subject: Political Market Consulting [print this page] Political data processing is a concept, process, business and industry of it's own.
Little is know of this industry except by Service Bureau's and a few Direct Marketing companies, it's a niche in the world of Direct Marketing few companies or consultants venture, it has it's cliques and political ties that make it unique and a bit of a out cast.
It involves voters lists maintained by the States, these lists can be rented but not easily, they are usually politically connected and in some cases you need to be registered to the Democratic or Republican party.
The most important data in political data processing is the voter history data, that is usually kept seperate from the regular voter registration files that contain personal information including social security numbers.
The voter history data contains the history of a persons voting record, how many times he/she voted, what elections, what party and other information, this data is very valuable because the more a person has voted (meaning a good voting record), this person is the best both parties want to market their campaigns points and political view towards.
Much of the voter selections are by political districts (i.e. CD, SD, WD) congressional districts, senate districts, water districts etc, also age, sex, party and voting history, an example of a good voting history would be someone who has voted 5 times in the last 6 elections.
Many time these voters are selected in small town elections and targeted with campaigns that are built around a very local issue, this is a powerful way to sway people and can cause much controversy between neighbors.
