TrueNCOA is a database management service provided by TrueGivers LLC that allows marketers, nonprofits, political campaigns, and other users to update their mailing lists using the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address (NCOA) database. ¹ It is regularly used by election officials and election integrity activists across the country to identify potential errors or fraud in voter registration rolls. ^{2 3}

Background

TrueNCOA is an online service that compares postal mailing list databases to the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address (NCOA) database of roughly 160 million change-of-address forms filed with the post office, allowing organizations to update their mailing lists to reflect recipients’ new addresses. ^{4 5}

It is a service of Oak Park, Illinois, based TrueGivers LLC, which also offers other mailing database management services that allow users to remove deceased recipients; connect recipients’ postal addresses to other information such as email addresses, gender, or marital status; or geographically map and sort recipients. ⁶ TrueGivers also offers a nonprofit donor prospect research service. ⁷

Use in Election Integrity

Change-of-address services such as TrueNCOA are used by state and local election officials to maintain voter registration rolls by identifying voters who have moved away and should no longer be eligible to vote in a jurisdiction where they no longer live. ⁸

Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states may use a National Change of Address database search such as TrueNCOA to identify potential errors in their voter rolls, but are not required to do so. ⁹ According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an NCOA database mismatch is not enough evidence on its own to justify removing a voter from a roll and must be part of a larger process that gives a voter an opportunity to respond and contest their removal. ¹⁰

Identification of Widespread Voter Roll Issues

With the growth of voting by mail across the country since 2020, conservative and center-right election integrity activists have used TrueNCOA to identify potential mismatches between voter rolls and postal addresses that could potentially be large enough to sway election results. ^{11 12 13}

In 2020, conservative election integrity activist organization True the Vote used TrueNCOA in an investigation that led to it working with residents of every county in Georgia to preemptively challenge 364,541 potentially ineligible voters. ¹⁴ Fair Fight, a Democratic Party-aligned group founded by former Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, sued True the Vote in federal court for Voting Rights Act violations but lost in a bench trial. ^{15 16}

In 2022, the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County in Florida identified what they characterized as 3,336 voters who had voted by mail in the August, 2022 primary elections, despite their addresses being flagged by the U.S. Postal Service as undeliverable. ¹⁷ Later that year, the chair of the Miami-Dade GOP Election Integrity Committee commissioned a TrueNCOA report that reportedly identified approximately 98,000 problems with the county’s voter rolls, which was more than 5 percent of the total registered voter population. ¹⁸

In 2023, election integrity activists used TrueNCOA to check the validity of the 2022 elections in Virginia. ¹⁹ Their report flagged 15,419 addresses as “invalid,” causing state legislators and others to question whether this was evidence of widespread election fraud. ²⁰ Local election officials and USPS representatives dismissed the concern and ascribed the issue to the way many residences in rural areas in Virginia can have an assigned mailing address in a different ZIP code or even different town, which would cause TrueNCOA to flag their physical voting address as invalid given its reliance on the USPS’s mailing database. ²¹ One local election official noted that of the 895 voters flagged by TrueNCOA in his jurisdiction, 714 of them had voted in person and shown a valid ID to election workers to cast their votes. ²²

1. “Fully Updated 18-Month and 48-Month Moves.” TrueNCOA, March 25, 2024. https://truencoa.com/.
2. “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.
3. “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/crt/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra.
4. “NCOALink®.” U.S. Postal Service. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing-and-shipping-services/NCOALink.
5. “Fully Updated 18-Month and 48-Month Moves.” TrueNCOA, March 25, 2024. https://truencoa.com/.
6. “Products and Services.” TrueGivers. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://truegivers.com/labs/.
7. “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).” donorato. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://donorato.com/faq/.
8. “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/crt/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra.
9. “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/crt/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra.
10. “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/crt/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra.
11. “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.
12. “True the Vote Partners with Georgians in Every County to Preemptively Challenge 364,541 Potentially Ineligible Voters.” True the Vote, December 12, 2020. https://truethevote.org/news/true-the-vote-partners-with-georgians-in-every-county-to-preemptively-challenge-364541-potentially-ineligible-voters.
13. “Breaking Report: Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) May Not Be Doing Its Job – 98k Possible Invalid Voters Discovered on Miami-Dade Rolls.” Miami Independent, September 9, 2022. https://miamiindependent.com/breaking-report-electronic-registration-information-center-eric-may-not-be-doing-its-job-98k-possible-invalid-voters-discovered-on-miami-dade-rolls/.
14. “True the Vote Partners with Georgians in Every County to Preemptively Challenge 364,541 Potentially Ineligible Voters.” True the Vote, December 12, 2020. https://truethevote.org/news/true-the-vote-partners-with-georgians-in-every-county-to-preemptively-challenge-364541-potentially-ineligible-voters.
15. Fair Fight, Inc. v. Engelbrecht, civil action 2:20-CV-00302-SCJ | casetext search + citator. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://casetext.com/case/fair-fight-inc-v-engelbrecht.
16. “About Stacey Abrams.” Fair Fight. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://fairfight.com/about-stacey-abrams/.
17. “Florida Officials Refuse to Respond to Substantial Election Fraud Evidence Presented.” Miami Independent, December 11, 2022. https://miamiindependent.com/florida-officials-refuse-to-respond-to-substantial-fraud-evidence-presented/.
18. “Breaking Report: Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) May Not Be Doing Its Job – 98k Possible Invalid Voters Discovered on Miami-Dade Rolls.” Miami Independent, September 9, 2022. https://miamiindependent.com/breaking-report-electronic-registration-information-center-eric-may-not-be-doing-its-job-98k-possible-invalid-voters-discovered-on-miami-dade-rolls/.
19.  “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.
20. “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.
21. “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.
22. “Election Fraud Claims Highlight Issues with ZIP Codes.” Shore Daily News, January 14, 2023. https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/election-fraud-claims-highlight-issues-with-zip-codes/.