Every cycle, campaigns spend real money on data they never use — or worse, data that quietly steers the program wrong. Before you sign for a voter file enhancement, a consumer append, or a stack of modeled scores, ask the vendor (and yourself) these five questions.
1. When was it last touched?
“Updated” can mean re-delivered. Ask when the underlying records were refreshed against the state file, and how the vendor handles moves, deaths, and re-registrations. A file that predates the last registration deadline is a different product than one that doesn’t.
2. What’s the match rate — on your universe?
A 90% match rate on a statewide file can hide a 60% match rate in the three towns you actually care about. Ask for match rates cut to your geography and your target universe before you commit.
3. What is the model actually predicting?
A “turnout score” trained on presidential cycles will mislead you in an off-year municipal race. Ask what outcome the model was trained on, with what data, and how recently it was validated against a real election.
4. Can your tools ingest it?
Data you can’t load is decoration. Confirm the delivery format, the ID scheme it keys on, and whether your platform can absorb it without a week of engineering. (We built Romulus partly to make this problem boring.)
5. What does the contract let you do with it?
Usage restrictions matter: some files can’t be used for fundraising, some can’t be shared with a coordinated committee, and most can’t follow you to the next campaign. Read the license before the kickoff call, not after the FEC report.
The common thread: buy data for the race you’re running, not the race the sales deck was written for. If you’d like a second opinion on a data purchase, we do that.