We are reaching out with some important updates about district data used for your donor targeting and organizing efforts.

Redistricting 

Now that the U.S. Census Bureau has released population counts from the 2020 Census, each state will use this data in redistricting, the redrawing of congressional and state legisla­tive district boundaries. Since states will follow different timelines, the availability of the newer districts will vary.

 

As soon as TargetSmart provides us with the new district data, we will display both old and new district information on contact records on a state-by-state basis. At that time, the existing district fields, such as State House, will be populated with the new districts, while the old district fields will be prepended with 2011-2021, such as 2011-2021 State House.

 

To find out which states have been populated so far in NGP please download the list from the page linked below. Keep checking back if you do not see your state listed yet.

 

Bookmark the help article 

District matching 

 

We have also made our district matching logic more flexible to accommodate a number of common situations with addresses. Please keep in mind that it does not change how districts work in other sites.

 

Previously, districts only displayed for contact record containing an address with a zip9 and an associated voter registration. Going forward, if a zip9 value is provided but cannot be matched to the voter file, we will check the zip7 table to see if we can determine the Congressional, State Senate, and State House districts based on the first 7 digits of that zip9.

 

If only a zip5 value was provided, we will check the zip5 table to see if we can determine the Congressional, State Senate, and State House districts based on that zip5.

 

These changes allow you to identify districts for contacts that have:

• an address where nobody is registered to vote
• a PO Box address
• a commercial address
• an address USPS does not deliver to
• an address in a new development that USPS has not assigned a zip4 to
• an incomplete address, missing a street but that contains a zip5

 

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

 

Yours,

 

Mark Puleo

(He, Him, His)
Vice President of Client Services, NGP VAN

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