Table of Contents

Create A List (CAL)

The Create A List Function is how we create lists of voters based on certain selected criteria. Lists can contain as many criteria as needed to target the right voters for any given purpose. Lists serve as the backbone of all work done in VAN. Create A List is divided in two columns. On the left is where you will choose what criteria to search. On the right, you will have the ability to “Preview My Results” of the list you created before selecting “Run Search”. 



CAL Fields

Search criteria is broken down into "fields" or "tabs" which are organized alphabetically. Each tab can be expanded for you to select or enter specific criteria. 


You can rearrange the fields by applying a star to the fields you need the most. By applying a star, the field will be placed at the top of the page for easier access. Otherwise, all of the fields will be organized alphabetically. A useful tip is to "star" the "Home Districts" tab. That is the most common module people use to Create a List. This is used to find voters by legislative district, municipality or voting district. 


Another helpful tip is if you click on the blue hyperlinked titles in any of the CAL tabs, it will open to a new screen where you can select multiple items. 


Common CAL Field Descriptions

Below are some of the most common search criteria available through Create A List. Find an A to Z list here.


Home Districts

This allows a user to generate a list based on County, Precinct, Senate District, House District, or Municipality.  

  • Home Districts initially only displays a few options. However, once you select the County, several more options will appear. 
  • You will have to select a County before you are able to view any of these options.

Early Voting

Early Voting refers to whether or not people have already voted early as well as the status of their ballot applications. 

  • The first two checkboxes will either include or exclude only those who have early voted or voted absentee. 
  • For Get Out the Vote, excluding people who have already voted can be a tremendous help. Instead of wasting resources talking to folks who’ve already turned out, you can focus your efforts on turning out every Democrat possible.


Age - Registration Date 

This refers to information relating to voters' birthdays and when they last registered to vote. 

  • This tab is useful when searching for voters of a particular generation, or for recently registered voters. Using age ranges, you can find only older or younger voters and tailor your message specifically to them. 
  • Voter registration dats allow you to contact only newly registered voters. You could be the first canvasser they ever speak to as a registered voter!


Activist Codes

These are similar to Survey Questions, but they are yes/no response rather than multiple-response. For example: volunteer activist codes (yes or no).


Email 

This field refers to to the emails (and the associated voters) that you have collected in your VAN over the course of your campaign. Here, you can search based on when an email was added, the email type, and subscription status.

  • Remember that emails in My Voters are all collected by your campaign - we don’t share emails across all of VAN to reduce the chance our emails are flagged as spam. Searching by Email will only include those whose emails your campaign has uploaded into VAN.


Phones 

This field refers to the phone numbers connected with voters’ VAN accounts, the various attributes associated with them, and the likelihood they are still in service. You can narrow your search by the likelihood the number is a cell phone as well. 

  • By restricting lists to certain Phone Quality Scores or Phone Types, you can guarantee your Virtual Phone Banks are comprised of working phone numbers.
  • These scores, which range from Very High to Very Low, measure the likelihood that a phone number is still in service or has been disconnected or is unavailable. Higher scores mean the phone number is more likely to work, while lower scores mean it has been flagged as likely to no longer work.
  • Narrowing your list to phones, in addition to other criteria, will also clear names with no phone numbers from your list. 
  • Contacts can have more than one phone number that may be outdated. As you call through, you are also cleaning up data and you aren’t leaving anyone out if you’re in a phase of your campaign where your targets are broader.


Suppressions

These are automatically enabled filters that remove people who have been marked as “Deceased” or having a “Bad Address”, as well as other filters. 

  • It is recommended that the “Remove all Suppressions” option be used in EVERY step of a search.  
  • It is important to remove folks who do not want to be contacted. Otherwise, they'll be less likely to engage with Democrats in the future. 


Survey Questions

They are the easiest tool for finding voters who have already responded to your campaign or campaigns that overlap with yours. You can also exclude folks that have already responded to your campaign.

  • Once you select a Survey Question, you will be able to select which responses you’d like to include in your list. You can further narrow your search by specifying how the responses were entered, when they were entered, and who - either canvasser or committee - entered them. 
  • You can search on both active and "archived" Survey Questions in your committee. 
  • Checking “Most Recent Response Only” will ensure you only see folks based on their most recent responses. Sometimes, re-canvassed voters may provide different answers, so this checkbox can address that.
  • An example use: following up with voters who have responded “yes” to a Lawn Sign Survey Question so that they can receive Lawn Signs.


Scores

Scores allows you to search for voters with Score values within a specified range. A “score” is a number - generally between 0 and 100 - calculated and assigned to voters based on specific criteria.

  • Your campaign will have access to scores from the DNC and other vendors such as Civis and TargetSmart.


Voting History

Voting History allows you to filter your list to only voters who have voted in certain elections or combinations of elections.

  • You will first have to specify how you would like to select voters based on their participation. Each is self-explanatory: “Any” will select folks who participated in any selected election, “All” in all selected elections, and so on.
  • Special Election data - referring to off-year elections only to fill vacant seats - is often not included in this tab. This information is sometimes available by request, depending on availability.