2016 Post-Election Data Updates For Advocacy

We are so close to this major election (less than 120 hours away but who’s counting, right?) and we know you are already planning your advocacy work post-election. We understand that you will want to be able to target new elected officials.

Below is a breakdown of how we will update our advocacy data and districts after the election and some other tips.

We will use this blog to provide updates and further details on when newly elected officials will be updated in the system. Use the “Subscribe to this blog” link at the top of the page to ensure you get these important updates.
 

"Lame Duck" Session Is in Effect

Blackbaud, working with our partners and data vendors, receives updated target data when new officials take office. After processing and validating the information we will push a series of updates to Luminate Online to ensure the advocacy data within your site is accurate.

• Federal Senators and Representatives return to Congress in early January 2016, when the 1st Session of the 115th Congress convenes.  Newly elected Federal Senators and Representatives will take office at that time.
   
• Newly elected state, county and municipal officials and legislators will take office at various times throughout the remainder of 2016 and into 2017.

 

The Timing of Updates

• President of the United States. The Inauguration of the 45^th POTUS is on January 20^th, 2017. Once the new POTUS is in office and has their systems in place we will update you further on timing for updating the system. In 2007, newly elected President Obama set up a transition team email and webform for use by citizens and advocacy groups to reach out to the incoming administration. If the new President does this after the election and you would like to target them for a campaign you can set this up as a custom target.
   
• House of Representatives. Congressional targets will get updated in a timely fashion thanks to the adoption of the Communicating with Congress (CWC) standards. The CWC standards help improve deliverability and ensure that US Congressional data will be up-to-date no later than January 3, 2016.
   
• US Senate. The Senate is more challenging. The Senate has not yet agreed upon uniform communication standards. This means that timing of Senate updates depends on each individual senator. As new senators assume office, they will set up either an email addresses or a webform. We will update contact data within Luminate Advocacy appropriately. The timing can vary. In past years for some senators this has process has extended into February. 
   
• State targets (governors, state legislators). Timing for state level updates differs based on when we receive the new target data from each state. For some states the updates will be as early as November 2016 and in others as late as February. See the table below for timing of state updates.
   

State and Local Legislative Updates

Legislature	Date Data Will Be Received
Hawaii	Monday, November 21, 2016
Indiana	Monday, November 21, 2016
South Carolina	Monday, November 21, 2016
Florida	Monday, November 21, 2016
Idaho	Monday, December 05, 2016
North Dakota	Monday, December 05, 2016
Pennsylvania	Monday, December 05, 2016
California	Monday, December 05, 2016
Maine	Monday, December 05, 2016
New Hampshire	Monday, December 05, 2016
US Congress	Monday, January 02, 2017
Iowa	Monday, January 02, 2017
Kentucky	Monday, January 02, 2017
Michigan	Monday, January 02, 2017
New York	Monday, January 02, 2017
District of Columbia	Monday, January 02, 2017
Montana	Monday, January 02, 2017
Ohio	Monday, January 02, 2017
Oklahoma	Monday, January 02, 2017
Wyoming	Monday, January 02, 2017
Minnesota	Monday, January 02, 2017
Rhode Island	Monday, January 02, 2017
Wisconsin	Monday, January 02, 2017
Connecticut	Monday, January 02, 2017
Massachusetts	Monday, January 02, 2017
Missouri	Monday, January 02, 2017
Nebraska	Monday, January 02, 2017
Vermont	Monday, January 02, 2017
Arizona	Monday, January 09, 2017
Arkansas	Monday, January 09, 2017
Georgia	Monday, January 09, 2017
Kansas	Monday, January 09, 2017
Oregon	Monday, January 09, 2017
Washington	Monday, January 09, 2017
Delaware	Monday, January 09, 2017
South Dakota	Monday, January 09, 2017
Tennessee	Monday, January 09, 2017
Texas	Monday, January 09, 2017
Colorado	Monday, January 09, 2017
Illinois	Monday, January 09, 2017
North Carolina	Monday, January 09, 2017
West Virginia	Monday, January 09, 2017
New Mexico	Monday, January 16, 2017
Alaska	Monday, January 23, 2017
Utah	Monday, January 23, 2017
Nevada	Monday, February 06, 2017
Alabama	No state elections in 2016
Louisiana	No state elections in 2016
Maryland	No state elections in 2016
Mississippi	No state elections in 2016
New Jersey	No state elections in 2016
Virginia	No state elections in 2016

 
Redistricting  

We will refresh legislative district and ZIP code mapping with new data provided by our vendor. This process typically takes 2-3 weeks and is tentatively scheduled to begin in middle of January. This will ensure that all existing constituent records within your sites are mapped to the correct legislative districts.

Until this process is complete, Luminate administrators should be aware that built-in groups for Federal or state districts will not be accurate for Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. Ask your Customer Success Manager for tips on created targeted emails using built-in groups. 

States that have new districts:

• US House – FL, NC and VA
• State upper chamber only – FL

We want to be as open and transparent with you all as we are updating the system after the election. Make sure to continue checking this blog to receive updates on the timing of when targets will be updated. We completely understand that this is information that you need in order to move forward with your work.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to your Customer Success Manager or respond to this blog post with questions.

- Ryan O’Keefe, Luminate Online Product Manager & Caroline Stuart-Freas Senior Advocacy Customer Success Manager