How geographic targeting works on the Ballot Yard platform
Every lease on the Ballot Yard platform is defined by three parameters: the domain, the geographic slot, and the lease term. Geographic slots are the unit of exclusivity — a lessee who secures a slot in a specific geography controls messaging delivery in that geography for the duration of their lease, regardless of what other lessees do in adjacent slots.
Supported geographic granularities
| Level | Coverage | Typical Use | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | All supported countries | International campaigns, cross-border advocacy | ~99.5% |
| US State | All 50 states + DC | Senate, gubernatorial, statewide ballot measures | ~95% |
| DMA | ~210 Nielsen DMAs | House districts, local campaigns, media-market targeting | ~85% |
| ZIP cluster | Selected ZIP groups | Hyper-local races, ward-level targeting | ~80% |
Accuracy figures are MaxMind GeoIP2 Precision published estimates. Ballot Yard does not warrant specific accuracy rates for individual leases.
GeoIP2 Precision — the data layer
Ballot Yard uses MaxMind GeoIP2 Precision, the industry-standard IP geolocation database used by Cloudflare, Akamai, and major advertising platforms. GeoIP2 Precision is updated weekly and uses a combination of WHOIS data, BGP routing tables, active probing, and crowdsourced verification to determine IP-to-location mappings.
When a visitor accesses a Ballot Yard inventory domain, their IP is queried against GeoIP2 in real time. The result is matched to the active lease table for that domain and the visitor is routed to the appropriate content. The full resolution process takes under 5 milliseconds and is transparent to the visitor.
Edge cases and VPN handling
A portion of internet traffic is not accurately geolocatable. Common edge cases include:
- VPN and proxy users: Users routing through VPNs or proxies will appear to be in the VPN’s exit node location, not their physical location. MaxMind VPN detection is available as an add-on and can be configured to trigger fallback behavior.
- Mobile carrier IPs: Some mobile carriers pool their IP ranges at regional or national data centers, causing suburban and rural users to appear to be in a metropolitan area.
- Corporate networks: Enterprise traffic often egresses through centralized data centers, placing corporate users in unexpected locations.
- IPv6: GeoIP2 Precision has full IPv6 coverage, but accuracy may vary in regions with recently assigned IPv6 blocks.
Lessees can configure fallback behavior for unresolvable or out-of-slot traffic: serve a neutral page, redirect to a campaign homepage, or show no content.
Why geographic precision matters in regulated messaging
Regulated communication is inherently local. A candidate running in a competitive suburban district faces different constituent concerns than one running in a rural or urban seat. The same domain, served to different geographic audiences, can carry contextually appropriate messaging — without requiring separate domain registrations, separate ad campaigns, or separate infrastructure builds for each market.
Ballot Yard’s geographic slot model allows a single domain investment to serve multiple, simultaneous, independent campaigns — each in their own market, each with full exclusivity, each with appropriate content for their audience.