Meeting Voters at the Doorstep

Mike Noblet
Mar 1, 2018
4 min read

(Images of the L2 Ground Game walking list application for smart phone and tablet)

Various voter data vendors offer a range of digital services to connect a local district campaign with those voters deemed by the campaign to be most likely to vote for their candidate. For instance, L2 Ground Game™ offers your door-to-door canvassers via their portable digital devises direct access to the campaign’s pre-determined voters at each address in target precincts in easily to understand and viewed see on canvassers’ smart devices as shown above. The large screen image shows identified voters color coded by party or unknown affiliation. The smart phone image lists voters per address and the tablet image identifies voters per street to be contacted.

Examples of key information local candidates can access is found in L2 mobile application which combines satellite and street mapping with accurate voter data to:

View walking lists corresponding with satellite map of the street being canvassed
View what the campaign deems relevant information about voters at each address
See the superimposed locations of individual houses containing the targeted voters
Permit the canvasser to conduct a campaign-specific survey questionnaire at doorstep
Permit automated calling to leave a message with a single touch for voters not at home
Upload instant responses to secure central servers to add to the campaign's data base
Provides hard copy for canvassers to work neighborhoods if access to cellular systems is not available

Note, other voter data vendors offer similar data sorts and displays.

Vendors of Voter Files

Political data firms offer more detail because they increase public voter information with data from secretaries of state as well as with consumer information like phone numbers, driver licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, veteran records, property records, and census data. They also include current mailing addresses from the Postal Service's National Change of Address (NCOA) system. Private vendors also include demographic data like age, date of birth, gender, marital status, lifestyle choice, race or ethnicity, own/rent status, educational level, income, family size, charitable and political donation types, type of business if an owner, as well as email addresses and cell phone numbers.

Political data firms are either nonpartisan or partisan. Not associated with any party, nonpartisan firms provide access to politically unbiased databases. Partisan firms offer voter data developed by a major party, or the firm associates with the Democratic or Republican Party. They augment public elections records with current data gathered by the local party as well as data collected in recent local campaigns.

Voter data vendors typically offer these data

Local government voter names and any information that comes with the voter name such as address, date of birth, voting frequency and party affiliation
Voting history including election years, voting history, voting percentage if available.
Newly registered and voters who have moved to the precinct
Mailing and residential USPS address standardization
USPS Delivery Point Validation, to ensure the address is deliverable
Land line and/or cell phone numbers if available
All voter names at an address for efficient walk lists and lower mailing costs
Party affiliation for efficient targeting
A voter’s gender, age, birth year and age range
2010 Census and American Consumer Survey data
Voters who moved out of the target district or died
Ethnic surnames
Income data and consumer preferences

Qualifying Data Vendors

Select a vendor offering accurate, up-to-the-minute data easily deciphered by anyone in your campaign. How well you choose your data determines how well your message gets heard. How well you choose it can make or break you on Election Day.

Ask past candidates in your local area how they made their decisions regarding voter data and get referrals as you decide what best serves your needs. Pay attention to how well a vendor demonstrates how easy it is to use the vendor’s Website to access voter information. Is there verifiable local experience? Is there a toll-free help desk 24/7?

The Take Away

Strive to find the voter data vendor which offers the most data sorts, flexibility in providing your campaign with real time walk list smart phone applications or easy to follow paper lists all of which are meant to make you and your volunteers canvassing as intuitive and easy to follow. If you take the time early on to find that vendor with the best fit, you will be rewarded with the most effective at-the-door campaigning capability. A key factor to consider is how easy it is for the canvasser to visualize where they are and whom they find at each address. Then confidence at the door step will be yours!

Sample Voter Data Vendor List

A list of leading commercial vendors of voter data follows. Not included are vendors who resell data to provide data to candidates for marketing to voters. Should any vendor be omitted it was done by omission and not mission

NON-PARTISAN

NationBuilder

ww.nationbuilder.com elections@nationbuilder.com 213-394-4623 (Los Angeles)

L2 VoterMapping

www.l2political.com paul.westcott@l2political.com 800- 842-5478 (Bellevue, WA)

Aristotle

www.aristotle.com info@aristotle.com 800-296-2747

Trail Blazer Campaign Services

www.trailblz.com info@trailblz.com 800-446-1375 (MN)

DEMOCRATIC/PROGRESSIVE

NPG VAN

www.ngpvan.com info@npgvan.com 202-686-9330 (Washington DC)