Using the Voter Data Enrichment App

Search the voter file, turn a voter into a contact, and attach voter details such as party, districts and voting propensity to the contacts you already have. With automatic matching on, ContactDrive checks new and updated contacts against the voter file for you and records on each contact whether it was checked and what it found.

Availability

Voter Data Enrichment isn't listed in the public marketplace — it's enabled by our support team or comes with a political Edition. Get in touch if you need it. The app is in beta.

Searching the voter file

1. Open the Voter enrichment app.
2. Fill in what you know: First name, Last name, Street, City, State and ZIP.
3. Click Search the voter file.

Each match shows as a Voter record card with the key voter fields. Click Create contact to add that voter to ContactDrive. If the person is already one of your contacts, you'll see This person is already one of your contacts. Choose the Existing contact to merge the voter record onto it, or choose Create a new contact anyway.

What a search needs

• A state. The voter file is searched one state at a time.
• A last name or a ZIP code. A search with only a street address is refused, because the voter file can't be searched by street alone.
• The street helps less than you'd think. It narrows voter records ContactDrive already has on hand, but it isn't sent to the voter file itself. To narrow a search, add a first name or a ZIP code.

If nothing matches, you'll see No voter records matched that search. Try a different spelling, or drop a field.

Matching a contact you already have

Open the contact, go to its Enrichment tab and click Find voter record. The search is filled in from the contact's name and primary address. Pick the right record and click Apply to contact. A contact that's already matched shows Matched to voter record with its voter ID.

Automatic matching

An admin can have ContactDrive match contacts in the background:

1. Open the Voter enrichment app and click App Settings.
2. Under Automatic voter matching, turn on Auto-match new and updated contacts.
3. Click Save.

From then on, each new or updated contact is looked up in the voter file. A contact needs a first name, a last name and a US state, plus a ZIP code or a city. ContactDrive looks up the name, state and ZIP first; if that doesn't find exactly one voter, it tries the name, city and state. A voter record is applied only when exactly one voter matches, so it never guesses. Anything else is left for you to resolve from the contact's Enrichment tab.

Organizations and contacts with a non-US address are skipped, because the voter file covers people in the US. Turning automatic matching on doesn't reach back to contacts that already exist; each one is checked the next time it's saved.

Voter match status

Every contact the app checks gets two fields, so you can tell "checked, nothing found" apart from "never checked":

• Voter match status — one of Matched, No match, Ambiguous (several voters matched, so nothing was applied) or Insufficient data (the contact is missing a name, a state, or both a ZIP and a city).
• Voter checked at — when the voter file was last checked for this contact.

Applying a match, whether you click Apply to contact or automatic matching does it, sets Matched. The other outcomes come from automatic matching, so turn it on if you want them recorded; a search you run yourself doesn't change a contact's status. Both fields are filled in by the app and can't be edited by hand. Use them like any other field: filter a view to No match to see who needs a closer look, or to Insufficient data to find contacts missing an address. Because a status change updates the contact, Zapier, webhooks and other automations that react to contact updates see it too.

Contacts checked before these fields existed don't have a status yet; each gets one the next time it's saved or matched.

What you get

A matched contact gains voter file details such as Voter ID, Party, Congressional district, State senate district, State house district, Voting propensity, Birth date, Gender, Residence and Mailing address. Matched data fills gaps rather than overwriting what you already know.

Troubleshooting

• Too many voters matched. Add a first name or a ZIP code.
• "Insufficient data" on a contact. Add a ZIP code or a city to the contact's address; it's checked again when you save.
• A contact is protected. Protected contacts can't be updated from the voter file. Edit the contact directly instead.
• An organization. Voter records are for people, so there's nothing to match.

Voter file matching is only as good as what it has to match on. A contact with a full name and a home address matches far more reliably than one with a first name and an email. If your match rate disappoints, importing better address data will do more for you than searching again.