Beyond the Voter File: Why Verification Matters More Than Ever

On June 23, 2026June 23, 2026 By MSG BloggerIn MSG, Verified Voter Graph™

Access to voter data has never been easier. But access alone doesn’t guarantee quality.

For researchers, public affairs professionals, advocacy organizations, and data-driven organizations, the real challenge isn’t simply finding voter records, but ensuring those records are accurate, contactable, and enriched with the information needed to support informed decision-making.

As communication channels evolve and consumer information changes over time, traditional voter files can quickly become outdated. Contact information becomes stale, records become fragmented, and valuable context is often missing. The result is lower contact rates, inefficient outreach, and reduced confidence in the data being used.

The Limits of Traditional Voter Data

The national voter file remains one of the most valuable datasets available for understanding and engaging populations. However, voter records alone often provide only a partial view of an individual.

Common challenges include:

Inaccurate or outdated contact information
Limited insight beyond registration and demographic attributes
Difficulty determining whether phone numbers are active and reachable
Fragmented data across multiple sources
Reduced efficiency caused by disconnected or unusable records

When data quality suffers, every downstream activity—from research recruitment to constituent engagement—becomes more difficult.

Building a More Complete View

Modern data strategies require more than a standalone voter file. They require a connected, verified view of the individual.

MSG’s Verified Voter Graph™ was developed to address this challenge by combining the precision of the national registered voter file with the depth of a multi-source consumer intelligence platform. By linking voter records with verified contact information and consumer insights, the Verified Voter Graph creates a richer and more complete view of the people behind the records.

Rather than relying on a single source of information, records are validated across multiple trusted data assets to improve accuracy, consistency, and confidence.

Verification Makes the Difference

One of the most significant challenges in any outreach or research effort is determining whether contact information is actually usable.

The Verified Voter Graph addresses this through phone connectivity verification, ensuring that phone records are validated for active connectivity before they are used. This helps organizations reduce wasted effort, improve efficiency, and focus resources on records that are more likely to result in successful contact.

The result is a cleaner dataset designed to support better outcomes and stronger return on investment.

Smarter Data Through Intelligent Linkage

Verification is only part of the equation.

Advanced identity resolution techniques connect voter records with household-level and behavioral information to create a unified view of individuals and households. This intelligent data linkage helps eliminate duplication, improve record quality, and provide a more complete understanding of populations.

The outcome is not simply more data—it’s better-connected data.

Supporting Research and Data-Driven Decision Making

High-quality data serves as the foundation for high-quality insights.

For researchers and analysts, access to verified and enriched records can improve sample quality, increase reachability, and support more effective recruitment efforts. For organizations seeking to better understand communities and populations, a more accurate view of individuals leads to more informed decisions.

In every case, success begins with confidence in the underlying data.

The Future of Voter Data

The future of voter intelligence isn’t about accumulating more records. It’s about creating more accurate, connected, and actionable records.

By combining verified contact information, multi-source enrichment, intelligent identity resolution, and rigorous validation practices, the Verified Voter Graph helps organizations move beyond names on a list to a more complete understanding of the people they seek to reach and understand.

Because better data leads to better decisions. See the people behind your voter file. Contact us to learn more.

Boost Response Rates with Clear, Concise Mailer Designs

On March 3, 2025March 13, 2025 By MSG BloggerIn Research Assist

In a world flooded with advertising and marketing messages, getting your mailer noticed and read is a challenge. A well-designed, concise mailer can significantly improve response rates, ensuring your message resonates with recipients.

Here’s how you can craft compelling mailers that capture attention and drive engagement:

1. Prioritize Clarity and Brevity

The key to an effective mailer is delivering your message quickly and clearly. Avoid excessive text and complex language. Use simple, direct statements that immediately convey the value proposition. A good rule of thumb is to keep key messages within a few short sentences and use bullet points for easy readability.

Appeal to the desire of respondents to feel important by explaining how their feedback will change the status quo and why it is important to have their feedback.
Clearly and concisely explain who is conducting the study, how their address was chosen, and assurance of privacy and security regarding their data.
Include a website or contact information for recipients who have questions or need assistance.

2. Use Eye-Catching Visuals

Visual appeal plays a critical role in engagement. High-quality images, bold typography, and strategic use of colors can draw attention to your mailer. However, don’t overload it with too many design elements — maintain a balance between text and visuals to ensure readability.

3. Use Incentives

Rewards and incentives have been proven time and again to increase survey participation – boosting the likelihood of response and completion. Offering even a small incentive can significantly improve engagement rates.

4. Include a Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)

Your mailer should have a clear purpose, whether it’s joining a panel, signing up for an event, or completing a survey. Use a strong, action-oriented CTA like “Claim Your Reward Now” or “Scan the QR Code to take the Survey” to guide recipients toward the desired action.

5. Optimize Layout and White Space While Maintaining Professionalism

A cluttered design can be overwhelming and reduce readability. Utilize white space effectively to create a clean and organized look. Ensure that the most important information is prominent, official, and that the layout naturally guides the reader’s eye from one element to the next while maintaining a professional appearance.

6. Personalization for Greater Impact

Personalized mailers that address recipients by ‘Dear “Town/County” resident’ on letter and “Town” resident on envelope, can make a significant difference in response rates. Tailor your content to specific audience segments to create a more meaningful connection. When you haven’t heard from a recipient, send between one and three reminders, using refreshed language but remaining consistent with original messaging. Being consistent helps instill trust and legitimacy in your message.

7. Create a Great Design while Portraying Credibility

The design of your mailer is the visual gateway to success. It’s the first thing recipients see and sets the tone for your message. Larger postcards and envelopes are more likely to grab attention and avoid immediate disposal. Use high-quality images that are relevant to your message. Incorporating the branding of well-known institutions will enhance the credibility and legitimacy of your project.

Final Thoughts

A well-designed and concise survey invite packet can significantly boost response rates. Prioritize clarity, consistency, and brevity to create mailers that are visually appealing and easy to read. With countless bills, marketing messages and flyers competing for attention in mailboxes, making your mailer stand out is essential. Use high-quality images and logos to instill a sense of professionalism and trust.

A compelling and thoughtfully crafted design can grab attention, encourage participation, and effectively convey your message. And remember, too much clutter can be overwhelming, making your mailer difficult to read and reducing engagement. A clean, streamlined design ensures your message is clear and effective. Sometimes, less is more! For inquiries or a quote on our Research Assist Services, feel free to contact us here.

Sample Stratification: Key Benefits and Challenges to Stratifying Your Sample

On July 17, 2024October 11, 2024 By MSG BloggerIn Genesys, MSG

One of the most important tools in survey sampling is stratification, whereby the sample selection process takes place separately within different subgroups (strata). In practice, surveys rarely adopt simple random sampling and instead often rely on some form of stratification for sample selection. Just like any other tool, however, stratification must be employed for the right reasons and implemented properly for its dividends to be realized. Briefly, there are three instances when a stratified sampling design would be preferred over simpler options:

When simple random sampling may fail to provide adequate representation and diversity.
When for analytical reasons, certain small subgroups need to have boosted representations.
When for cost optimizations, units that are “cheaper-to-survey” need to be oversampled.

For any of the above three reasons, instead of selecting a random sample across the entire sampling frame, stratification enables researchers to manage the sample selection process while maintaining the probabilistic nature of the resulting sample. When applied effectively, stratification can also increase the efficiency of a sample by localizing the selection process within subgroups comprised of similar units. In contrast, simple random samples can require a larger size to achieve a comparable level of precision. Effective sample stratification requires three basic elements:

Availability of reliable frame data for all units for creation of sampling strata.
Optimal allocation of the total sample across all strata.
Efficient selection of sampling units within each stratum.

Despite the above attractive features of stratification, it is important to be cognizant of the potential drawbacks of this sampling methodology when it is applied ineffectively or for the wrong reasons. As such, the following cautionary points are noteworthy when considering the pros and cons of stratification:

Effective Stratification

Critical to the creation of effective strata, for any of the three reasons numerated earlier, is the availability of reliable data for all units on the sampling frame. Construction of poor strata, those comprised of heterogenous (dissimilar) units, due to poor frame data can backfire and obliterate all benefits of stratification. Effective sampling strata must include homogeneous (similar) units that are mutually exclusive (have no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (cover the entire frame).

Design Effect

When by design certain units of the population are selected at higher or lower rates, such departures from equal probability of selection method (EPSEM) must be corrected by application of design weighs that reflect selection probabilities. Since unequal weights reduce the effective sample size of a survey, as measured by the following statistic, it is important for stratification to be employed judiciously and for the right reasons. This means excessive departure from an EPSEM design via superfluous stratification can severely reduce the efficiency of a sample.

*_{Departure from an EPSEM design requires design weighting as seen in the image above.}*

Optimal Sample Allocation

In addition to construction of effective sampling strata, the total sample must be optimally allocated across the resulting strata. While proportional allocation is statistically most optimal, disproportional allocation should be justified by the analytical and cost saving needs of a survey. Again, it is important to remember that any departure from a proportional allocation of the sample across strata will have precision costs vis-à-vis the incurred design effect.

Selection of Sampling Units

The final stage of sample selection occurs within each stratum. While an EPSEM option can minimize the sampling error margins associated with the resulting survey estimates, intentional departure from this option should have valid reasons. Unequal selection probabilities, which can have perfectly justifiable reasons, will further decrease the effective sample size of a survey. Lastly, it is imperative to ensure that all eligible units would have known and nonzero (not necessarily equal) chance of selection to preserve the probabilistic nature of the employed sample.