Political-Use Records Policy
Version 1.1 · November 10, 2026
Osher Mevin, Inc., doing business as Message Domains, keeps and publishes records of every lease about a candidate, an officeholder or a ballot measure. We apply one standard to every such lease, whoever buys it and wherever they are, modeled on the record-keeping duties of commercial advertisers under Washington law. Leasing a hostname is not selling placement or targeting, and we do not claim to be a commercial advertiser; we keep these records anyway.
1. Which leases are listed
A lease is listed if the buyer is a political committee, if the buyer declares that it is about a candidate, an officeholder or a ballot measure, or if the compliance check finds that its subject is one of these (by majority of the models, or by a match on the public lists of candidates and officeholders). Buyers are told before they pay. They cannot turn the listing off.
2. What we record
| Field | Published online | Kept in the record |
|---|---|---|
| Address (hostname) | Yes | Yes |
| Sponsor name: verified name, organization or committee | Yes | Yes |
| Sponsor city and state | Yes | Yes |
| Sponsor street address | Organizations and committees: yes. Individuals: no | Yes |
| Candidate, officeholder or measure it is about | Yes | Yes |
| Service: hostname lease, Redirect or Hosted Page; no targeting | Yes | Yes |
| Start and end dates | Yes | Yes |
| Amount paid and method (card) | Yes | Yes |
| Whether declared by the buyer or found by the compliance check | Yes | Yes |
| Committee FEC or state ID | Yes | Yes |
| Page versions and redirect-target snapshots | No | Yes |
Each record has a stable link and shows when it was first published. Records of ended leases stay published and are marked as ended.
3. How long
At least five years after the lease ends.
4. Inspecting a full record
Anyone may ask to inspect a full record, including the sponsor’s street address, from the record’s page in the registry at messagedomains.us/registry, or at records@messagedomains.us. Give your name, an email address and the address (hostname) concerned. We send the full record within 2 business days. Each request and response is logged.
5. Corrections
A sponsor who believes a published field is wrong may write to records@messagedomains.us. We correct factual errors in our own data and keep a history of the change. We do not remove accurate records.