Politics 2000

Ballotpedia is a Web site that features information of state initiatives and referendums. The majority of American states allows citizens to collect signatures to force important issues to the ballot.

I submitted the following questions to Isabel Santa, the Director of Communications at the Sam Adams Alliance, which runs Ballotpedia. My questions are in italic. Ms. Santa’s responses are in bold. I thank her for her time and assistance.

I visited Ballotpedia and saw that it’s supported by the Sam Adams Alliance. Could you tell me about the organization?

The Sam Adams Alliance is a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating and informing citizens about political issues through new media tools.

The Sam Adams Alliance also runs Judgepedia.org and SunshineReview.org. What do those sites do?

Both are Wikipedia-like websites that provide information on all things judicial and government transparency.

Judgepedia has details on judges across the country. It specifically focuses on providing voter information on who are these judges up for election and how are judges are elected. Each state has a different way of selecting judges on the bench.

Sunshine Review reports on government secrecy by evaluating whether government websites effectively disclose information to the public and media.

Thanks, now specifically about Ballotpedia. Why should I visit the site?

Ballotpedia is a great site for anyone interested in ballot measures at any time of year, specifically right before an election.

It provides comprehensive and unbiased information about all the measures on the ballot, with details on who’s supporting or opposing it (and why); specifics on what each measure would do if approved; links to newspapers articles, blogs, ballot related websites.

I like being able to learn about ballot measures in every state but I’ve heard horror stories about Wikipedia. Namely that almost anyone can post false and damaging information with little effort. I see Ballotpedia has a similar setup to Wikipedia. What’s to stop Ballotpedia from having the same problem?

At Ballotpedia, we concentrate on initiative and referendum issues only, as opposed to Wikipedia that covers everything. Our topic is tailored, focused, and factual as we provide documentation on such things as ballot measure language, financial statements, information on legal challenges – all of which can be fact checked by our editors and anyone.

Finding unbiased information is hard. Does Ballotpedia offer both sides of ballot measures? Those who support gay marriage amendments and those who oppose them, for example?

We do our best to find information on both supporters and opponents of all ballot measures. In some cases, there are no active opponents, especially until the measure is actually on the ballot. Of course, since anyone can edit the pages, if we have a section for opponents that says “None yet identified,” that is an open invitation for opponents to come out of the shadows, identify themselves, and tell us why they oppose the measure.

Since supporters are the ones filing the paperwork, they are normally much easier to identify. We do our best to keep all information in Ballotpedia unbiased, fair, balanced, and referenced.

How can people start editing Ballotpedia pages?

The best way is to simply start. There is a link on the home page called “Getting Started,” I recommend that link to anyone who is interested in becoming a contributor, after opening a user account.

There are tables and such that may be more complicated, but they are explained in “Getting Started,” and you can always click the “edit” tab on a page that already has a table to see how it is formatted. (Copy-and-paste is an easy way to “borrow” the table formatting.)

Does Ballotpedia follow local issues also? Can I see who’s running for mayor in my town?

Ballotpedia only covers ballot measures – school bonds, initiatives, and referendums – at every level, local and state.

*Does the site have message boards or other ways to interact with other users?

The best way to interact with other users is to leave a note for them on the user’s talk page. When you open an account, you get a user talk page. If anyone clicks on your user name (in the list of “Recent Changes” or perhaps in the “history” of a particular page that you have made an edit to), they are taken to your user talk page where they can add a comment or question. Also, every page has a “discussion” page where contributors can discuss controversial changes before actually making them.

Are there ways to contact state Senate candidates, for example, through Ballotpedia? Will campaigns have links and information available?

Ballotpedia is an online encyclopedia that provides information; it doesn’t have interactive functions to contact public officials.

However, if available, we link to the each ballot measures website.

What else should I know about Ballotpedia?

Ballotpedia is a unique website, as it covers the history of ballot measures in each state since the beginning of time (in some cases since 1912) and list the initiatives that were circulated but never made it on the ballot.

Ballotpedia is the only and truly comprehensive website around on ballot measures.

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