Phoning is an important part of voter contact, so VCS makes every effort to have as many phone numbers on file as possible. We have phone numbers for an average of 68% of our voters nationwide – this translates to over 112 million voters with phones. In addition, we supply information regarding how “good” each number is likely to be.
We obtain phone numbers two ways. Some election officials request telephone numbers when people register to vote; these numbers are then supplied on the voter files that VCS purchases from the county and state election officials. We also subscribe to a nation-wide telephone directory, which is updated quarterly.
Every three months, we match the newest national directory to our file. Where we find a match on name and address, we add that number to the voter record. If there is already a number supplied on the voter file, we compare the number to that on the directory. If they are the same, we say that number is verified. If the numbers are different, we overlay the supplied number with the number on the directory. Although most political calling is exempt from the DO NOT CALL regulations, we also add DO NOT CALL coding from our directory service. See more details about DO NOT CALL.
Once we have added a number to the voter file database, we may replace that number with a newer number, but we will not remove the number. So we supply information for each number that tells the age of the directory that last matched that number. In that way, you can determine how “good” a number is likely to be.
