Where the data comes from.
Ballot data starts with official sources: state election offices and Secretaries of State (candidate qualifying lists, certified ballot measures), county election departments (local contests and primary results), the Census Bureau (district boundaries for address lookups), and campaign finance filings. Profiles link to their sources where we have them.
Most of the research and writing is done with AI tools working from those sources: the candidate's own campaign website, or the candidate's own words in an official voter pamphlet or a published candidate questionnaire, summarized and linked to the direct source. Automated checks run before each update, but no one reads every profile before it goes live, so errors can get through. There is also human review for a subset of content.
Priorities come first from the candidate's own campaign site; where that is thin, up to three points in total are shown, and any that come from named published sources, such as questionnaires and local news, are labeled as such with the source named beside each point.
Ballot measures
For each statewide measure we give a plain-language summary and what a yes or no vote means, with a link to the official text. Read the official ballot language before you vote. California and Florida measures link directly to official state full-text documents.
Publishing standards
A candidate is listed from the official candidate list. A profile is submitted to search engines only once it carries a verified campaign link, a biography or stated priorities; until then it is on the site but not indexed.
Nonpartisan by structure
Each candidate in a race gets the same fields, the same layout and the same sourcing rules. We list what candidates say their priorities are. We do not rate, endorse or rank.
How and when data updates.
Candidate slates are updated as primaries and runoffs resolve: fields become nominees within days of results being called, and races decided outright are removed from November ballots. Ballot measure lists are re-checked against state election office pages where we have confirmed them. Judicial contests that depend on party conventions (such as New York Supreme Court nominations in late September) appear as clearly-labeled pending entries until rosters are certified.
What we do when data is incomplete.
Election data is uneven. ZIP codes cross district lines, filing periods stagger by state, and local rosters publish late. When we can't be precise, we say so on the page: split-ZIP notices ask for a street address to confirm your district, "coverage updating" entries mark races we know exist but can't yet verify candidates for, and offices with no 2026 election say exactly that rather than disappearing. We would rather show a labeled gap than a guess.
Corrections policy.
If you spot an error, such as a wrong candidate, a stale roster or a misattributed priority, tell us via the contact page. Verified factual errors are corrected on the live site promptly, and materially wrong information is corrected with priority over any other work. For official election information, always confirm with your state or county election office.