July 5th, 2024 - MI VAN Update Email

07/05/2024

Hello MI VAN Users!

We have some important updates to share with you this week:

2024 DNC Dem Party Support 

The 2024 DNC Dem Party Support score was recently added to VAN. This model represents a given voter’s likelihood of voting for Democrats over Republicans in a head to head race.

The DNC provided Dem Party Support score is used to help identify voters who will vote for Democrats over Republicans in a head to head election. It does not predict the strength of those voters. Going forward, we will explain what the score says, how to use it, and what went into making it.

What Do These Numbers Mean? 

DNC provided modeled scores are between 0 and 100. Someone with a score of 80 has an 80% likelihood of supporting Democrats over Republicans, while someone with a score of 60 has a 60% likelihood of Dem support. However, it does not mean that the person with a score of 80 is a stronger Democrat than the person with a score of 60.

How Do I Use Scores? 

Scores are designed to improve the efficiency of your outreach efforts. It is not recommended that you use this score to try to identify persuadable or independent voters. Persuadability or intensity of support are not encoded in this model at all. This score is also not designed to help identify high or low turnout voters. There is a separate Turnout - Targeting score that can be used for turnout-based targeting.

If you are looking to find the strong Democrats, you should utilize the Party Strength Target. Use cases for this score can include GOTV, donor and volunteer recruitment, and household level-messaging.

Inputs:
  • Voter file demographic fields, including age and gender
  • Vote history, including single-election turnout and turnout patterns across a series of elections, as well as party primaries
  • VAN survey response data from previous election cycles
  • Demographic scores, like education level and religious affiliation. This includes demographic scores built internally by the DNC and models provided by vendors like Civis
  • Census data including ancestry and origin, education, race and ethnicity, population density, income, and marital status
AV Data in VAN

Absentee Voter data for the August primary is now being delivered daily in VAN, and will continue through the primary election on August 6.

Daily AV files are delivered every business day and are typically available in VAN by 11am. If you’d like to receive notifications for AV file uploads to VAN, you can subscribe to the #van-users channel in the MichiganDems Slack workspace. Make sure you turn on channel notifications!

In VAN, you can find AV data in Create a List under the Early Vote section.



Ballot Application Returned refers to when requests for absentee ballots are received by the clerk. Ballot Mailed refers to when the clerk has mailed the ballot to the secretary of state’s office. Finally, Ballot Received refers to when the clerk has received a completed ballot.
 

Texting

The Michigan Democrats Texting Portal is now available for MDP chartered units! This portal will be your one-stop shop to send out texting campaigns during the 2024 election cycle. If you have any questions about the new texting portal, please email texting@michigandems.com and someone from our team will follow up.

All texting requests for non-CER and CER counties will be directed to the Michigan Democrats Texting Portal. You can sign up for access to the portal here: https://forms.movementlabs.com/MI-Sign-Up. Here's a video overview of the portal itself, and a link to the training documentation and help center: https://mlabs.link/help.

Additionally, Movement Labs will host weekly office hours and texting portal training sessions. You can find the links to the office hours and trainings below:

Texting Training Portal: https://www.mobilize.us/movementlabs/event/633631/.
Texting Portal Office Hours: https://www.mobilize.us/movementlabs/event/633832/.
 

As always, if you have any questions, you can reach out to our team at van@michigandems.com.  


All the best,

MDP Data Team


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