IV3 UPDATES

Thanks for signing up to participate in this crowdsourced effort to help clean our Nation’s voter rolls. Here’s the latest news on all things IV3.

1. If you have NOT received an email to begin your registration process you can register right here, right now. 

2. We must be able to match your IV3 registration to your ID and your voter registration. We know this is a hassle, but it is essential for project management, accuracy in submissions, and follow up. We are highly sensitive to confidentiality of the data. It will not be shared or sold. We also know that sometimes … shocker… voter registration records can be wrong. We’ll work with you to get any issue resolved. We’re all in this together.

3. Once you’re in, here’s what you can expect from IV3:

• You will be given access to your local county (or equivalent) voter rolls.

• We’ve queued up datasets to help you evaluate:

  • Single Address Lookup

  • Single Voter Lookup

  • Change of Residency - Registration records that have been matched to United States Postal Service’s National Change of Address (NCOA) database and appear* to indicate the voters no longer live where they are registered. The data is from the United States Postal Service’s NCOA database, with Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) and Delivery Point Validation (DPV) enhancements to the data. The NCOA database tracks self-reported permanent residence moves. We look at moves both intercounty and interstate.

  • Non-Standard Addresses - Registration records with addresses designated by the USPS as either commercial, vacant, or invalid (which effectively means “nonexistent”)**

  • 👆Sorted by Address Density - addresses with uncommonly high densities of registered voters.***

  • P.O. Boxes - voters with registered addresses at P.O. boxes (this is not their mailing address, this is their registered address.) This is an ineligible record in certain states****

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES

* On NCOA data - It is critical to keep in mind that datasets like these are always lagging, so they are not reflective of absolute real time data. And, people change their minds, they move back, they filled out the information incorrectly, they intended to indicate a temporary move not a permanent one, etc. Therefore, we should expect that some of the matches are inaccurate, not because the data is bad, but because … life happens. Published reports indicate NCOA accuracy of 93 - 98%. So, some challenges will inevitably be wrong, but the vast majority will be right.

** Non-Standard Addresses - States have different standards. Non-standard addresses may not be considered ineligible in your state. Before submitting a challenge based on a non-standard address, check your election code and/or call your Election Administrator to confirm.

*** Address Density - We should not assume that registered voter address density is always problematic. We provide this view of the data because it is a useful segmentation for researchers, but more information is necessary to determine whether or not these records are ineligible.

**** P.O. Boxes - States have different standards. P.O. boxes may legal in your state or your state’s election code may be silent on the matter (so it’s unclear what the status is). Before submitting a challenge based on a P.O. Box, check your election code and/or call your Election Administrator to confirm.

If you select a record for challenge, it will be pulled out of the queried data so that records will not be challenged twice. This means that if you have a team of people reviewing records in your county, you will not have redundant challenges.

4. You are in charge of your challenges - As you identify challenges, they will be held in your account queue until you decide to download and submit. Our recommendation is to submit a small number first and see how it goes. You may need to adjust your process. We may need to adjust ours. We will figure it out!

5. Where should you send your challenges - Contact your local election administrator, explain what you’re working on, and email your challenges to wherever you are directed.

6. How to file a challenge and what to expect - Every state is different. On the IV3 website, you’ll find a spreadsheet of the state specific challenge process information we’ve been able to gather, including the election code, affidavits if necessary, and a template cover letter. Your county could have one of several reactions to your filing:

   1. They could review the list, verify using their own data, flag or otherwise notify the voters in question, and help uphold election integrity.

   2. They could do nothing.

   3. They could call a hearing and ask you to attend to explain your work.

   4. They could stir up controversy, resulting in your name being disclosed, potentially given to the press, and more. This is the reality of where we find ourselves. We hope it will not happen, but it could.

7. We want your feedback! If you have questions, comments, suggestions, frustrations … we want to hear about it. You can reach us via in-app chat (bubble on the lower right of the screen in the app), email us at [email protected], or join us at an Open Mic. What’s an Open Mic? We’re so glad you asked!

Beginning at noon central on Wednesday 5/1 and every M,W,F thereafter, we are hosting an Open Mic podcast on Onward in Locals to answer questions and talk through issues.

There are over 25 million records to be evaluated. Our deadline is, roughly, July 15th (based early election start dates and the 90 day NVRA cut off (which does not apply in every state. See our Help Desk / Challenge Info Spreadsheet in the app for more details)).

Approximately 30,000 people have signed up to help in the IV3 - so far. Thank you for being willing to roll up your sleeves, put on your waders, and jump in.

God bless you. God bless America.

Ever onward -

Your IV3 Team