Mission
Ballotpedia's stated goal is "to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at all levels of government." The website "provides information on initiative supporters and opponents, financial reports, litigation news, status updates, poll numbers, and more." It originally was a "community-contributed web site, modeled afterParent organization
Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Burns Institute (LBI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization. The organization reported revenue of $5.37 million in 2019. LBI was founded in December 2006 by the group's current president, Leslie Graves. The group is named after Lucy Burns, co-founder of the National Woman's Party. The group is headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin.History
Ballotpedia was founded by the Citizens in Charge Foundation in 2007. Ballotpedia was sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance in 2008, along with Judgepedia and Sunshine Review. In 2009, their sponsorship was transferred to the nonprofit Lucy Burns Institute, based in Middleton, Wisconsin. On July 9, 2013, Sunshine Review was acquired by the Lucy Burns Institute and merged into Ballotpedia. The Lucy Burns Institute is named after suffragist Lucy Burns who along withJudgepedia
Judgepedia was an online wiki-style encyclopedia covering the American legal system. In 2015, all content from Judgepedia was merged into Ballotpedia. It included a database of information on state and federal courts and judges. 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." Judgepedia was sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance in 2007, along with Ballotpedia and Sunshine Review. In 2009, sponsorship of Judgepedia was transferred to the Lucy Burns Institute, which merged Judgepedia into Ballotpedia in March 2015. Judgepedia had a weekly publication titled ''Federal Courts, Empty Benches'' which tracked the vacancy rate for Article III federal judicial posts. The ''Orange County Register'' noted Judgepedia's coverage of Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Judgepedia's profile of Elena Kagan was included in the Harvard Law School Library's guide to Kagan's Supreme Court nomination and the Law Library of Congress's guide to Kagan.Partnerships
In May 2018, in response to scrutiny over the misuse ofStudies
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. In May 2014, the Center for American Progress used Ballotpedia data to analyze the immigration policy stances of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. 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. A Georgia State University analysis of 1,200 ballot measures over a decade showed that voters were more likely to skip complex issues altogether. Some ballot language confuses potential voters with the use of double negatives. Several states require plain-language explanations of ballot wording. In 2015,References
External links
* {{Lucy Burns American online encyclopedias Internet properties established in 2007 MediaWiki websites Wiki communities Wikis Non-profit organizations based in Wisconsin Election and voting-related organizations based in the United States