GOP Data Center (formerly Voter Vault)
A Republican candidate or party leader with GOP Data Center access should take full advantage of it. Even if you don't have Data Center access, you've come to the right place!
History and Overview
(Important note: We're not affiliated with Data Center or its owner the Republican party. If you've reached this page in the hope of securing Data Center credentials, please all your caucus committee or local GOP.)
Typically the GOP candidate or local chairman is issued a user name and password that allows them to log into the Data Center site and acccess the registered voters in their county or district. Once there they can look up individual voters, generate reports and download lists.
Formerly known as Voter Vault, the GOP Data Center is 25-year project of the Republican National Committee to produce an enhanced voter file. An enhanced voter file is one that is cross-matched with public and consumer information such as phone numbers, driver licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, veteran records, property records, census results, phone numbers and, in at least one state we've seen, the results of past telephone surveys. In addition the file is matched against the Postal Service's National Change of Address (NCOA) system to clean up the bad addresses.
Sounds like just what you need, right?
Data Center problems
Old data
The GOP Data Center file contains voters and vote history from the last time the RNC collected your state's voter file. Which could be two years past. Which means it's probably missing data from the most recent election, as well as those who've recently registered or changed their addresses. Downloading your own voter file is easy in most states. NCOA processing is easily affordable when one considers the cost of wasted time and returned mail.
Bad phone numbers
According to the CDC only 37 percent of US households have landline phones (and only half of those are listed!). Yet we've seen Data Center files with phone-match rates of 80 percent or better. And we've also heard the reports from users who say that half the numbers are bad. (Go figure.) Fortunately, phone-matching your own file is much cheaper these days. Our software makes it easy.
Strange party affiliations
The Data Center applies to each voter one of eight party designations: Strong R, Weak R, Swing Voter, Mostly D, Strong D, No Response, Lean R and Lean D. Except that it's hard to determine how these designations were made. For example, how does one designate a "Weak R" ? Much better to rely on the voter's actual registration or primary-voting history, which isn't available in the user's Data Center record. But it is available when you download your own voter file and upgrade it with Data Center other third-party enhancements. Then, using our Filpac system, you can search the database based on participation in specific elections.
The solution
The smart candidate or GOP organization will download the most current voter file from their county or state and then use the Filpac software to import the GOP Data Center's "affiliation" information. Which leaves you in possession of the best voter database available anywhere!