Commercial Data is Essential for Election Integrity

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Outdated systems leave voter rolls vulnerable

For decades, voter rolls have relied on antiquated systems like the Postal Service’s National Change of Address (NCOA) file and DMV records—tools built for an era when Americans moved less and government databases lacked real-time coordination. These systems lag behind real-world changes, such as when voters move, change names, or pass away, and updates can take months or years to appear in official databases. The result is outdated, inaccurate, and often duplicated voter records that leave openings to exploitation and fraud—all of which delay results and undermine trust in elections.

Commercial data can secure and strengthen voter rolls

Commercial data offers election officials a modern and vastly improved way to maintain accurate and secure voter rolls. Unlike government systems that rely on a few limited data sources, commercial data draws from dozens of credit, publicly available property, utility, and identity records that update daily—producing a more complete profile of where voters actually live. These sources are routinely used by banks, insurers, and state agencies for identity verification and fraud prevention, and their proven reliability helps bridge long-standing accuracy gaps that have plagued voter rolls.

In contrast to legacy systems that react to errors only after they occur, commercial data allows officials to identify and correct inaccuracies proactively before they affect an election.

These benefits include:

• Greater Accuracy and Timeliness
  • Studies show that commercial data identifies 7–22% more accurate voter addresses than Postal Service files, helping officials update records faster and avoid ballots sent to the wrong address.
• Broader, Multi-Source Verification
  • By combining commercial credit, utility, and identity-verification with publicly available property records, these systems help officials cross-check multiple sources to confirm eligibility and ensure each voter is registered only once and at the correct address.
• Trusted and Secure Data Use
• Commercial systems use strict privacy safeguards, encrypted transfers, and multi-factor authentication, and operate fully within existing election laws, so voter data remains protected and compliant.
  • Reduced Administrative Costs
• Cleaner voter rolls cut down on returned mail, duplicate records, and the time-consuming address updates—reducing staff workload and saving taxpayer dollars.
• Strengthened Election Integrity
  • Accurate, up-to-date voter rolls make elections run more smoothly by reducing registration errors and mail issues, improving voter confidence in fair, timely, and transparent results. States like Fort Worth, Texas, and Orange County, California, have already shown this, using commercial data to flag significantly more inaccurate addresses than NCOA.