CoreCNX for Referendum Coalitions and Party Organizations

This post explains what that looks like for the two groups that most need it: coalitions that come together for a single ballot question, and party organizations that walk the same precincts cycle after cycle. It ends with plans and worked examples.

Our political campaign CRM guide covers how a campaign CRM fits into the rest of a campaign.

Why these two groups have the same problem

A referendum coalition and a party organization look different, but they share a data problem: many people collecting information about the same voters, at different times, in different tools.

• A referendum coalition might include parents, a booster club, neighborhood associations and local business owners, all working one question for a few months. Each brings its own list. By the time early voting opens, nobody knows which of the 600 names on the combined sheet are actually supporters.
• A party organization has committeepersons in every precinct, each with their own notes, plus a county or township office trying to see the whole picture. When a committeeperson moves out of the precinct, the office becomes vacant (10 ILCS 5/7-8(b)), and if their notes lived at home, the precinct's history goes with them.

A shared contact record solves both: one place for each person, and a history that belongs to the organization rather than to whoever collected it.

For referendum coalitions

The rules that shape your data

A referendum campaign is usually run by a committee of residents, not by the public body that put the question on the ballot. Public funds may not be used to urge a vote for or against a public question, though factual information is allowed (10 ILCS 5/9-25.1). Groups that raise or spend more than $5,000 in any 12-month period for or against a public question generally must file a Statement of Organization (Form D-1) with the Illinois State Board of Elections (10 ILCS 5/9-3). Confirm your obligations with ISBE or an election attorney, and keep your financial records in the form your treasurer uses for ISBE reports.

For the April 6, 2027 election, citizen petitions for a question were due January 4, 2027, and questions are certified by January 28. Early voting opens February 25 (or March 12 where a February primary ran).

Where CoreCNX does the work

• Bring every list in. Each partner exports its list to a CSV and you import it; CoreCNX also exports to CSV, so the data is never stuck.
• One record per person. When three coalition partners each bring a list, set the rule that each person is one contact, and combine overlapping entries before volunteers start. From then on, the timeline shows each touch: which door conversation, which text reply, which email.
• Door results on the timeline. CoreCNX is designed to work with Beacon, the canvassing app, as part of one suite. Door results are among the events that write to a contact's timeline, so a volunteer can see that someone was "undecided, worried about the tax bill" before calling or knocking again.
• Text replies on the timeline. CoreCNX is likewise designed to work alongside CampaignCNX+ for texting. When a supporter replies to a text, that reply becomes part of their record.
• Chatbot leads and email events. If your coalition's website has a chatbot that collects sign-ups, those leads land as contacts, and email events appear on the timeline too.
• Consent on the record. Keep a note of when and how each person opted in to texts. A petition signature is not consent to text; a sheet counts only if it says so plainly and the date is recorded. The contact record is the natural place to keep that date.

A worked example: one-question coalition

This is an illustration, not a quote.

A coalition supporting a school facilities question on the April 6, 2027 ballot. Four partner groups, one committee, around 3,000 contacts once lists are merged.

• Plan: Starter, $49 a month for up to 5,000 contacts.
• Months: January through April, four months.
• Cost: 4 × $49 = $196 for the campaign.
• Workflow: partners' lists are imported by CSV in January; volunteers work from one record through persuasion and early voting; the committee closes the account or keeps it for the next question.

If the coalition expects to come back for a future question, keeping the record means it starts the next campaign knowing its supporters.

For party organizations

The rules that shape your data

Outside Cook County, each party elects one precinct committeeperson per precinct at the general primary every two years; the most recent was March 17, 2026. In Cook County, Chicago elects ward committeepersons and suburban Cook elects township committeepersons every four years (10 ILCS 5/7-8(b)). Committeepersons make up the county central committee, and each votes with a weight equal to the ballots cast in their precinct by the party's primary voters at the primary where they were elected (10 ILCS 5/7-8(d)). Most county parties also ask committeepersons to recruit election judges, since the county chairs furnish the judge lists and are asked to list precinct residents where possible (10 ILCS 5/13-1).

All of that runs on knowing people: voters, volunteers, judge prospects and candidates.

Where CoreCNX does the work

• A precinct history that stays with the precinct. When the account belongs to the organization, a committeeperson's door results and notes stay with the party when they move. A vacancy is filled under your party's rules, usually through the county chair, and the successor inherits a record instead of a blank page.
• Roles. Give the county or township office admin or manager roles and committeepersons user roles, so each person has the access their job needs.
• One view across precincts. The county or township office sees every contact and every timeline, so it can find, for example, every person in the county who said yes to serving as an election judge.
• Sub-accounts for units. On Enterprise, the county party can be the parent account, with township organizations or regional committees as sub-accounts. Each unit works its own contacts under the parent.
• The rest of the suite. Beacon for walking precincts and CampaignCNX+ for texting opted-in supporters are designed to feed the same contact timeline.

For a longer look at the county-party setup, see running the county party's data: one CRM for every committeeperson. For how one record carries a voter from petition season through doors and texts, see one voter record across petitions, doors and texts.

A worked example: county party with townships

This is an illustration, not a quote.

A county party with eight township organizations that each want their own workspace.

• Parent: Enterprise, $499 a month, sized for about 150,000 contacts.
• Sub-accounts: 8 × $39 a month on annual billing = $312 a month (or 8 × $49 = $392 a month billed monthly).
• Monthly total: $811 on annual sub-account billing, or $891 monthly.

A smaller township organization working on its own would more likely start on Starter ($49 a month, 5,000 contacts), then Growth ($99, 15,000) or Pro ($199, 50,000) as it adds precincts.

Plans at a glance

Every plan has a 14-day trial. Our agency page explains how parent and sub-accounts are set up for organizations with several units.

Questions to settle before you start

• Who owns the account? The committee or the party organization, not an individual. That decision is what keeps the history when people change roles.
• Who can see what? Decide which volunteers work which contacts before you invite them.
• What counts as consent? Write down your rule for text opt-ins and record the date on each contact.
• What happens after the election? For a coalition, decide whether to keep the record for a future question. For a party, the record is the point: it carries into the next primary.

Try it with one unit

Start with one township, one precinct group or one coalition partner's list, and see whether one record per person changes how your volunteers work. Start a 14-day CoreCNX trial.