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Ballotpedia

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Ballotpedia
Type of businessNonprofit
Type of site
Wiki
Available inEnglish
HeadquartersMiddleton, Wisconsin,U.S.
OwnerLucy Burns Institute
URLballotpedia.org
CommercialNo
LaunchedMay 30, 2007;17 years ago(2007-05-30)[1]
Current statusActive

Ballotpediais a nonprofit andnonpartisanonline political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States.[2][3][4][5]The website was founded in 2007.[6][7]Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Burns Institute, a nonprofit organization based inMiddleton, Wisconsin.Originally a collaboratively editedwiki,Ballotpedia is now written and edited entirely by a paid professional staff. As of 2014,Ballotpedia employed 34 writers and researchers;[8]it reported an editorial staff of over 50 in 2021.[9]

Mission[edit]

Ballotpedia's stated goal is "to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at all levels of government."[9]The website "provides information on initiative supporters and opponents, financial reports, litigation news, status updates, poll numbers, and more."[10]It originally was a "community-contributed web site, modeled afterWikipedia"which is now edited by paid staff. It" contains volumes of information about initiatives, referenda, and recalls. "[11]

Parent organization[edit]

Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Burns Institute (LBI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan[12][13]educational organization.[14][15][16]The organization reported revenue of $5.37 million in 2019.[17]Tim Dunnis a member of the LBI board.[18]

LBI was founded in December 2006 by the group's current president,Leslie Graves.[19][20][21]The group is named afterLucy Burns,co-founder of theNational Woman's Party.[22]The group is headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin.

History[edit]

Ballotpedia was founded by theCitizens in Charge Foundationin 2007.[23]Ballotpedia was sponsored by theSam Adams Alliancein 2008, along with Judgepedia andSunshine Review.In 2009, their sponsorship was transferred to the nonprofit Lucy Burns Institute, based inMiddleton, Wisconsin.[23][24]

On July 9, 2013,Sunshine Reviewwas acquired by the Lucy Burns Institute and merged into Ballotpedia.[25]The Lucy Burns Institute is named after suffragistLucy Burnswho along withAlice Paulfounded theNational Woman's Party.Judgepedia was merged into Ballotpedia in March 2015.

When actressRegina Kingwon an Emmy at the72nd Primetime Emmy Awardsin 2020, during her acceptance speech she encouraged people to use Ballotpedia to prepare for the upcoming election.[26][27]

Judgepedia[edit]

Judgepedia was an onlinewiki-style encyclopedia covering the American legal system.[22][28]In 2015, all content from Judgepedia was merged into Ballotpedia.[29][30]It included a database of information on state and federal courts and judges.[31][32][33]

According to its original website, the goal of Judgepedia was "to help readers discover and learn useful information about the court systems and judiciary in the United States."[19]

Judgepedia was sponsored by theSam Adams Alliancein 2007, along with Ballotpedia andSunshine Review.[34]In 2009, sponsorship of Judgepedia was transferred to the Lucy Burns Institute, which merged Judgepedia into Ballotpedia in March 2015.[19]

Judgepedia had a weekly publication titledFederal Courts, Empty Bencheswhich tracked the vacancy rate for Article III federal judicial posts.[35]

TheOrange County Registernoted Judgepedia's coverage of Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court.[36]

Judgepedia's profile ofElena Kaganwas included in the Harvard Law School Library's guide to Kagan's Supreme Court nomination and theLaw Library of Congress's guide to Kagan.[37][38]

Partnerships[edit]

In May 2018, in response to scrutiny over the misuse ofTwitterby those seeking to maliciously influence elections, Twitter announced that it would partner with Ballotpedia to add special labels verifying the authenticity of political candidates running for election in the U.S.[39][40]

During the2018 United States elections,Ballotpedia suppliedAmazon Alexawith information on polling place locations and political candidates.[41]

In 2018, Ballotpedia,ABC News,andFiveThirtyEightcollected and analyzed data on candidates in Democratic Party primaries in order to determine which types of candidates Democratic primary voters were gravitating towards.[42]

Studies[edit]

In 2012, Ballotpedia authored a study analyzing the quality of official state voter guides based on six criteria. According to the study, only nine states were rated "excellent" or "very good", while 24 states received a "fair" or "poor" rating.[12]

In May 2014, theCenter for American Progressused Ballotpedia data to analyze the immigration policy stances of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives.[43]

Ballotpedia has highlighted the complex language used in various U.S. ballot measures. In 2017, with a sample of 27 issues from nine states, the group determined that, on average, ballot descriptions required a graduate-level education to understand the complex wording of issues, with the average American adult only reading at a 7th to 8th grade reading level. AGeorgia State Universityanalysis of 1,200 ballot measures over a decade showed that voters were more likely to skip complex issues altogether.[44]Some ballot language confuses potential voters with the use of double negatives. Several states require plain-language explanations of ballot wording.[45]

In 2015,Harvard Universityvisiting scholar Carl Klarner conducted a study for Ballotpedia which found that state legislative elections have become less competitive over time, with 2014's elections being the least competitive elections in the past 40 years.[46]

Ballotpedia found that in 2020, fewer state legislative incumbents lost general election seats than in any other year in the previous decade, although incumbents were more vulnerable in primary elections in any year since 2012.[47]

A study by Ballotpedia indicated that 2022 midterm elections for congressional districts were demographically divided by income. Democrats typically won higher income households, while lower income, working class districts favored Republican candidates.[48]

In 2023, theNew York Timesused Ballotpedia as a source for its presidential campaign graph analysis.[49]

References[edit]

  1. ^"BallotPedia.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools".WHOIS.RetrievedNovember 12,2016.
  2. ^Chokshi, Niraj (September 9, 2014)."Tuesday is the last day of the state legislative primary season".Washington Post.RetrievedDecember 8,2014.
  3. ^Wisniewski, Mary; Hendee, David (January 24, 2011)."Omaha mayoral recall vote part of angry voter trend".Reuters.RetrievedDecember 8,2014.
  4. ^Dewan, Shaila (November 5, 2014)."Higher Minimum Wage Passes in 4 States; Florida Defeats Marijuana Measure".The New York Times.RetrievedDecember 8,2014.
  5. ^Morones, Alyssa (August 22, 2013)."Ballotpedia Launches 'Wikipedia' for School Board Elections".Education Week.RetrievedOctober 21,2013.
  6. ^Chokshi, Niraj (November 5, 2018)."Voter Guide: How, When and Where to Vote on Tuesday".The New York Times.RetrievedDecember 19,2018.
  7. ^Levine, Andrew (October 29, 2018)."New York Today: Why Don't We Have Early Voting?".The New York Times.RetrievedDecember 19,2018.
  8. ^Darnay, Keith (November 3, 2014)."Find election info at the last minute".Bismarck Tribune.RetrievedDecember 2,2014.
  9. ^ab"Ballotpedia:About".RetrievedSeptember 22,2021.
  10. ^Davis, Gene (August 6, 2008)."Denver's got issues: Ballot issues & you can learn more at Ballotpedia".Denver Daily News.Denver.RetrievedApril 27,2011.
  11. ^Lawrence, David G. (2009).California: The Politics of Diversity.Stamford, Connecticut:Cengage Learning.p. 83.ISBN978-0-495-57097-4.
  12. ^abScott, Dylan (September 14, 2012)."States Have Room for Improvement in Voter Guides".Governing Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon October 29, 2013.RetrievedOctober 23,2013.
  13. ^Mahtesian, Charles (October 16, 2012)."The best races you've never heard of".Politico.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  14. ^Povich, Elaine (June 10, 2014)."Lawmakers Defer to Voters on Tax, Budget Issues".Stateline.The Pew Charitable Trusts.RetrievedAugust 10,2014.
  15. ^"Illinois elections officials need to side with voters".Chicago Tribune. May 30, 2014. Archived fromthe originalon May 30, 2014.RetrievedAugust 10,2014.
  16. ^Christensen, Lance (July 22, 2014)."Lucy Burns Institute Launches Policypedia".Reason Foundation.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  17. ^"Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax".GuideStar.RetrievedSeptember 22,2021.
  18. ^Gold, Russell."The Billionaire Bully Who Wants to Turn Texas Into a Christian Theocracy".No. March 2024. Texas Monthly.
  19. ^abc"Judgepedia:About".Judgepedia.Lucy Burns Institute. Archived fromthe originalon June 25, 2014.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  20. ^Mildenberg, David (February 8, 2012)."El Paso Mayor Fighting Ouster on Gay Rights Vote Counts Rising Legal Bill".Bloomberg.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  21. ^Murphy, Bruce (June 12, 2014)."The mystery of Eric O'Keefe".Isthmus.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  22. ^ab"Nonprofit Group Offers Free Judicial Profiles Online at Judgepedia".Metropolitan News-Enterprise. December 21, 2009.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  23. ^abHoover, Steven (April 10, 2017)."Ballotpedia Internet Review".Association of College & Research Libraries.American Library Association.doi:10.5860/crln.74.10.9031.RetrievedSeptember 20,2020.
  24. ^Spillman, Benjamin (July 29, 2013)."Cost to appeal Las Vegas Planning Commission decision called prohibitive".Las Vegas Review-Journal.RetrievedOctober 21,2013.
  25. ^"About Sunshine Review on Ballotpedia".July 9, 2013.
  26. ^Salam, Maya (September 21, 2020)."This Year's Emmy Winners Want You to Vote".The New York Times.RetrievedSeptember 30,2020.
  27. ^Noveck, Jocelyn (September 21, 2020)."The 'Pandemmys' were weird and sometimes wonderful".Washington Post.RetrievedSeptember 30,2020.
  28. ^Ambrogi, Robert (October 2010)."Crowdsourcing the Law: Trends and Other Innovations".Oregon State Bar Bulletin.Oregon State Bar.RetrievedAugust 12,2014.
  29. ^Pallay, Geoff."Ballotpedia to absorb Judgepedia".Ballotpedia.RetrievedSeptember 8,2015.
  30. ^Mahtesian, Charles (October 16, 2012)."The best races you've never heard of".Politico.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  31. ^Peoples, Lee (November 6, 2010)."The Lawyer's Guide to Using and Citing Wikipedia"(PDF).Oklahoma Bar Journal.81:2438.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  32. ^Davey, Chris; Salaz, Karen (November–December 2010). "Survey Looks at New Media and the Court".Journal of the American Judicature Society.94(3).
  33. ^Meckler, Mark (2012).Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution.Macmillan. p.167.ISBN978-0805094374.
  34. ^Phillips, Kate (July 19, 2008)."The Sam Adams Project".The New York Times.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  35. ^"Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Have Federal Courts with Highest Vacancy Rates; across Country, 9.9% of Federal Judicial Posts Are Vacant".Telecommunications Weekly.RetrievedAugust 13,2014.
  36. ^Seiler, John (October 22, 2010)."John Seiler: Appellate judges aplenty on ballot".Orange County Register.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  37. ^"Guide to the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States".Harvard Law School Library.Harvard Law School.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  38. ^"Elena Kagan".Law Library of Congress.Library of Congress.RetrievedAugust 11,2014.
  39. ^"Twitter to add labels to U.S. political candidates".CBS. May 23, 2018.RetrievedMay 23,2018.
  40. ^Scola, Nancy (May 23, 2018)."Twitter to verify election candidates in the midterms".Politico.RetrievedMay 23,2018.
  41. ^Malone Kircher, Madison (November 2, 2018)."Hey, Alexa, Who Is Winning the Election in New York?".New York Magazine.RetrievedDecember 19,2018.
  42. ^Conroy, Meredith; Nguyen, Mai; Rakich, Nathaniel (August 10, 2018)."We Researched Hundreds Of Races. Here's Who Democrats Are Nominating".FiveThirtyEight.RetrievedDecember 19,2018.
  43. ^Fernandez, Henry; Wolgin, Philip (May 19, 2014)."House Republicans Have Nothing to Fear from Supporting Immigration Reform".Center for American Progress.RetrievedAugust 10,2014.
  44. ^Wogan, J.B. (November 6, 2017)."Unless You Went to Grad School, You Probably Won't Understand What's on Your Ballot".Governing.RetrievedOctober 22,2018.
  45. ^Collins, Steve (November 16, 2017)."Study: Maine ballot questions too confusing even for college graduates".Lewiston Sun Journal.RetrievedOctober 22,2018.
  46. ^Wilson, Reid (May 7, 2015)."Study: State elections becoming less competitive".Washington Post.RetrievedMay 14,2015.
  47. ^Epstein, Reid J. (February 23, 2021)."2020 was the safest year for state legislative incumbents in a decade, a study finds".The New York Times.RetrievedSeptember 22,2021.
  48. ^Allen, Mike (April 17, 2023)."Record number of Americans say they're politically independent".Axios.RetrievedMay 4,2023.
  49. ^Gómez, Martín González; Astor, Maggie (February 22, 2023)."Who's Running for President in 2024?".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedMay 22,2023.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ballotpedia&oldid=1232425008"