Area 4 Data Project · New Democrat Welcome Letters

Every new Democrat in Area 4 can get a welcome letter, and nobody has to pull a list

What the Upper Providence pilot did, what it took from the volunteer who ran it, and how any municipality can opt in for the October run.

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Source: PA Dept. of State full voter export, current as of Sept 7, 2026 · active registrations · counts only, never names

How the pilot worked

Once a month, a script pulls the state’s full voter export ($20), keeps the Democrats who newly appear in the municipality, and merges each one into the municipality’s own welcome-letter template: precinct, polling place, committee people, and local contact info. The output lands in a shared Drive folder as one Word file per person, an Avery 5160 label sheet in the same order, and a work list with a checkbox per letter. The volunteer prints, labels, stamps, and ticks the box.

Upper Providence ran the first batch in August: 38 Democrats who registered after the May primary. MaryAnn Faraci, who used to run the old manual process, worked it end to end and mailed everything on September 1. Her feedback shaped the current version (one file per person, first names in the greeting, a done column).

MonthlyState voter file
ScriptNew Dems in your muni
ScriptYour template, filled per person
Drive folderLetters + labels + checklist
VolunteerPrint, label, stamp

Since the May primary, by municipality

MunicipalityNew active DemsUnder 26

Registered May 20 through Sept 4, 2026, active status, party D. “New” here means a new registration date; it does not yet count people who moved in already registered or who switched party, which roughly quadruples the monthly number (see step 5).

Questions people ask

Where does the list come from? Is this VoteBuilder?

It comes from the Pennsylvania Department of State’s full voter export, which anyone can buy for $20 for political use. It is more current than VoteBuilder right now. Nothing here touches VoteBuilder, and nothing individual-level is ever published or shown.

Do we have to use Upper Providence’s letter?

No. Send your own text and it gets merged the same way. If you don’t have one, borrow UP’s and change the name at the bottom. You keep full control of content and signature.

Some of our people like to hand-address or add a note.

Good. The label sheet is optional. The files are plain Word documents, so a volunteer can add a line before printing.

What does it cost?

The voter file is $20 a month for all of Area 4 combined. A stamp is $0.82, so a municipality mailing 10 letters a month spends about $8 in postage plus envelopes. Whether Area 4 funds postage centrally is Ben’s conversation.

What do I need to send to opt in?

Two things: your letter text (or “use UP’s”) and your committee-person list by precinct. Polling places come from the county. Email Ben or drop it in the meeting chat.

Does it work?

Too early to say. The first 38 letters went out September 1. What we can say is that the process works and the volunteer time went from list-pulling and template-editing to print, label, stamp.