MDP Help Desk

Hi Michigan VAN Users,

We have a few items to share with you this week:

2024: Turnout - Targeting

A newly released turnout score for 2024 is now available in VAN! You’ll find some information about the score below. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to our team at van@michigandems.com

The 2022 and 2023 versions of the Turnout score are no longer updating and will be removed the week of 3/11/24. If you’re using the 2022 or 2023 scores in saved searches, you’ll need to update your searches with the 2024 score.

The 2024: Turnout - Targeting model is a probability score that predicts the likelihood that an individual will vote in the 2024 General Election. As an example, the model predicts that a voter with a score of 80 has an 80% likelihood of voting in November.

This score should be used in combination with candidate support, party support, or ideology scores and IDs to build your targets. This score does not predict partisanship in any way, only turnout likelihood.

Because this score relies heavily on previous election turnout, newly registered voters with little to no vote history may be unscored. It’s a good practice to add unscored, left-leaning new registrants to your GOTV targets.

VAN Access

We encourage candidates to request VAN access for 2024 campaigns as early as possible. You will only need to renew if you decide to run for re-election or another office. To renew or request VAN access for a campaign, please fill out the VAN Access Request Form. Once we've received your form, we'll follow up with more details and next steps.

Vote History for Presidential Primary Election

We expect to receive vote history from the Secretary of State for the February 27th Election with our March voter file update. This update should land in VAN by mid to late March.

Once we receive the vote history for this election, you can find it in the Voting History section of Create a List.

Due to concerns raised by the Board of Elections regarding compliance with secret ballot laws, Vote Method will not be available on the Presidential Primary vote history file. This means that you will not be able to select if someone voted at the polls or by absentee ballot for this election.

Additionally, the Board of Elections has a retention period of 22 months for ballot choice data for the presidential primary and will not be available until after the primary. We don’t have a specific date from the SoS on when it will be available, but will keep our VAN users updated as more information is known.

As always, if you have any questions, you can reach out to our team at van@michigandems.com. You can find a full list of VAN support channels and resources at midems.co/van-help.

All the best,
MDP Data Team