With the 2007 and 2008 elections quickly approaching, voter files and customized lists will be frequently used by many campaigns to communicate with voters through direct mail, phone banks, and canvassing efforts. Other political organizations will also use these lists for campaign strategy, polling, voter registration drives, and fundraising efforts. With the two major parties more polarized than ever before, campaigns for the Presidency, Congress, and state level races are closely contested as a result. Because of this campaigns must have the ability to effectively target and efficiently utilize their voter list. Organization’s who accomplish best will turn out their base vote and sway undecided voters to support their candidate.

The initial step for an organization to target voters is to secure a voter file of their district or area of interest.  Many states provide a list of registered voters at their Secretary of State’s office. Voter Lists can also be acquired from many State Parties or a number of reputable vendors. These lists help determine who your campaign should contact.  The lists will also include information on each individual voter such as address, political district, party affiliation (in states that register by party), precinct information, previous vote history, gender, date of birth, and ethnicity if available.  Many vendors will further improve the value of a voter file by overlaying demographic information such as magazine subscriptions, hobbies and interests, and by cleansing the lists through the postal service National Change of Address system and purging deceased voters. These techniques will dramatically improve the accuracy and reliability of the voter data. Other valuable enhancements and demographic information that vendors can provide are: telephone numbers, previous political donor history, magazine subscriptions, income, homeowner and renter flags, and education levels. Once organizations have a voter file in their possession, they can begin to focus on micro-targeting their voters.

Most organizations recognizes  they must have the ability to personalize their voter contact  programs by using phone, direct mail, or Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts. However, many are ineffective at doing so because they cannot properly manipulate the data or fail to receive regular updates to their voter lists. As political organizations are moving into the modern age so is the availability of voter files. Many voter files are available in a computerized format from the State Board of Elections. Additionally, some vendors can provide software to help with voter data manipulation and grant access legally to voter files via the Internet...

(Part 2 coming September 19, 2007)