s:

• After completing these steps, your voting comments are saved. Your My Assignments should not change, and you can repeat these workflow steps to edit submissions or make additions as long as the ballot remains open.
• Once you have uploaded a Voters Comment Spreadsheet, if you wish to add or edit your comments, you must make the changes/additions in the spreadsheet and reupload your entire sheet of comments again. Once you have used a Voters Comment Spreadsheet, you will not be able to alter your comments in the Vote window.
• You must use the Voters Comment Spreadsheet if you wish to include an image, figure, or table.
• After uploading your spreadsheet, we recommend saving a version with the name of the group and the ballot for your reference; if you need to make changes/additions, you will need to reupload the entire sheet, including the additions/changes. Remember, the system will only allow spreadsheet uploads with the exact file name of Voters Comment Spreadsheet.

Troubleshooting:
If your comments did not upload, go back to step 5 and make sure that all of the fields in the Voters Comments Spreadsheet (including the document title) are correctly entered.