Overview
It contains information you will need to adequately evaluate whether or not you should use Campaign Data or seek other sources for your data needs.
Except for major races, supplying data for only one candidate per race is not economically viable for us, especially in our current economic environment. We do not share information about candidates, with other candidates. Thirty years in law enforcement should assure you that we exercise discretion in our campaigns.
If you have questions or concerns about this issue, please feel free to contact us personally.
A common myth perpetuated by data vendors is that their data is “updated weekly” or some such drivel. This usually means that the age field is recalculated or the addresses are postal standardized again or something else generally inconsequential to the currency of the voter entries themselves. What you really need to know is how current the update is of the actual voters themselves: additions, deletions, changes.
So, how current does data need to be for and effective campaign? The answer depends on the year and month of your race. The nine month period prior to a Presidential election will produce a very large number of new voters, depending on the geographic area, of course. The slowest year of the four year cycle, the year prior to a presidential election, generally generates relatively few changes to the voter file unless the county decides that that is the year to identify and drop a lot of non-voters or voters who no longer reside in the county.
So here is our analysis of the need for currency. In off years (odd numbered years), where there is no county-wide or state-wide referendum, even a nine month old file will produce quite adequate data for local campaigns. In the state-wide race years (even numbered years), data should be current within six (6) months of the election.
Our Policy
We completely update our state-wide data every six (6) months. We then update additions, deletions, and critical data changes every three months. Our goal by March of 2010 is to update additions, deletions and critical data changes every 30 days which is the greatest accuracy possible with State of Florida generated data.
We have reviewed the primary political party voter programs for Florida and find them acceptable for races where there are simply no campaign funds. Incumbent or serious candidates are doing themselves no favor by using generic attempts to standardize and distribute campaign data. As of today, know of no serious campaign manager who would use the party data over third party data and programming, but, then again, I certainly do not know every campaign manager in Florida. A winning campaign needs a programmer to slice and dice district data.
But "free is free," so if your campaign has extremely limited resources, consider using party data.
Emails and forms are, at best, poor ways to make requests for even simple data orders, never mind for complicated data requests. There has been a tendency in recent years by “systems” technicians, whether in election's departments or at vendor web sites, to attempt to automate every type of order processing. For highly detailed requests, this is just plain bad policy. When campaigns relegate their technical requirements to emails or filling out forms, their efforts are almost certainly doomed to frequent error.
The least error prone method of ordering data is verbal discourse followed by written confirmation.
If someone from your campaign is unwilling to take the time to verbally communicate the campaign’s requirements when clarification is paramount, I will return the package price and terminate our relationship. I cannot assume responsibility for bad data requests, because of inexperienced or irresponsible campaign managers or operatives.
Again, the greatest source of errors in this business is emails.
Florida data is as accurate as possible based on the diligence of each employee at your local Department of Elections. Frankly, Florida voter data is probably as accurate as human beings are capable of generating. That said, there is still an occasional error.
When there is a discrepancy involving such areas as ethnicity, gender, or party affiliation, these errors exist in the county data, and we cannot be responsible for such errors, nor for correcting them. The best way to handle errors of this nature, when they come to light from a voter, is to offer to assist him or her in correcting the issue with the Elections Department.
We are not just data vendors. To the extent of our expertise, we are participants in every campaign.
We will try to give you the best campaign data and related services possible, for the least amount of money, and when you win the election, we will have established a long-term political relationship.