About
Methodology
Plain-English answers to "how do you decide what goes on a candidate page, and how do you keep it neutral?" Updated as our editorial practices evolve.
Candidate, race, and office records start from official election filings (Secretary of State and county elections offices). Bios and policy positions come from one of five labeled sources: the candidate themselves (through a claimed profile), their official campaign website, an official election source, a public statement on the record, or a verified social account. Every published claim cites which source bucket it came from.
Once a candidate is on the ballot, a profile is created with the official filing fields and a list of opportunities to add more (bio, top 3 priorities, policy positions, official links). The same eight questionnaire questions are sent to every candidate in a race — no exceptions. Submissions are reviewed by the editorial team for clarity and neutrality before publishing.
We do not endorse, oppose, rank, rate, or recommend candidates. We do not display 'best match' or compatibility scores. We do not aggregate third-party endorsements. We do not assign ideology labels. Party affiliation is stored exactly as filed and is hidden by default on voter-facing pages with a toggle to turn it on.
Office Explainers describe what an office can and cannot directly control. Authority is labeled with one of five neutral terms: direct authority, shared authority, indirect influence, limited authority, or no clear authority found. Every authority entry links to a primary source (state statute, county charter, or the office's own published responsibilities).
Anyone can flag a correction through the Contact page. Candidates can claim their profile and submit edits through the campaign dashboard. Edits are reviewed before going live; we never silently change the substance of a candidate's statement. When a published claim is updated, the 'last updated' date on the profile is refreshed.
We do not scrape social media. We do not summarize candidate statements with AI on voter-facing pages. We do not process donations. We do not host campaign content other than the candidate's own official links. We do not run ads on candidate or race pages.
Political Lens is an evolving civic project. Pages marked 'coming soon' describe the field structure and review workflow we plan to use, so candidates and voters can see in advance how each section will work.