PDI FAQ – PDI Help Center

Getting Started with PDI

Can my team and I receive training on the PDI software?

Yes - we provide regular live training sessions throughout the week. You can view our current schedule on the PDI Help Center and register for the session that works best for you.

We also have a dictionary of commonly used campaigning terms that can serve as a helpful refresher as you navigate the software.

How do I order a voter data file online?

The best first course of action for you is to start by taking a look at our online count reports and get a better sense of what voters and households you are interested in reaching out to. Following the steps below you can pull detailed counts and buy a list or file.

Start by searching for and selecting your district in the "Get Your District Counts Started" box.
Then click on the "Get Started" button, and immediately below the counts for TOTAL voters in your district will appear.
At the top right of the report is a “Download Results PDF” button, which you can click to create and download a PDF copy of the report.
If needed, choose a Report Filter option and then click “Process Count” and follow the same steps above.

Visit the Voter Data & Counts page for more info on those specific lists and file types that you can purchase without having a subscription to our online campaign center program. For clarification on file abbreviations, we have a Universe Name Dictionary on our Help Desk.

You can also request a custom list pricing quote to get a better idea of the cost of your data file(s).

Billing

How do I pay an invoice within my PDI account?

Adding a credit card or bank account

Click on My Organization on the left-hand side
Select Billing Center > Payment Information
Under Billing Folders, select Add/Edit Payment Details
Add payment information and Save

Applying Payment

Click on My Organization on the left-hand side
Select Billing Center > Manage Invoices
Scroll down to Billing Folder* and select the appropriate billing folder
Check the box next to the unpaid invoice and scroll down to select Process Payments

What’s my Billing Authorization Code?

Your billing code was sent to you with your initial account setup email. Please find that email to acquire your code. If you can't find it, please reach out to support@politicaldata.com

What are my pricing options for campaign software and voter data?

Your first step is determining the size of your district, which you can do on our Voter Data & Counts page, and then take that number and input it into our pricing calculator. For districts with over 100k voters, please get in touch with our team at info@politicaldata.com directly to get a quote.

Ready to kick off? Time to choose your Campaign Center subscription type. The main difference between each account type is which types of list outputs are included for no additional cost. Use our pricing calculator to estimate the cost for any list or files not covered by your subscription. Email sending is always just 1 cent per email sent regardless of your subscription type. Also included with each subscription is the ability to target your voters with digital ads working through one of many authorized digital ad vendors.

Basic PPO (PayGO) - Pay Per Output: (minimum access fee)
This subscription gives you access to all of the same program tools as the other two higher tiers, you just pay extra for any lists or files you output or use to contact voters.
Field Use:
This account is perfect for a campaign with an intense field (phone and ground) game. It includes all of the basic tools, plus the ability to create phone lists, walk lists, and maps, and use the online phone bank module and mobile canvassing app at no additional cost. Mail lists are an additional cost and will be charged to the billing account file.
Unlimited Mail + Field:
This account is perfect for a campaign with both a field campaign and a heavy mailer component. It includes all the basic tools and Field Use access, plus the ability to create unlimited mail lists at no additional cost.

The question most campaigns have to ask themselves is if ordering the Field Use Only or the Unlimited Mail & Field subscription is a better fit. Do they/you want to pay for unlimited Mail file outputs that the campaign will pull themselves, or do they want to pay for unlimited Field Use only and order and pay for the mailing data separately? Remember you can always upgrade later and just pay the difference.

An additional option is via pre-paid data blocks.

Pre-Paid Data Blocks

You can always choose from any one of the pre-paid bulk data options from within the account, by going to My Organization > Billing Center > Manage Invoices / PDI Store > Click to Purchase Services / Data. From there you can purchase blocks of data under the option labeled “PDI Mail and Field Output Data Records (Price per thousand records)”.

Below are the pre-paid Mail and Field Use data Output Blocks that can be chosen from with an existing subscription:

$250 = 5,000

$500 = 20,000

$1,125 = 50,000

$2,000 = 100,000

$3,250 = 200,000

$4,800 = 300,000

$7,500 = 500,000

$14,500= 1,000,000

A good rule of thumb for using this is that if you are going to generate up to 5 files within the block allowance you will definitely save money, four will be about break even. If you are doing fewer small files or just one large file you will most likely save money by just paying for what you create at that time as opposed to prepaying for blocks.

Block vs. individual file
Block includes more data that you can create many smaller lists and files from
If you paid for all those individual files, it costs more
Save money getting one individual list

Orders

How do I place a data order? How do I purchase a list?

The Voter Data & Counts page is where you can pull counts and place an order, using the Buy List links that appear in the processed counts report. When you click the Buy List link it will take you through the different list and file options that you can choose from. Make sure an also take advantage of the “FILTERS” drop-down menu options if you are looking to intersect more than one criterion, like Party, Age, Ethnicity, and phone types.

I only want “Dem and NPP/DTS” voters or I want to exclude Republicans, how do I filter my data order?

To target just Dems, Dem leaning and non-partisan (NPP/DTS) voters what you want to do is choose the “NOT (REPPLUS OR MPC)” row or filter option. That option includes all Democrats plus other Dem-leaning Independents and other minor party liberal voters while excluding just those voters that are Reps, Republican-leaning, or a minor party conservative (MPC).

If you want to do the inverse and exclude Democrats or Dem-leaning voters you should choose the “NOT (DEMPLUS OR MPL)” row or filter option. That option will include all Republicans plus other Rep-leaning Independents and other minor party conservative voters.

Once you have selected the right filter option we recommend that you scroll down and then choose from one of the high propensity voter “UNIVERSE…” option that best fits your needs or budget. The smaller numbered universes are the extremely high turnout voters, and each successive universe adds on some additional likely voters. By the time you get to the largest universes you’re looking at a good overall universe for all active and likely voters, but the smaller universes could be best for more expensive voter contact. Take a look at the actual counts or percentage of total voters they produce and make your decision based on that.

For more details on what is included click on “View Universe and Data Details".

If you can’t find what you’re looking for use the contact sales form to provide more details on what you need.

Mobile Canvassing app

My password doesn’t work with the mobile app. How do I log in?

The credentials you use to log in to the onlinecampaigntools.com website are different than the credentials you need to use to log in to the Mobile app. To log in to the Mobile app, you need to create a volunteer, set them up as Field Canvasser, and assign them a password.

Online Phone Bank

How do I pay for browser calling?

Prepaid Browser Dialing minutes can be purchased by going to My Organization -> Billing Center > Manage Invoices / PDI Store > Click to Purchase Services / Data.

How much is browser calling?

Prepaid Browser Dialing minutes are currently 5 cents per minute. A fraction of a minute (no matter how small) is charged as a full minute.

If using the Dial-in feature, that’s an additional 5 cents per minute.

Troubleshooting

The PDI software is down - what’s going on?

Please make sure you’re following our PDI System Updates Twitter account to get timely notifications on updates, outages, and any related issues.

You can also see our system status here.

Otherwise, you can submit a support ticket through the PDI Help Desk or at support@politicaldata.com. We appreciate your patience.

Why can’t I export emails from the PDI software?

As a policy, PDI does not generally allow the export of voter email addresses. Voter emails are considered non-opt-in and cannot be sent via normal sending software programs such as MailChimp and Constant Contact. Additionally, they have a limited scope of permitted use outside of political advocacy. Violations of use create undue liability for PDI and risk the future availability of this data.

We do offer a solution that should satisfy any legitimate intent to send emails to registered voters. PDI has an email sending tool that is designed to responsibly distribute non-opt-in email addresses and promote legal compliance. The cost is a penny per send which is less than or equal to other vendors capable of sending non-opt-in emails. PDI does not charge for voter email data use if you have a data subscription.

The only other way to use our email address data is for the purpose of Digital Media Ad matching which is available through any one of our existing Digital Ad Vendors. If that is what you’re looking for: from the Create Lists and files page, select the file type of Digital Media Ad, and then select the vendor of your choice from the file layout option.