Texas Democratic Party Support Hub

Introduction

Why print lists?

Printing lists is a useful, albeit outdated, method of pulling information directly from VAN to produce physical calling and canvassing lists. In general, we recommend using Virtual Phone Banks and cutting turf for calls and canvassing respectively (more information in Contacting Voters => Using Lists), but for older volunteers or people without cell phones or reliable internet access, paper lists can be a helpful tool. Campaigns also use paper lists for letter and postcard writing, as information on lots of people can be organized in a single place.

Why export lists?

Exporting lists, much like printing, is a useful way of pulling data directly from VAN, but comes with its own set of limitations, detailed at the bottom of this page. We recommend exporting only for when you need VAN data for a third-party application that does not have an API connection with VAN, or for sending to mailing vendors for address matching and sending literature. 

Printing and Exporting

How to print a list

Once you've used Create a List to pull the voters you need, you'll be taken to the My List screen in VAN. Once there, you should see a button labeled "Print" in the top left of the screen. Clicking it will take you to a page where you can design how you would like your data to be printed. Each section refers to the following:

Report Format 

This refers to how the printed page will actually look. TDP has a number of default formats, but you can create your own by navigating to the Report Formats page on the left menu. Changing the Report Format will not affect the actual data, but will change its order and what information is displayed. Options include names and addresses, contact information, and even useful personal data such as Target placement and primary and general election voting history.

Script 

If you're printing lists to use for canvassing or calling, you can specify the script you'd like included at the front of your printout here. You can leave this section blank if you do not need a script included.

Contacted How

Here, you can specify the Contact Type. The most common selections are Phone and Walk. If you're organizing a Lit Drop, please select Walk rather than Lit Drop, because we ask people to tag Lit Dropped as a Canvass Result, rather than a Contact Type. Please submit a ticket for additional questions here.

Sort Order

This section determines the order that your data will be organized by. Please note that you can also specify Ascending and Descending (Asc and Desc) to better organize your data.

Other

There are a number of important options here. Print Map will include a map of the specified area, which is useful for canvassing and lit dropping. Exclude Anyone who has Early or Absentee Voted is checked by default, so make sure to remove it if you want these folks included. Lastly, Format for Clipboard ensures that important data is not placed at the very top.

Once you've selected Next, your printed list should appear in My Export Files shortly.

How to export a list

From My List, you can also select Export on the same menu as Print. Once you select Export, it will take you to a page with a dropdown menu to select Export Format. If you are looking to quickly pull a list of addresses, Household Mailing List is the best option, but otherwise, Standard Text exports are the most customizable. You'll want to select Customize Export in the bottom right to change the exported fields. 

Exporting FAQ 

Why is the "Email Blob" the only type of export available?

This occurs when a user tries to export more rows than they are allowed to. You can check out our export limits under User Administration => Creating and Managing Users. We place these limits to ensure people do not misuse data or violate federal regulations on robocalling. To increase your export limits, contact your VAN administrator, usually the Campaign Manager or County Chair, for information.

When I try to export cell phone numbers, why are they mostly blank?

By default, cell phone exports are disabled to ensure voters are contacted appropriately. When people are robocalled or contacted incessantly outside of federal guidelines, they become hostile and more likely to request we do not contact them anymore, so it's important people are only called appropriately. If you need to export cell phone numbers, please submit a help ticket and explain for what purpose they are needed. If you are not your VAN committee's admin, please include them on the thread, as we will need their permission to proceed.

I tried to export email addresses and barely got any. What happened?

For much of the same reasons as above, email addresses are not included in VAN by default.  If voters receive emails from campaigns they didn't subscribe to, they are much more aggressive at blocking emails from Democrats. That's why the only emails available in your VAN committee are the ones your campaign has added. Once you've added an email address for a voter into their profile, you'll be able to search and export it.  

Why am I still hitting the export limit even though I am the VAN administrator for my committee?

No user has unlimited export capabilities by default. If you need to export a list larger than what your account allows, submit a help ticket asking for an Export Approval Profile.