By signing up for an account through any TurboVote tool, voters have access to customized election reminders via email, SMS, or both. These reminders link to personalized voting guidance, registration support, and ballot information, helping users navigate voting processes applicable to where they live. Personalization ensures that users receive up-to-date guidance, and can seamlessly return to the platform for personalized support without having to re-enter their information. When your TurboVote users consistently engage with the platform across different elections, it’s possible that they will sign up for multiple accounts.
User Account Sign Up
A TurboVote account is created when someone uses the Check Your Registration, Registration Assistance, Preregister to Vote, or Request Ballot tools. An account is also created if a user signs up for Election or Ballot reminders.
When users sign up for an account, TurboVote generally collects the following information:
- first and last name
- preferred first name (optional—used in all TurboVote communications)
- street address (with campus location dropdown for university partners)
- date of birth
- email and/or SMS number (at least one required)
Accessing User Data
The Admin Console allows you to view data about user activity on your TurboVote voting hub.
The Admin Console Dashboard shows both your Total Users (i.e., the number of people who created an account when getting help registering to vote, checking their voter registration status, or signing up for election reminders) and Active Users (i.e., the number of people currently subscribed to email and/or SMS reminders). You can access data about your users using the User Export tab, depending on the terms of your agreement.
User Account Personalization
How Personalization Works
Personalized links make it more convenient for busy voters to return to TurboVote. If users opt to receive follow-up SMS and/or email notifications after engaging with a TurboVote tool, personalized links help them complete specific actions (e.g., check their registration status, request an absentee ballot) without having to re-enter their personal details (i.e., name, address, contact info).
Election reminders also include links to personalized Election Guides and Sample Ballots, equipping returning users with guidance specific to the address they provided when signing up.
The following TurboVote experiences support single-click (i.e., “tap and go”) personalization:
- View next Election Guide
- View next Sample Ballot
- View next Where to Vote Guide (coming soon)
- View Voting Hub
- Check voter registration status
- Get help requesting a ballot
- Get help submitting a voter registration application online
For certain TurboVote actions, existing users must sign in by requesting and providing a secure code to proceed, including:
- Update Account (e.g., update name or address)
- Get help prefilling paper voter registration forms (users can download a blank registration form if they do not wish to sign in)
Sharing Personalized Links
Whether you use a TurboVote destination site or embed TurboVote on your organization’s website, you can create personalized links to share in your own notifications and campaigns. You can use these to prompt your audience to take specific actions (e.g., check their registration status, view their Sample Ballot, etc.) at key points before an election.
This TurboVote destination site URL shows a personalized Sample Ballot for a demo user’s next election: https://example.turbovote.org/n/b?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q. In this example, Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q is the personalization ID, a unique identifier assigned to each user.
If you embed TurboVote on your website, you can use Embed Page Transport URLs to create personalized links. This personalized link opens the same demo user’s Sample Ballot within a TurboVote embed: https://planmyvote.org/?tv-p=/n/b&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q.
You can use personalization IDs to customize URLs for several TurboVote experiences. This table demonstrates how to create personalized links for different actions you want users to take:
| TurboVote Experience | Destination Site Template | Example Destination Site Link | Embed Template | Example Embed Link |
| View next Election Guide | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/n?user={personalizationID |
https://example.turbovote.org/n?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/n&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/n&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
| View next Sample Ballot | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/n/b?user={personalizationID} |
https://example.turbovote.org/n/b?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/n/b&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/n/b&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
| View next Where to Vote guide | Coming soon | Coming soon | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| View Voting Hub | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/?user={personalizationID} |
https://example.turbovote.org/?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
| Check voter registration status | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/check-your-registration/status?user={personalizationId} |
https://example.turbovote.org/check-your-registration/status?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/check-your-registration/status&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/check-your-registration/status&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
| Get help requesting a ballot | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/request-ballot/?user={personalizationId} |
https://example.turbovote.org/request-ballot/?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/request-ballot/&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/request-ballot/&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
| Get help submitting a voter registration application | https://{hostname}.turbovote.org/register-to-vote?user={personalizationId} |
https://example.turbovote.org/register-to-vote?user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q | https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com?tv-p=/register-to-vote&tv-user={personalizationId} |
https://www.planmyvote.org?tv-p=/register-to-vote&tv-user=Zh_gBG5LQQCwbP_7b7AH3Q |
Bring Your Own Audience
If you’re a new TurboVote partner, you may already have a sizable audience ready to engage in your registration and voter education efforts. You can import these users to TurboVote, generating accounts (complete with personalization IDs) that you can sync with your customer relation management system (e.g., HubSpot). This enables you to include personalized TurboVote links in your election communications and campaigns, with no additional user sign up required. For instance, you can direct your users to their personalized Sample Ballot with a single click.
Reach out to the TurboVote Partnerships team for more information.
Account Updates for Returning Users
Returning users can update their account information in TurboVote at any time to ensure they receive voting guidance applicable to their current address. Account update links appear in notifications and across different TurboVote experiences.
TurboVote requires users to enter a secure code (delivered to their preferred contact method) in order to update any personally identifiable information, including street address, associated with their account. Because TurboVote is designed to make it as easy as possible for users to take action, individuals who do not log in may create a new account instead of verifying their existing account information.
Multiple Accounts With the Same Contact Info
Why might multiple accounts share the same contact info?
In the course of using TurboVote over time, some users may create more than one account. It’s possible that a user may sign up multiple times with different contact preferences or addresses.
Users may not remember that they have a TurboVote account when they re-engage with the platform over time. To ensure that users receive the voting guidance they need, TurboVote allows users to create a new account instead of requiring them to remember what email address and/or SMS they used in the past.
When users create multiple accounts, it means they are routinely engaged with your voter engagement program and value civic participation. However, this could also create “duplicates” (individuals who are associated with more than one account) in your user data.
How to Identify Users With Multiple Accounts
The TurboVote User Export can help you locate this data. You should use the returning_user_last_updated_at field to identify individuals who have updated a single TurboVote account after initial signup, as well as fields like first_name, middle_name, last_name, and date_of_birth together to pinpoint engaged users who submitted sign-up forms more than once.