Appropriate VAN Usage (txdem.co/VAN-Usage)
County parties, precinct chairs, SDEC members, and other organizations such as clubs (referred to in this document as activists) are given VAN as representatives and volunteers of the state party to organize their communities. This granting of VAN is a privilege and can be revoked by the TDP at any time. Campaigns and other committees pay a fee for access to VAN and have certain rules that need to be followed. Please refer to the following document to better understand appropriate uses of VAN and the consequences of violating this agreement.
All activists MUST affirm their acceptable usage guidelines as defined on this document by going to txdem.co/confirm-van-guidelines and completing the form. Failure to do so will result in deactivation of the VAN account. To find out how to remedy the situation and more, please visit the VAN Usage Policy for Activists section of our VAN FAQ (txdem.co/VAN-FAQ).
Campaign Committees (Individual Candidates) & Other Committees 3
Data sharing for the purposes of a coordinated campaign 3
SDEC Caucuses/Members and State Party Officials 4
Statewide clubs, Sub-chapters 4
General usage guidelines
Activists should use their VAN access to organize their communities around a progressive message and agenda. For example, folks might do some or all of the following:
Register new voters, especially those that have recently moved
Make calls to voters during the legislative session
Make calls or knock on doors of voters to ID them as democrats
Generic, Non-Campaign Specific GOTV efforts
Folks cannot engage in activity benefitting a candidate who does not have a VAN license including (but not limited to):
Set up the candidate or a representative of the candidate as a user
Make calls or knock on doors of voters to ID them for a particular candidate
Run counts and crosstabs to determine voter counts
Print mail or walk lists
Using activist voter file for consulting service (paid or unpaid) to candidates
Campaigns and other committees who have paid for access to VAN by request/approval/fee payment via txdem.co/VAN-Request and their users may only assist their own campaign with their VAN use unless allowed in proper coordinated circumstances explained in this document or in the Online Voter File Use and Access Policy.
Exports
VAN data is to be used either directly inside VAN or through authorized API connections directly to VAN. When a voter contact tool does not connect directly to VAN, limited exports might be allowed from VAN on a limited basis and will be approved on a case by case basis solely at the discretion of TDP. Any such permitted exports must comply with TDP terms. Repeated exports for the purposes of getting around export limits are not allowed and could result in loss of VAN access and/or other penalties at the discretion of TDP.
Data exported must be used for the sole purpose of voter contact (e.g., for a mailing). Exported data must be destroyed within 30 days of an export and no copies may be retained.
Data cannot be exported and maintained in other systems including, but not limited to AWS servers, Google BigQuery Databases, Airtable, Google Sheets, etc. without the express written approval of TDP
User creation
Only the County Party Chair/delegated County Party VAN Committee Administrators or Campaign VAN Admin will receive access from the TDP. Please see txdem.co/TDP-User-Profiles on the different user profiles(permission sets) so you can see on who should get what level of user profile. Each level of user is able to create users of the level below theirs.
County Party VAN Committees
Other county party officials, including, but not limited to, precinct chairs, co-chairs, advisory committee members, local Democratic club leaders, GOTV chairs and other positions within the County Party structure, as well as general Democratic Activists, should work with their County Chair, staff, where applicable, and Precinct Chairs to gain VAN access. They are forbidden from granting access to candidates, officeholders or individuals working on specific campaigns and must refer these users to the TDP—unless that Campaign has their own currently paid VAN access.
Campaign Committees (Individual Candidates) & Other Committees
Campaigns & Other Committees can give access to staff or volunteers who need VAN access to assist that campaign. They are forbidden from granting access to other candidates, officeholders or individuals working on other specific campaigns and must refer these users to the TDP—unless that Campaign has their own currently paid VAN access.
Grassroots Organizers (GRO)
If a user is prevented from accessing their county VAN committee, or is otherwise unable to obtain an account for reasons other than those listed in the Appropriate VAN Usage document, and that user requires VAN access for purposes other than to support a specific campaign, TDP can on a case-by-case basis elect to grant access to the Grassroots Organizers VAN committee. Users may only receive access to their county, and are asked to submit a help ticket if they would like to create additional VAN accounts.
These policies are subject to change, and access may be revoked at any time without warning if a user is found to have violated the VAN guidelines.
Data sharing for the purposes of a coordinated campaign
Data sharing for the purposes of a coordinated campaign is encouraged and must follow specific guidelines. All candidates engaging with the coordinated campaign must request access directly from the TDP. Once candidates have obtained and paid for access, candidates are welcome to share data, obtained through the Candidate’s VAN committee, with other candidates and activist groups. Candidates with paid access may also work out of another VAN committee such as a County Party, State Senate or State House campaign committee based on the coordinated setup in that geography.
For example, a State Senate Candidate may not give a walk list to a State House Candidate where their districts overlap if the State House Candidate does not have paid access. In this case, the State House Candidate must arrange for independent access through the TDP. Only at that time can the campaigns share data.
Remediation process
In the event that a user is found to be violating these rules, TDP reserves the right to limit VAN access including (but not limited to):
First violation: Warning to activist, admin of activist committee, and candidate; VAN invoice sent to candidate (for a candidate who is not current for their VAN Committee fee)
Second violation: Suspension of activist account for 30 days, notification to admin of activist committee
Third violation: Suspension of activist account indefinitely, pending review of TDP, potentially through the end of the election cycle; notification to admin of activist committee
Note that a warning is not guaranteed. The TDP reserves the right to immediately suspend any user’s access.
Non-Campaign VAN Access
SDEC Caucuses/Members and State Party Officials
SDEC caucuses/members and State Party Officials can receive VAN access in SDEC committee at User Profile Texas (3); at the direction of the Executive Director, SDEC Caucuses can have their own SDEC committee
Like county parties, access is for general party-building activities, including constituent voter contact and straight ticket voter IDs, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
No candidate specific survey questions will be shared until only one Democrat is in the race for non-partisan races, only in situations where the candidate has already purchased VAN—if the campaign agrees—there will be no need share partisan race survey question since those would only be available after a nominee is chosen and all nominees use the same cross-committee survey questions, per txdem.co/TDP-SQs.
If a caucus plans to raise and spend more than $500 and/or support specific candidates they must incorporate / file as a PAC and apply for VAN access through that PAC
Statewide clubs, Sub-chapters
If granting access through county parties isn’t feasible (see Clubs in a single county & Clubs in multiple counties below), statewide clubs could ask the state party for access for them and their sub-chapters. This is the least preferred approach and should be exhausted only when all other options don’t make sense.
Like county parties, access is for general party-building activities, including constituent voter contact and straight ticket voter IDs, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
No candidate specific survey questions will be shared until only one Democrat is in the race for non-partisan races, only in situations where the candidate has already purchased VAN—if the campaign agrees—there will be no need share partisan race survey question since those would only be available after a nominee is chosen and all nominees use the same cross-committee survey questions, per txdem.co/TDP-SQs.
If the club plans to raise and spend more than $500 and/or support specific candidates they must incorporate / file as a PAC and apply for VAN access through that PAC at txdem.co/VAN-Request; State party will pursue a data swap agreement when applicable.
Clubs in a single county
Clubs should seek VAN access through their county party
Clubs will not be granted their own MyVoters/MyCampaign, and will instead use their county parties’
Like county parties, access is for general party-building activities, including constituent voter contact and straight ticket voter IDs, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
No candidate specific survey questions will be shared until only one Democrat is in the race for non-partisan races, only in situations where the candidate has already purchased VAN—if the campaign agrees—there will be no need share partisan race survey question since those would only be available after a nominee is chosen and all nominees use the same cross-committee survey questions, per txdem.co/TDP-SQs.
In the vast majority of situations, the committees will be only be shared on cross-committee survey questions, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
TDP recommends assigning the “Club VAN Admin” User Profile Level 3, 4 or 5 — depending on what that user needs to be able to do. Please review the User Profile description page at txdem.co/TDP-User-Profiles.
Clubs in multiple counties
Even if a club is in multiple counties, clubs should seek VAN access through their individual county parties and the state party will help facilitate creating an account that crosses county lines and that one county party (a county party with the majority of the precincts) will manage
Clubs will not be granted their own MyCampaign, and will instead use their county parties’ MyCampaign
Like county parties, access is for general party-building activities, including constituent voter contact and straight ticket voter IDs, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
No candidate specific survey questions will be shared until only one Democrat is in the race for non-partisan races, only in situations where the candidate has already purchased VAN—if the campaign agrees—there will be no need share partisan race survey question since those would only be available after a nominee is chosen and all nominees use the same cross-committee survey questions, per txdem.co/TDP-SQs.
In the vast majority of situations, the committees will be only be shared on cross-committee survey questions, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs
TDP recommends assigning the “Club VAN Admin” User Profile Level 3, 4 or 5 — depending on what that user needs to be able to do. Please review the User Profile description page at txdem.co/TDP-User-Profiles.
Allied Groups / Other PACs
If the Allied Groups / Other PACs plans to raise and spend more than $500 and / or support specific candidates they must incorporate / file as a PAC and apply for VAN access through that PAC at txdem.co/VAN-Request; State party will pursue a data swap agreement when applicable.
The rules above mentioned in Data sharing for the purposes of a coordinated campaign apply to PACs and Allied Groups. PACs/Orgs can use VAN to support a candidate who does not have a VAN committee if and only if their efforts are not coordinated with the candidate. Coordinated efforts include sharing data, messages, or resources with the candidate's campaign in order to avoid the candidate purchasing their own VAN committee. However, PACs/Orgs can use VAN to support the candidate without coordinating their activities with the campaign. For example, a PAC may not send a walk list to a State House candidate’s campaign but could canvass on behalf of that candidate themselves. Most commonly, this uncoordinated activity takes the form of a PAC/Allied Org supporting a slate of candidates. When in doubt, please contact the TDP Data Team.
Allied Groups / Other PACs committees will be shared on cross-committee survey questions unless not appropriate, for more on those see txdem.co/TDP-SQs. Private SQs will be created or shared from other committees when appropriate and working with TDP via VAN Help Request at txdem.co/VAN-Help.
Consultants
VAN access at the Consultant level does not include voter contact tools, such as the ability to make calls or export data.
Consultant committees are essentially for prospective purposes only. If you have questions about the specific capabilities of a consultant VAN account, please contact us at txdem.co/VAN-Help.