Format attribute in ElectionReport class is required, but enumerations only cover certain use cases

[whittsxnbq]

The Format attribute in the ElectionReport class is a required. this attribute uses the ReportDetailLevel enumeration. There are only two choices in that enumeration, and both apply to the level of the counts attached to the report. This does not work for pre-election reports since there may not be any counts attached. The Format either needs to be not required, or the enumeration needs to be expanded so that something appropriate can be selected when doing a pre-election report that does not include counts.

[JDziurlaj]

We could potentially add a no-counts value to the ReportLevelDetail enumeration. Would that handle your pre-election use-case?

[whittsxnbq]

I think this field may not be modeled correctly. Counts can be applied basically to any GP Unit in the spec, so you could have contest level counts, precinct level counts and jurisdiction level counts all in the same report. And there are also many different kinds of counts that can be attached, not just vote counts for specific contest selections (which is what the current enumerations imply). You could have voter registration or absentee ballots counts in a pre-election file but not have any vote counts. So I think the bigger question is what we are trying to capture with this field. If your report happens to include vote counts for specific contest selections, and it’s useful for consumers to know what level those vote counts appear at, then I’m good leaving this at this level and adding the generic enumeration for “no-counts” if there are no actual election results. But then I think we should consider renaming the field and/or enumeration, as well as making the documentation for the field and the enumeration more specific to this narrow situation. If the field was intended to be more broad, then I think we need to think through what level it should be at and what the choices should actually be in order to accommodate the broader range of count types and count levels. From: John Dziurlaj <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2019 9:13 AM To: usnistgov/ElectionResultsReporting <[email protected]> Cc: Sarah Whitt <[email protected]>; Author <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [usnistgov/ElectionResultsReporting] Format attribute in ElectionReport class is required, but enumerations only cover certain use cases (#33) We could potentially add a no-counts value to the ReportLevelDetail enumeration. Would that handle your pre-election use-case? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#33?email_source=notifications&email_token=AK4O25VPTTQFYNBJZKVVCCDQNHW7HA5CNFSM4I34OQW2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEAOLAQQ#issuecomment-538751042>, or mute the thread<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AK4O25XT4AKLYGYIUP7OEULQNHW7HANCNFSM4I34OQWQ>.