VISTA User and Contact Information
Before you can access VISTA, you must first have a user account. Anyone who has been given the necessary user rights to add staff will need to do this for you. In many cases, it will either be the elections administrator or county clerk. Contacting a member of the VISTA development and support team is also another option. To access the staff section, select the staff button at the top of the VISTA home screen.
To access the staff section, select the staff button in the gray navigation bar at the top of the VISTA home screen.
To change a user's rights or any other information, select (double-click) on their name.
Adding a User
To add a user, go to Staff > Double-click on your county > Select the add staff button. As you can see, you will need to add a username , the first and last name, title, phone number, and email address for the user. You will then select the "Change Pass Phrase" button to create a password.
Assigning User Rights: The ability to view, make changes, save changes, and delete information in VISTA is controlled by rights. While you might have a backstage pass to access VISTA, where you can go and what you can do is a different matter. Let's review the four categories of user rights.
None: The user cannot access this section.
Read: The user can view the information
Write: The user can make permanent changes to the information in your database
Delete: The user can essentially do whatever they want. They can delete voters, precincts, etc
The only people that should have "Users" rights are those approved to add people to the database
Remember! After assigning rights in the live database, you will need to issue rights in the test database as well.
Practice: The best way to familiarize yourself with VISTA and its numerous processes is by practicing in the test database. Have the administrator give you "delete" rights. You don't have to worry about making mistakes in the test database.
Changing Your Password: If a user ever needs to change their password, they only have to go into their staff record and select the change pass phrase button.
Deleting a Staff Member: To delete a staff member, go to Staff > Select your county > Double-click on the staff members name > Select the delete button at the bottom of the form.
Emailing a VISTA User: There are two ways to email a VISTA user. You can either right-click on their name on the grand staff screen and select email or go into the users record and right-click on their email address and select the email option.
Printing Your Staff List: On your county staff screen, select the print button at the top of the form.
County Options: To save time and money, many counties will contract with a local printer to send out their voter ID and confirmation request cards. Selecting the county options button at the top of the grand staff screen will allow you to choose your printer from the drop down box and what functions you want them to perform for you. These options include sending out voter ID cards and confirmation requests.
Heads-up! After adding someone to the live database you will then need to add them to the test database.
For those who are new to VISTA or not as familiar with some of its processes, this is a great place to learn because the changes and mistakes that they make will have no impact on your live database. The person adding you only needs to click on the live database toggle button on the home screen of VISTA to access the test database. They then perform the same steps to add a user to the test database. They can use the same password and give you "Delete" rights to everthing.