VAN (Voter Action Network / Votebuilder) is a database used nationally by Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations to perform voter contact and supporter/volunteer management. Your VAN subscription includes:
- Lists of registered voters, regularly updated with newly registered voters
- Platform to canvass, phone bank, record contacts
- Scripts with TDP messaging
- Guidance on who to contact for different types of voter contact, including lists of likely Democrats and persuadable voters and Race/Ethnicity, partisan and issue models
- Phone numbers, including cells from TDP and DNC acquisitions at no additional cost to the campaign
- Partnership with mail and digital companies to facilitate easy digital and mail buys
- Access to pre-negotiated rates for digital tools (e.g., Mobilize, Hustle)
How can VAN help me...
Find Democratic voters in your district? VAN allows you to cut lists based on geography and the message you are trying to deliver.
Register folks who moved into your district? VAN is regularly updated with National Change of Address (NCOA) information. This means, we’ll let you know if someone moved into your district or county who is a likely Democrat. This way you can make sure they’ve updated their voter registration!
Send holiday or birthday cards to constituents? VAN will provide you all of that information.
Setup a block walk or phone bank? VAN seamlessly integrates with canvassing (MiniVAN) and phone bank software (VPB) that is included with your VAN contract.
Find folks to robo call, text, serve digital ads to, or otherwise contact? VAN seamlessly integrates with several other digital organizing tools (e.g., texting, events management systems, robocall vendors, etc.)
The TDP Data Team can help me with...
Year Round....
- Access to National Change of Address (NCOA) reports to facilitate voter registration
- Access to training platform, including VAN and activist modules
- Access to TDP data team to facilitate troubleshooting and answering VAN questions
- Invitation to TX VAN user communities (e.g., Facebook, Slack)
- Ability to leverage DNC analytics platform (requires paid staffer who knows SQL)
- Access to digital organizing tools
During Session...
- Access to issue specific scripts, digital content
- Platform to coordinate recording most important issues for individual constituents
- Generic “Base” targets to be used as campaign starting point (e.g., always votes in D primaries, sometimes votes in D primaries, etc.)
- Guidance and training on how to use those targets
- Access to polling places in VAN (for March / May primaries in even years)
- Early vote data uploaded to VAN, where available (for March / May primaries in even years)
During the General...
- Campaign / geography specific field goals, opportunity to deep dive into goals with TDP team
- Coordinated campaign targets to facilitate collaboration across campaigns
- Access to partisan ids across other democratic campaigns
- Coordinated campaign reports, including framework for precinct level coordination
- Access to polling places in VAN
- Early vote data uploaded to VAN, where available
- Early vote reports (e.g., demographic breakdown of who voted, estimated partisanship leaning for partisan races)
What if I only want VAN?
TDP believes that campaigns and activists are most effective when running a data-driven campaign. Therefore, we have packaged our data offerings to provide you not only with a comprehensive voter file in VAN, but also with other opportunities to leverage the data. Each of these are opt-in, and you are not required to use them, although we highly recommend them.
Why do I have to pay for VAN?
The DNC invests hundreds of thousands of dollars into the VAN to make sure that it is current. Voter data from every county in the state is in the VAN, like voter registration information and vote history as far back as 2006, including Primary and General Elections. The small cost for candidates and organizations helps fund the continuous data updates (e.g., purchasing recent voter files from SOS, providing VAN support).
What kinds of trainings are available?
Once you sign up for VAN, you will receive access to a myriad of training options, including:
- Online courses through training platform
- TDP VAN FAQ that is constantly updated with latest information / best practices
- Invitation to TDP VAN Facebook group, VAN slack channel on TDP Campaign workspace