Covering the 2024 elections? Ballotpedia’s got you covered.

Ballotpedia was a Community Sponsor of the 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit. LION is profiling all Summit sponsors with a Q&A to help members learn more about their work.

Hayley Milloy, LION Publishers: What is your 30-second elevator pitch (or 75-word pitch) to a LION member on what Ballotpedia does?

Leslie Graves, Ballotpedia: We’re your go-to source for neutral, nonpartisan, federal, state, and local elections, politics, and policy information. Are you covering a ballot measure and researching similar initiatives in other states, its campaign finance details, opposition, and support? Want to interview a subject matter expert on school board elections or state legislation trends? Email [email protected]. We’re here to help you with political news and information that’s relevant, reliable, and available for all.

Hayley: And what do you do at Ballotpedia? Why did you join the team?

Leslie: I’m the organization’s CEO and founder, so I wear many hats. 

I founded Ballotpeda in 2007 at my kitchen table. I know it sounds cliché, but I was trying to find an unbiased source of information on ballot measures for an upcoming election. I was struck by two things: the general lack of available information in easy-to-understand language and the fact that if any information on those initiatives existed at all, it was almost always partisan.

Ultimately, I made it my mission to provide voters with information they could trust, with verifiable facts and no spin. It was an immediate hit with readers, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Hayley: What’s a recent success story you’d like to share about how Ballotpedia has improved a LION member business’s sustainability?

Leslie: During this 2024 election season, we’re working with multiple news organizations by providing access to our Sample Ballot. By dropping a code snippet into their sites, news organizations can provide their readers with access to a location-based sample ballot that provides a window into Ballotpedia’s robust election and candidate data.

Our media desk, [email protected], supports newsroom sustainability by providing research and nonpartisan insight on U.S. politics, policy, and elections.

Hayley: What’s one actionable, practical, low-lift tip you want to share with LION members?

Leslie: Share a link to Ballotpedia’s Sample Ballot with your readers, and use our resources to create your own local Voter Toolkit or Voter Guide. Our sample ballot has been trusted over the years by tens of millions of voters looking for personalized, address-based information about who and what is on their ballot. It’s an easy way for you to help your readers vote informed and confidently. Newsrooms interested in embedding our sample ballot on their websites can email [email protected] for more information.

Hayley: What’s one question you think the independent news industry — our members, vendors like you, support organizations like us, and funders — should ask?

Leslie: How can we help solve the ballot information problem? 

Tens of millions of eligible voters stay home each election. People want to participate, but they often lack the time, tools, and confidence to make informed political decisions. Few voters know who is on their ballot — especially ultra-local, down-ballot candidates — and they don’t have an easy way to find out. 

Those millions of non-voters represent a symptom of our nation’s growing ballot information problem. Political coverage suffers the most at the local level. There are roughly 500,000 local elected officials serving in offices ranging from school boards to city councils and many more. Reliable coverage — or any coverage — is getting harder to find.

Presidential, congressional, and statewide campaigns will collectively spend billions getting their message out to voters this year. But down the ballot, coverage dries up for those offices that don’t have big media budgets — or any budget. With it, the information voters depend on to make informed choices also vanishes.

When local media no longer exists to provide people with basic information — how to register to vote, when the polls are open, whether they need to show ID, who is on the ballot, and so on — people lose not just their confidence in voting, but their connection to voting as a civic duty.

According to Penelope Muse Abernathy, author of “The State of Local News” report for 2023, “more than half of U.S. counties have no, or very limited, access to a reliable local news source — either print, digital or broadcast.” As Abernathy writes, the divide between areas that still have reliable coverage and those without it:

…poses a far-reaching crisis for our democracy as it simultaneously struggles with political polarization, a lack of civic engagement, and the proliferation of misinformation and information online.

Hayley: Are there any upcoming or future initiatives that Ballotpedia is working on that you want to preview for us?

Leslie: We continue to expand our coverage of local elections with the goal of providing robust information about all elections nationwide. We encourage LION members to use and share our tools to help your readers explore their ballots. 

We’re committed to providing voters with the information they need to understand the candidates and issues in local elections, giving them the tools and confidence to participate in these elections and hold accountable the officials who affect their lives, homes, and families more directly than any member of Congress or president.

Ballotpedia’s work to close the ballot information gap won’t be complete until every voter in the United States can easily find the list of candidates for all of their elections and meaningful information about all of those candidates. Together with LION members, we’re here to help preserve democracy now and into the future.

Hayley: What’s the best way for LION members and others to try or learn more about Ballotpedia’s services?

Leslie: Go to ballotpedia.org!