Shifting to auto-commit to save data and time
We know it’s a big change, but we are excited to announce that we are moving MiniVAN data to auto-commit and enabling select users the ability to rollback MiniVAN data at the beginning of September. We’ve all been there before: frantically signing into VAN to commit MiniVAN data before it expires or feeling the late-night panic when we remember that we forgot to commit it. Or, in some cases, a staff member may be assigned to sit and click commit on the MiniVAN commit pages for hours. While this extra step provides an opportunity for some users to check data before it’s added to VAN, it’s also a step that is at best time-consuming and, at worst, skipped entirely.
The extra step to commit data after it is synced is no longer standard data application workflow, and that comes at a cost. Most campaigns and causes use our API to seamlessly sync data back and forth from various tools without an extra approval step to improve efficiencies and collect data faster.
Historically, 10% of MiniVAN data is lost due to users not committing their data. That’s a staggering amount of data loss — and one our movement can’t afford. When we dug into the distribution of that data over time, we saw three trends:
- The percentage of data that goes uncommitted increases as we approach Election Day. This trend backs up the user research we’ve done where folks have told us that as they get busier during GOTV, they deprioritize committing MiniVAN data. Ultimately, there comes a point in the cycle where a large number of organizations just stop committing their MiniVAN data.
- The percentage of data that is deleted from the commit page is low. While some campaigns and organizations do review and QC data, the vast majority of users commit all MiniVAN data without review. The percentage of data that is deleted from the commit page is, on average, 0.2%.
- Historically, many organizations do not commit any MiniVAN data — and that number has been rising. The MiniVAN commit process is an outlier in how data is applied to VAN, and newer users don’t always know they need to commit their data after syncing.
If we want to power sustained electoral success for Democratic and progressive candidates and causes, we need to ensure all of our data is being put to work.
Moreover, we’ve seen a significant increase in MiniVAN usage over the past few years and we expect to see record-breaking usage as Election Day nears. In fact, we’ve seen MiniVAN usage jump 40% in the last three weeks alone. That’s why — after significant user research going back to 2017, a review of the performance of the MiniVAN commit page, and consultation with our clients — we’ve made the decision to switch to automatically commit MiniVAN data to save more valuable voter data and staff time, and ensure that VAN operates smoothly for the 2024 election cycle and beyond. We’ve also decided to enable certain users with the ability to rollback MiniVAN data using a bulk action from the MiniVAN activity report at the same time that we shift to auto-commit.
The benefits of auto-commit
We never want to throw a wrench in how you use our technology. But we believe this is a necessary step for us to take to ensure VAN operates smoothly in this election cycle and all those in the future. We believe that auto-commit will be a welcome change for many of you, but we understand that for folks running programs that rely heavily on a quality control step, this is a significant workflow change.
There are many benefits to auto-commit — especially just a few months out from Election Day!
- This switch will save organizers time. Auto-commit eliminates the need for nightly manual data reviews, and staffers no longer need to spend hours clicking through MiniVAN Commit pages, allowing them to finish work earlier and focus on more critical tasks.
- It also reduces the amount of data that goes uncommitted. More importantly, it slashes the amount of uncommitted data to zero. By automating the commitment process, every piece of collected information is guaranteed to be included in the nightly universe refresh. This ensures no valuable data falls through the cracks.
- We all need VAN to run smoothly. This change will help campaigns, causes, and you use important voter data easily. Simply put, the MiniVAN Commit page is slow and outdated. It was built when PalmPilots were common. The page’s popular features make it hard to run well, especially as we get more data as Election Day approaches. To maintain these features for users, we’ve moved them to our faster grid reports.
- Committing data at frequent intervals will keep information up-to-date and accessible in case you need to make decisions quickly. In addition to decreasing the amount of data processing at one time, auto-committing data at regular intervals provides near real-time data that gives you the ability to quickly make decisions.
Auto-commit FAQs and how to run quality control in an auto-commit world
You might have questions about how auto-commit will impact your work. We took a first pass at answering a few, but please reach out to your administrator with any additional queries.
- When will this functionality change? We’ll shift to auto-commit and enable certain users to rollback MiniVAN data at the beginning of September 2024. We’ll communicate the exact date through platform notifications, email newsletters, and social media posts.
- How can we proactively safeguard quality control with this change? Data accuracy is paramount for campaigns and causes. To accommodate for quality control measures, we’ve provided replacement reports that will give you the information you need faster than before. Certain users will be able to rollback MiniVAN canvass data via a bulk action on this report. Please continue to apply your existing review process to our data.
- Will we be able to rollback committed data? We offer data rollback capabilities and services to protect data integrity and ensure voter contact program accuracy. Certain users will be able to rollback MiniVAN data through a bulk action from the MiniVAN activity report. In order to do that, the bulk action must happen within 90 days from when the data was committed. Otherwise, you will need to submit a ticket to our support team to rollback that data. For now, this functionality will only be available for Voter File data.
As always, thank you for fighting on the frontlines on behalf of our movement. We deeply appreciate and respect the work that you all do every day, and we look forward to working with you through 2024 and beyond. Now, let’s go win this thing!
P.S. If you have specific questions that you need to address, please contact your administrator. If you have feedback about product functionality, please provide it through the Product Feedback feature within the platform you’re using. Thanks in advance for your help in making sure your requests are routed to the correct team.
