Ballotpedia:How we approach error corrections

How does Ballotpedia...
...define candidacy?
...define incumbency?
...order candidate lists?
...choose battlegrounds?
...cover primaries?
...cover endorsements?
...cover campaign finance?
...cover polls?
...cover recall efforts?
...call an election?
...cover recounts?
...handle postponements?

Ballotpedia is the online encyclopedia of American politics. We aim to be a trusted and respected source used by readers across the political spectrum, which means that our information must be both accurate and neutral. We understand that every error in the encyclopedia will reduce its credibility with our readership.

We can only carry out our mission—to help people learn about politics—if our information is accurate. In order to ensure accuracy, we must identify our mistakes, examine their causes, and make structural improvements to prevent their recurrence.

Error management policies

Ballotpedia employs a Quality Team whose job is to help ensure that Ballotpedia's content remains accurate and neutral. This team organizes and carries out a number of processes to identify, correct, and prevent errors across the encyclopedia.

Error reporting and correction

Errors may be identified by readers or staff members. Errors are emailed to Ballotpedia's editor@ballotpedia.org account or submitted through our error reporting form.

Each error report is tracked and assigned out to the appropriate staff member for correction. All errors are expected to be corrected within 24 hours of their submission. Ballotpedia does not publish a list of corrections to each article, but we do keep an internal, comprehensive log of changes to each page.

After the error has been corrected, the responsible team collaborates with the Quality Team to answer three main questions:

1. What went wrong?
2. Are there any related errors that also need to be corrected?
3. How can we prevent similar errors from being introduced in the future?
   
   

Ballotpedia also logs all errors for future reference, including the date each error was introduced and the staff member responsible for it. The Quality Team examines these metrics to identify error patterns for further investigation and staff members for retraining.

Error audits

Ballotpedia's Quality Team also conducts proactive auditing processes aimed at identifying errors in our content that have not yet been reported. These audits look for factual errors, neutrality concerns, grammar problems, typos, stylistic inconsistencies, and more. Additionally, these audits are used to provide individualized coaching to staff members on writing technique and error prevention.