Ballotpedia:Our approach to Candidate Connection survey edit and removal requests
Ballotpedia invites all candidates to complete our Candidate Connection survey when they run for elected office. After they submit their survey and complete the verification process, Ballotpedia publishes their answers to their profile.
Candidates may contact Ballotpedia to request edits or the removal of their answers after submitting their survey. Here is how Ballotpedia handles those requests:
- If they are requesting an edit that only involves fixing a typo or grammar issue, Ballotpedia will agree to make that change directly to the existing response.
- If they are requesting an edit that only involves answering additional questions, Ballotpedia will agree to make that change directly to the existing response.
- If they are requesting an edit that involves changing the substance of existing answers or removing existing answers given in the original response, Ballotpedia will offer to add a timestamped custom note from the candidate above the original response.
- If they are requesting the removal of an existing response, Ballotpedia will refuse to make that change but offer to add a timestamped custom note or a new timestamped response from the candidate above the original response.
- If a candidate submits multiple survey responses, Ballotpedia will include both survey responses on their page with the more recent response appearing first. Both will be timestamped.
Note that if the original response was submitted and verified by the campaign but Ballotpedia receives an email from the candidate, the campaign manager, or the campaign's communications/press manager stating that a campaign staffer without the authority to submit the survey on the candidate's behalf did so incorrectly, Ballotpedia will allow the candidate to replace the original response with a newly submitted response one time.
If someone other than the candidate contacts Ballotpedia to dispute something about a candidate's survey response or biography, Ballotpedia will request a credible source for their claim.
Note that Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If Ballotpedia has edited the existing response and the candidate writes in to disagree with the edit, they can ask for the survey to be removed in full and Ballotpedia will comply. Ballotpedia will remove calls to violence as well as hate speech from people who are using it to target others. This language may be left unedited at the candidate's request if the candidate was the target of hate speech and used it in the survey to describe their experience. Ballotpedia does not edit candidate responses to remove typographical errors or to make the response follow our style and grammar guidelines.
Click here to read more about Ballotpedia's editorial approach to election coverage.