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Ballotpedia Launches First Campaign Asking Voters to Add To Their Candidate Survey
Contact: Kristen Vonasek, Director of Communications
Tel: 608-255-0688
E-mail: Media@ballotpedia.org
Pilot Project Aims To Better Connection Voters to Candidates Ahead of 2021 Local Elections
Middleton, Wis. - May 19, 2021: Ballotpedia is looking to better connect voters to candidates ahead of 2021 local elections in six pilot cities. Voters in these pilot cities are being asked to submit questions they would like added to Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection Survey. The questions will be reviewed by an Advisory Board who will narrow the submissions to 5-7 questions per city. Individuals whose questions are included in our surveys are eligible to receive a $50 award.
The cities where we are piloting this project are:
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Jersey City, New Jersey
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Seattle, Washington
Voters interested in participating can submit their questions here!
Ballotpedia is also recruiting members for the Advisory Board that will review these questions. We are looking for applications with a background in voter education, community organizing, or other volunteer work. Interested applicants can learn more here.
Project background
Our Candidate Connection Expansion Project is an expansion of the work Ballotpedia did in advance of the 2019 municipal elections in Chicago. In that project, Ballotpedia partnered with City Bureau and the Interactivity Foundation to identify and recruit community members and potential voters in wards with historically lower voter turnout. These community members participated in several conversations to identify issues those voters wanted their candidates to speak about. From these conversations, Ballotpedia adjusted the Chicago candidate survey to ask local candidates about the issues that matter most to their potential constituents. About 26% of candidates answered the survey questions that resulted from this work.
Ballotpedia's long-term goal is to cover every one of the more than 550,000 elections in the United States. Given that Ballotpedia already covers every election in the top 100 cities by population, every statewide race, and every congressional seat, we are continually working to expand our down-ballot coverage. The team at Ballotpedia is acutely aware of the difficulties of getting information on elections, especially local races. To reach our goal, we need to work with a larger audience to improve the amount of information available on local races, as well as the quality and relevance of that information.
About Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is the online encyclopedia of American politics and elections. Its goal is to preserve and expand knowledge about politics by providing objective information about local, state, and federal politics and policies. Its content includes trustworthy information, covering government officials and the offices they hold, political issues and public policy, elections, and candidates. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, Ballotpedia was founded in 2006. It includes over 320,000 professionally authored encyclopedic articles that have garnered over 1 billion page views.
If you’d like more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Ballotpedia's Director of Communications at media@Ballotpedia.org.
