Research Process

We have spent extensive time developing rules and procedures for how we collect information and what is and is not included in our voter guides in order to ensure we apply uniform standards and processes to all candidates.

Our systems, like democracy, are imperfect - we’re continually reflecting on how we can ensure the information we provide is the most useful to voters and the most fair to candidates, and we’re working to eliminate gray areas around what does and does not appear on our site. In order to create voter guides that voters and candidates trust, we’re also committed to transparency around our process and decisions. For that reason, please find a comprehensive explanation below of how we collect our information, and feel free to reach out with further questions and feedback.

Candidate Information Sources

When researching a given candidate, we use information that is publicly available online. We first rely on candidate lists procured directly from official election administrator materials to ensure that our data matches what voters see on their ballots. For biographical material, we primarily consider five different sources of information in an attempt to accurately portray the candidate in the way they present themselves to the public: candidate campaign websites, campaign social media pages, personal social media pages that the candidate is campaigning on, LinkedIn pages, and government office holder websites (for biographical information only).

We do this for two reasons. First, our mission is to aggregate information to help voters make their own decisions without any of our own editorializing. Second, we link to our sources of information so that an interested voter can always examine the source for themselves. 

We do not use government websites for issue stances or endorsements in order to keep campaign information separate from government-funded elected official profiles, which office holders are supposed to follow by law. Please note that candidate websites are constantly evolving, and the information we have collected in the categories that follow may have come from an earlier version of a candidate website.

Candidate Photos

Wherever possible, we use the same photo the candidate selects for their primary campaign social media page. If the candidate has no campaign social media, we will use their campaign websites. Otherwise, we may select an alternate but publicly available photograph. Our photo might be from a previous time the candidate was campaigning for office.

Candidate Bios

We collect two categories of biographical data: education (high school and above) and experience (employment, elected office, and military). We aim to provide information that can present a more complete picture of a candidate’s background, and illustrate their experience to the voter.

When researching a candidate’s education, we are looking for specific institutions and degrees from high school onward. We do not list minors, specializations, or short term professional certifications.

For military experience, we look for service in one of the five main service departments of the armed forces and their respective Reserve and National Guard equivalents. We include the service department and the highest rank achieved or a brief role descriptor. 

We try to avoid overly generic terms (a simple “Veteran” in the position field may be used if a candidate provides no other details), and we do not list any decorations, specific military units or deployments. Service in non-U.S. armed forces may be listed under this category but will be clearly indicated.

We avoid including volunteer or board experience.

Issue Stances

When collecting data on candidates, much of our effort goes into finding a candidate’s stances on the issues that are important to them. Issue stances are displayed on our website in quotation marks to communicate that we are using the candidate’s own words as they appear on the candidate’s campaign website.

Because issue stances posted on sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter are often incredibly extensive and variable, we do not take issue stances from social media.

We consider an issue stance to be a succinct, specific, and actionable statement of what the candidate wants to do if elected. In other words, we primarily look for statements that clearly indicate a candidate’s stance on an issue and allows voters to infer how that candidate will govern in the future.

As a result, we avoid listing broad stances such as “I support veterans” as this does not exhibit a candidate’s stance on specific issues or what actions they would take to support veterans. We also only include statements from candidate websites where a candidate takes a specific policy stance. For example, candidates may talk about their background growing up in the community before explaining why this makes them believe their district needs better transportation options. We will only include the section of the candidate’s statement about better transportation options as the actual issue stance. 

In general, we do not take issue stances from third-party sources, including news stories. Even if the stance in question is a direct quote, we avoid third-party sources to prevent arguments over source attribution and copyright permissions. In order to present candidate views as accurately as possible, we strive to take the information we find verbatim, only substituting words to improve clarity and without distorting the candidate’s intent.

By including direct quotes from candidates, issue stances are not fact checked and may include misleading information. However, by focusing on forward-looking statements we aim to mitigate the opportunity for including damaging false statements.

Endorsements

Endorsements are generally used by candidates to signal to voters which organizations or elected officials support their campaign. We collect and compile the endorsements of organizations from across the political spectrum that make their endorsements publicly available. We include endorsements from issue advocacy groups, business and labor groups, political organizations, and media organizations like newspaper editorial boards. We do not include endorsements from private citizens, even if that individual is associated with a political party.

Candidate Submissions

BallotReady aims to show voters the official information that will appear on their ballot. We currently do not cover write-in candidates in our voter guides if they do not appear on the ballot. This is to ensure that we do not give unfair advantage to one candidate over others, particularly when there are not reliable official resources of qualified write-in candidates.

We also aim to keep an open line of communication with candidates themselves. For this reason, candidates are able to view their profile on BallotReady.org and submit a request for augmenting or adding information that is consistent with our research standards and comes from a verifiable source. Candidates are encouraged to submit information on our candidates page; voters can submit information by contacting BallotReady and a member of our team will respond within 24 hours. Thank you for helping us create a more informed democracy.

Ballot Measures

BallotReady is committed to offering voters information on every aspect of their ballot. As such, we offer information on ballot measures (yes or no questions that appear on statewide, county-level, or local ballots). We rely on information procured directly from state, county, and local sources, to offer information on available ballot measures.

We do not offer stances from groups campaigning for or against ballot measures. Instead, voters will find the title of the applicable ballot measure, as well as the explanatory text found on their ballot.

Voting Information

BallotReady offers voters guides for how they can cast a ballot. While some early voting locations and dates are sourced from state Board of Elections or Secretary of State websites, most of BallotReady’s voting information is pulled from county-level or municipal elections authorities.

BallotReady currently covers all no-excuse early voting in-person and absentee voting by-mail ballots returned by drop-off. At this time, BallotReady does not cover election day drop-off locations if they are not also available before election day. In the case of polling locations which are only available on election day, we outsource research to the Voting Information Project.