Trying to transfer xml data into SQL as elements (not attribute) - sql-server

Question

I am new at this so please bear with me. I am attempting to transfer some XML data into Microsoft SQL Server. I am assuming that this data needs to be transferred as elements and not attributes because the contents of the columns will not be static.
However for some reason when I attempt to transfer the data as elements I get NULL values. But when I try to transfer this same data as attributes it works and looks the way it is supposed to. I am tempted to shrug and just move on but I'm worried that things might go awry for me if I do that later on down the road.
I already have some attributes from this XML that I managed to transfer as attributes which I plan to combine with these elements that are masquerading as attributes into a single table. Will it work? And if it does will there be problems down the road?
Here is my SQL code when I attempt to transfer the elements as elements:
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML (#hdoc, '/roll/voter', 2)
WITH (
id int,
[value] char(50),
[state] char(2))
Here is my SQL code when I attempt to transfer the elements as attributes:
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML (#hdoc, '/roll/voter', 1)
WITH (
id int,
[value] char(50),
[state] char(2))
Here is a miniaturized version of the XML document:
<roll>
<voter id="400048" value="Yea" state="FL" />
<voter id="412516" value="Yea" state="CA" />
</roll>
Here is a link to the xml document via google drive (very small XML): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5VgOwWcGeLHaWctRU56Qlk3UWM
A screenshot of my SQL query, the table results, and the XML

Answer 1

FROM OPENXML is outdated and should not be used anymore (rare exceptions exist)...
Try with the real XML methods:
DECLARE #xml XML=
N'<roll>
<voter id="400048" value="Yea" state="FL" />
<voter id="412516" value="Yea" state="CA" />
</roll>';
SELECT #xml.value(N'(/roll/voter/#id)[1]',N'int') AS voter_id
,#xml.value(N'(/roll/voter/#value)[1]',N'nvarchar(max)') AS voter_value
,#xml.value(N'(/roll/voter/#state)[1]',N'nvarchar(max)') AS voter_state
The result
voter_id voter_value voter_state
400048 Yea FL